Know your Target

Created on 2001-09-18 by Rainer Gerhards.

Knowing whom you'd like to target is absolutely essential. Keep in mind that we are all individuals. There is no homogeneous "Internet user". Sure, people have common interest and preferencies. But you can't make one publication that fits all needs.

As with any marketing campaign, if you want to succeed, you must know who your "customer" base is. Even if you think of publishing a newsletter for the local sports team you are involved with - you always must apply the concept of the "customer".

The customer is the person you would like to sell to. In this sense, it is irrelevant if you would like to sell actual products like goods and services. If you would like to "sell" your opinion or just some good reception (for your sports team), it is exactly the same. In any case, you would like to influence their thoughts.

Think who you need to influence to reach your goal. As long as you don't know the people you are writing to, you can not create quality content. This is simply because you don't not what they think of as being quality. Define the group of people you'd like to address. Be as specific as possible.

List your potential subscriber's interests, web sites he or she will visit. What is common among them? Age, education specific preferences? List all of them. How about geographical spread and Internet affinity. Try to gather as much information on your potential target as possible.

When done, please reconsider if your defined target base really correlates to what you have to offer. If you detect a mismatch in this stage, it can be easily corrected. Once you have dedicated considerable effort to a wrong target base, you are stuck. So make sure your goal and your target match.

The target definition is the foundation for all other promotional measures. It is also the single most important guideline when it comes to choose your newsletter topics and writing style. It is the foundation of your email marketing efforts and should be taken very seriously.