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Spend Your Marketing Dollars Wisely
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Spend Your Marketing Dollars Wisely

Spend Your Marketing Dollars Wisely

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, once famously said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” Thanks Mr. Ford, you have given advertising agencies a great over-used quote.

But Ford has a point. As a business owner or salesperson, marketing is key to bringing you warm leads. Without marketing you are spending a lot of time trying to educate prospects. Either way you look at it, you need to spend money or time to market your business. But most small businesses don’t know where to get started and it’s frustrating spending money without getting results.

There is a better way to spend your marketing budget. It starts with understanding your target demographic. Who are you trying to reach? Several factors are in play, like the age of your customer, their income level or location. The more detailed you can get with your target demographic, the wiser you spend your marketing dollars.

However, don’t assume to know your target audience. Spend some time researching current customers and studying Google Analytics and social media demographics.

However, don’t assume to know your target audience. Spend some time researching current customers and studying Google Analytics and social media demographics. I had a friend who worked at a cable channel geared toward second generation Hispanics; the mom and dad moved to the country, but the kids grew up in America. The assumption was the ideal demographic was second generation Hispanics. When they did some market research, they discovered a larger number of Black males watched the channel. Extreme example, but knowing your actual target demographic helps you to grow your customers.

Google Analytics is free to set up. This gives you a baseline for who is visiting your website, how long they stay on your site, and what pages they are most interested in. All clues to help you better understand your current customer.

Social media demographics work in much the same way. And once you have a data point from both Google Analytics and Social Media you can start to build a “buyer persona.”

Think of a “buyer persona” as an avatar of your current customer. This can help you and your marketing team understand who you are trying to reach. Not necessary, but a cool tool to get everyone on the same page. HubSpot offers a free persona maker: www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona

The key is to duplicate your current customers to bring in additional customers. Once you know your current customer profile or persona, you can begin to target new customers.

I know people like to complain about too many commercials during a live event on TV, or too many ads on social media. But the truth is most consumers don’t mind advertising when the ads make sense.

This past summer, as an example, I was in the market for new auto insurance. We had a new driver in the house, and we needed to find a way to lower our monthly bill. When insurance ads started to pop up on my social media feed, it didn’t bother me because I was in the market. Same was true when we were looking to purchase a used car.

That is why it is so important to know your target demographic! Airing TV or Radio commercials in programs that attract your target demo get you the best results. Make sure the local TV or Radio station can provide you demographic information. That is honestly more important than ratings. Ratings tells you how many people are watching or listening to a particular program, but a trade secret is that ratings are not a complete science. If you are buying local radio, as an example, there is no way of really knowing how many people are listening to a radio station at a given time. They can only guess based on data collected. Not knocking the ratings services, they play an important role, but you want to know the demographic information.

Digital campaigns allow you to fine tune the target demographic. Google Ads and Social Media Ads give you the option of choosing the demographic you want to reach.

One of our clients was a Las Vegas wedding chapel. We helped run a campaign on Facebook that targeted cities with a flight less than two hours away. We then narrowed the buy to females who were ready to make a decision about their weddings. Crazy, and somewhat scary, but social media users share data that helps the platforms know what kind of advertising they are in the market to see.

You can also add Google Remarketing to your website, along with Facebook Pixel. Both of these tools place a digital cookie when people visit your site. If you have ever been to a website and then started to see ads pop up on your search engine or social media page, that is the tool that helps you market to prospects.

Again, the goal here is to spend your marketing dollars wisely. If I visit your website, chances are I am interested in your product. I may not buy the first time I visit, but ads on my search engine and social media remind me of my interest.

This is what some have called “legal creepy.” Google is not tracking me personally but tracking my IP address. It is not a perfect system. Other people in your office or your house might get an ad for a website you have visited. I am a dad of two girls, so my Facebook ads show a lot of fashion for teenage girls and makeup. But bonus, I know what my daughters are interested in!

Finally, make sure you have the proper keywords on your website and social media. You can spend a lot of money on marketing and lose prospects to your competition because your website is not up to date or your social media is targeting the wrong demographic. Same is true with your power listing, making sure your information is up to date on the 70+ ways prospects look for your business.

This is a lot to think about, but companies like Centerpost Media can help you plan and spend your dollars wisely. Remember, you will spend either time or money educating prospects. Spend some dollars and save time by closing prospects faster!

 

Scott Miller is the CEO of Centerpost Media and host of the Create, Build and Manage Radio Show and Podcast. You can find Scott on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter via “@scottmillerceo.” Centerpost Media is a marketing agency with a vision to help every business they encounter with their media needs by providing outstanding quality, service and value. Centerpost Media is the parent company to BizTV, BizTalkRadio, BizTalkPodcasts and Bizvod.