Engineering Copywriter Blog

Where have you focused your marketing efforts lately? Have you found the right strategy to build up your business and your engineering brand? If so, then you’ve probably already seen many benefits from focusing on your target market. If not, read on to learn some useful tips that you can implement in your business to help market your product or service.

What is the definition of your target market?

A target market is a group of customers that are identified as potential buyers of a product or service. This group is identified based on factors such as demographics, behavioral patterns, and income. Identifying your company’s target market will help you develop a marketing plan by directing resources toward specific customers who are most likely to generate increased sales, product interest, and brand loyalty.

While some companies prefer the mass-market approach, also known as undifferentiated marketing, wherein the product or service is promoted and distributed in the same way without considering a particular target market, more and more companies can see the advantages of focusing all their efforts on a certain segment in the market.

Why is it important for your engineering brand?

The following are some of the reasons why target marketing is important for engineering and industrial companies:

Target marketing helps you define and focus on your growth potential.

Companies have limited resources in terms of time and money, so having a strong and focused marketing team can help build effective marketing strategies. Focusing on the areas or audience that give you a higher likelihood of purchase can offer your company significant opportunities to grow sales.

An example is the automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz which produces luxury cars. Their brand targets middle-aged buyers (25-44 years) in the upper-class social groups. Aside from their inclination towards modern technology and style, this demographic has a higher probability of purchasing luxury cars than other age groups.

Target marketing builds interest in your company’s products and services.

By identifying the target market, companies can recognize common characteristics among consumers who have a high probability of showing interest in the product or service. This data helps build up a database of customers. The database can be used for future marketing and retargeting efforts as well as a source of valuable insights on trends that companies can use to attract more customers.

For example, car companies such as Nissan, which also uses social media channels to target potential buyers, can use the data gathered from interested audiences as a tool in building custom ads.

Target marketing creates loyalty to the brand.

With proper identification of the target market, you can craft specific messages that will appeal to that particular market. Each market segment has specific needs, so crafting effective market messages that will meet those needs is important. These advertising messages, when used and delivered appropriately, can help create brand loyalty.

One popular example of a successful marketing campaign for a targeted audience is Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ ad campaign on television that told consumers all they need to know about the product. The campaign was created to help increase Mac sales on a market where PC was dominating. It played over Mac’s high customer satisfaction rating and how it doesn’t have the issues that PC has.

The ‘Get a Mac’ campaign was able to capture the attention of PC users and those who were looking for a more reliable computer. This campaign helped the company increase its sales by 36%.

Target marketing keeps you competitive.

Target marketing can help companies be proactive in keeping an eye out for changes in customer interests, and in countering marketing efforts made by competitors. One of today’s most effective strategies to keep your company competitive is to know your competition and your customers. Differentiating yourself from the competition, improving customer service, and being responsive to your customers’ needs and expectations will give you a competitive advantage.

Target marketing can help increase your authority.

By focusing on your target market, you can establish yourself as an expert and provide for the desires and needs of the market. Google’s ‘Year in Search’ internet ad campaign is a great example of increasing a company’s authority on the service they offer. The campaign has been running for almost 10 years and still never fails to remind people who use the internet that Google is the best place to search for information.

How can you define your target market?

Having a well-defined target market allows companies to develop their marketing efforts. Below are some of the steps to help you define your market:

1. Look at your current customer base. Companies must examine their current customer base to determine who is currently using their products or services. This can serve as a baseline for profiling and targeting more people who fit the same mold. Marketers should look for common characteristics and interests among their current customers. Some of the information that you can gather may include the following:

• – Location
• – Language
• – Company turnover
• – Number of employees
• – Job titles
• – Purchased products
• – Services used

2. Check out your competition. Companies can look at their competition, and analyze their marketing approach to gauge what’s working for them. The data you gather can be used as a basis in developing your own marketing strategy and can even help you identify other niche markets that your competitors may have overlooked.

3. Analyze your product/service. A company’s marketers should have a clear understanding of their product or service’s value. You can create a list of product records that will enumerate the features and corresponding benefits. Aside from using the list to better target your market, you can also use the data to develop more features that could be added to the product in the future.

4. Choose specific demographics to target. Once the product record is complete, marketers can then list people who might need the benefits offered. You will then need to figure out which decision-makers are the most likely to buy the product or pay for the service. Marketers may look at factors such as:

• – Age
• – Gender
• – Education level
• – Location
• – Income level
• – Job role

5. Evaluate your decision. Companies and their marketing teams need to revisit their audience research every so often to check whether their existing demographics and strategies are still effective. Sometimes you may identify changes in interest among your target audience, or shifts toward an additional potential market.

What are the types of target market strategies and how can you apply them?

When targeting a specific market, it’s important to get to know what your audience wants and needs. There are many different approaches to this:

• – Meet your target audience in their territory
• – Listen to what your target audience desires and ask questions
• – Look online for research done on your target market.
• – Read magazine articles and blog posts that discuss the market that you are targeting.
• – Look for blogs and forums where the people you are targeting are interacting and giving opinions.
• – Search for results of current surveys and potentially launch a survey of your own.
• – Send out a customer survey to your current customers for feedback.
• – Speak to your sales team

Below are three additional types of target marketing strategies that you can use in your marketing plan.

1. Differentiated marketing or multi-segment targeting

Differentiated marketing is a marketing strategy that has two or more target markets. This implies that you adopt differing strategies for each. Examples are:

• – A company produces various types of products intended for specific customer needs. For example, Honda produces automobiles, scooters, electric generators, water pumps, jet aircraft, and jet engines, each of which has a different target demographic.
• – A single product with standard and premium versions in which customers must pay more to access certain qualities or features. Examples are MailChimp and Dropbox.
• – Multiple distribution areas for a brand with several product lines and different price ranges. An example is BMW, which produces both luxury and affordable luxury models. These are split among different distribution centers worldwide.
• – Multiple customer experience offerings for different types of travelers in an aircraft such as first-class, business class, and economy class.

Differentiated marketing promotions focus on multiple angles for different segments. This could take the form of a photo of a family driving a brand new SUV through a subdivision. It could also be a photo of a sleek race car near business districts where young professionals work. Multi-segment targeting works well with industries that offer various product versions such as automotive manufacturers, clothing brands, and shoe manufacturers.

2. Focused or concentrated targeting

Focused or concentrated targeting is a strategy in which the company concentrates its efforts and resources on a particular segment of the market. A product may be designed, developed, and promoted for a precise and specific portion of the population. Some companies concentrate their resources and aim to meet the needs of a narrowly defined market segment.

Examples include Rolls Royce marketing which targets the premium car market segment, Starbucks’ focus on providing gourmet coffee to coffee drinkers, and Volkswagen’s targeting of the economy car segment.

Oftentimes, the company directs its R&D and managerial efforts toward understanding, meeting, and catering to the needs of its specific set of customers. Companies that embrace this type of marketing strategy should make early and periodic explorations of other market segments in order to avoid being labeled as a company that can only serve one particular niche.

3. Customized marketing

Customized marketing is a marketing strategy where companies tailor-fit a product to the specific needs of an individual customer. Here, companies tend to spend time studying the behavior patterns of their potential customers and create a separate and specialized solution for each of them.

Service providers are examples of companies that use this strategy. These include architects, marketing and research firms, advertisers, and even solicitors. Companies utilizing this type of marketing strategy often conduct meetings directly with their clients. The meetings allow them to discuss the customers’ requirements so they can tailor their services. This, in turn, helps develop a close relationship between supplier and customer.

A solid and well-developed marketing strategy always starts with finding your target market. The data that companies collect from its target market is always a good basis for any marketing efforts. Make sure that you stay updated with the current trends to keep up with the change in the interest of your audience, and create targeted content to match.