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In This Episode
We’re going back to the fundamentals and tackling a topic that’s been on our minds here at Thinkplus over the last few months.
We’ve noticed that more of our clients are falling down the hole of positioning or targeting — that is, identifying exactly what it is that you sell and whom you sell it to.
This seems simple enough on paper. But the truth is that many brands struggle with their targeting.
For starters, it’s not always clear that you’re targeting the wrong audience. But when you do get it right, the results speak for themselves. Growth is often easier, ads tend to perform better and content resonates with the audience.
So, we brought in an expert to discuss this challenge.
In this episode, our Head Ninja Tim sits down with Geoff Kennedy, Head of Marketing at Sitebulb, to pick his brain and talk about the impact of effective targeting and how businesses can identify their target audience more efficiently.
The Importance of Choosing Your Market and Proposition
For years, marketers have known that connecting a superior offering with a specific group of people who share the same characteristics (e.g., needs, shopping habits and challenges) is the key to product-market fit.
But getting there is another story.
Geoff recounts how it was only much later into his career that he realised his first job in digital marketing for a catering company involved audience targeting.
“They were selling (kitchen) equipment to lots of restaurants, takeaways — that sort of thing,” he explains. “But it was around that time that all of the celebrity chefs were starting to get big. So we saw more selling to home addresses.”
The catering company would then expand its scope to the domestic market, opening a new revenue stream with an eager audience. The business was also in a prime position to leverage its commercial background and compete with a new segment of competitors.
Because the catering business was used to selling commercially, it was used to thin margins and making up for it with sales volume.
“When we went to the domestic audience, all of a sudden, we’re competing with John Lewis that are charging £100 on a mixer and things like that,” says Geoff. “So we were able to leverage the commercial side of that business by buying in bulk, allowing us to compete with the consumer sellers who were charging more.”
But luck also played a tremendous role in this successful expansion. The business managed to evolve because Geoff and his team kept their eyes and ears open for new opportunities.
Other small businesses aren’t as fortunate. In fact, poor product-market fit is the top reason why startups fail.
Check Out the Episode to Learn More
Be sure to watch or listen to the episode to learn more insights on audience targeting, and get a four-step action plan for identifying your ideal audience.
Timestamps
03:58 — Typical Day at Sitebulb
06:23 — Choosing Your Market and Proposition
12:48 — Impact of Getting Your Market Position Right
22:23 — Identifying Opportunities for Audience Targeting
27:43 — How to Validate New Target Audiences
36:43 — Action Sequence for Audience Targeting
