Whether a marketing campaign is successful or not has a significant effect on your business, especially when budgets are tight and people have less spending money.
So, how can you get your campaigns rocking? How can you improve your ROI and compete with those with bigger budgets?
You do it through focused targeting.
The story of David and Goliath is a well-known business trope. Goliath is the giant that nobody can conquer, while David is the brave small business looking to upset the status quo.
In the original story, through focused targeting, David defeats Goliath with a mighty whack to the forehead from only a handful of stones, killing him dead.
In the marketing world, David uses his focused targeting to find the ideal audience for his message. An audience that is receptive to his brand and is ready to buy.
Cost of living crisis
We’re living through strange times is possibly the most typed phrase of the last two years – for very good reasons.
With economies around the world still feeling the effect of Covid and the financial burden it brought, we’re all now also facing a cost of living crisis. Throughout the UK, people are looking at their monthly income and finding ways to cut back.
Now more than ever, brands need to be efficient with spend AND target the right people.
What is focused targeting?
Focused targeting is all about taking a laser-like approach to your audience and narrowing in on those most likely to buy.
Some ways to do this include:
- Own your niche. Don’t try to conquer the world overnight. – instead, find your corner of the market and serve them well. Your niche can grow over time as your resources and budget allow
- Don’t take a scattergun approach. By avoiding people who aren’t interested and centring in on the locations where customers have the highest intention to buy – we’ll touch on this later in the blog – you can save a lot of budget and resources
- Speak to your audience at the right time. Even when a customer is looking to buy something, only 5% of those customers are in the ready to buy zone.
To look at this in action, we’ll look at an often overlooked marketing medium, out of home advertising – OOH.
Why out of home advertising is not just for the big players
On its own, OOH – such as billboards, point-of-sale, street furniture or taxis – can be expensive and ROI is hard to attribute. However, there has long been an affinity with out of home advertising and eCommerce products for the simple fact that it works.
You can amplify your reach and create more impact than you with demographics-based targeting alone by getting your eCommerce ads onto OOH in specific locations.
Research from Outsmart shows that heavy consumers – customers who buy from a brand more often than others – are 26% more likely to purchase online when exposed to OOH1 as part of an integrated marketing campaign.
Along with that, 75% of people who saw an OOH ad in conjunction with other ad types recalled the brand seven days later.2
So if OOH advertising is so good, why do more eCommerce businesses not do it? There’s a simple answer – costs and risks are too high for many eCommerce budgets.
More organisations would love to take the OOH plunge. One marketing director we spoke with stated they wanted to use OOH to get above the noise, but it was too expensive to compete.
However, once they realised the Herdify platform could help them be laser-focused with OOH spend, it took away the risk.
Find out how one of our clients increased eCommerce market share without increasing their ad spend.
How word of mouth is changing the marketing world
So, how exactly can you use focused targeting in a medium that can be similar to shouting in the middle of the street? What hope do you have in getting your message across?
As a challenger in the eCommerce market, you’re always working with less budget and resources to reach your customer.
The most significant advantage is your existing users and their word of mouth recommendations. If you can tap into their network, you’re on to a winner.
Keep in mind that 90% of people believe brand recommendations from friends.3
Let’s take a look at how that could work…
Jack and Jill are in the pub. As Jill pays for the next round by holding her phone to the payment machine, Jack sees her Monzo card flash up.
Jack’s been thinking about changing banks and asks her about the Monzo card. Jill has nothing but positive things to say about it.
The next day as Jack walks through town, he sees a sign on the bus stop showing Monzo. Now Jack knows about Monzo, it registers, and he makes a mental note to find out more or even signup.
Later, Jack is browsing Facebook and again sees an ad for Monzo, which he clicks and creates an account.
“What the hell has that got to do with focused targeting?” I hear you ask. Well, it’s all about knowing where to place your ads.
Targeting all bus stops where your demographic lives is expensive, as is targeting all the bus stops where you have customers. But, if you knew the areas where people are talking about your brand, you could target the bus stops in those specific areas, making the most of your budget in the process.
This is where Herdify can help you, your marketing ROI and your sales goals.
How Herdify uses AI and network theory to help your brand
Herdify is an audience targeting intelligence platform that enables you to see accurately where your brand is being discussed, or new clusters of potential customers are forming.
We use an emerging branch of AI called network theory to boost marketing ROI and increase sales conversion.
In simple terms, physical networks like Facebook or the internet are predictable. Our AI methodology looks at how physical networks behave and align that to invisible, real-world networks – such as word of mouth – to as accurate as a street level.
Our AI platform can analyse your company’s historical data, such as:
- Where a sale happened
- What the date and time of a sale was
From this analysis, we can map the location of future predicted customers. We are taking the guesswork out of OOH advertising and allowing you to plug OOH into your more comprehensive marketing plan/strategy.
That’s a powerful targeting tool for brand owners, sales, and marketing teams. One that helps reduce marketing ROI and boost sales conversion.
