By Maggie Potter

For many companies, small businesses, and professional marketers, one of the most important aspects of success in this day and age is how you are targeting your loyal and potential customers to gain interest in making purchases from your business. This can be particularly important to maintaining customers, earning new ones, and building overall interest in your products. 

Targeted marketing has been around for a while, but it became relevant to most consumers when personalized ads started showing up on their social media accounts and in their internet searches. Internet search information has become one of the biggest tools for most marketers to find and reach out to potential customers based on their interests. 

Of course, for most companies, the goal isn’t just to reach one type of person but rather to make their products relevant to all people. Targeted marketing can still be an important aspect of this since there are certainly groups of people who have more in common than others, which can allow marketing professionals to develop and tailor specific messages to certain demographics. Targeted marketing to different generations is one way to do this. 

Research, Research, Research

Tailoring a message to a specific demographic isn’t always easy though. In fact, understanding how different demographics are likely to respond and the medium your product is most likely to succeed on varies widely. Broad generalizations and stereotypes are turn-offs to many, so it is essential to do quality research on how each demographic is likely to use your product and how they are likely to get the message. 

For example, don’t assume that Baby Boomers are all slow to pick up on technology and struggle to use it. Sure, they have been the generation least likely to adopt and regularly use tech, but a substantial percentage of them have social media accounts they are active on. Likewise, don’t assume the Gen Z only uses digital media — many of them still shop in brick and mortar stores and strive to support small businesses where they can. 

One of the best things you can do as a business owner is to start asking yourself important questions about the types of demographics you’re attracting and why that is. Are you focusing most of your marketing efforts on one medium or one generation? How can you spread the wealth and build a greater customer base? If you’re really still at a loss, ask your customers how they heard about you and what they think you could do better. 

Make it Unique

Once you have an idea of who is coming to your door, what they’re attracted to, and who you’re missing, the next step is to start making some marketing changes. Use marketing segmentation to divide your targeted audiences into groups based on similarities. This can help you begin to form the basis of your different strategies for each group — a process that can continue to become more customized as you go. 

This idea of customization is an important one. Beyond just avoiding broad stereotypes about demographics and beyond understanding how your message will reach different generations, successful marketing strategies are making every message feel like a personal one. Studies indicate that personalized messaging and experiences delivered to potential customers increase the likelihood of the purchase of a product by up to 80%. 

Companies like Amazon are known for their ability to do this and make good a solid example of personalized marketing in action. They use tools such as predictive modeling and behavioral targeting to suggest items to customers based on past purchases and provide information on items that are ‘frequently bought together.’ This strategy actively helps increase total sales on a monumental level. 

Make it Diverse

Making your marketing message both personal and diverse can seem like an impossible task at first, but it is totally doable and will help your company experience greater marketing success. Part of this is because consumers are turned off by companies that don’t strive to connect with all of their customers. Regular and potential customers are bound to notice if your marketing efforts are working towards including a greater array of people and are likely to respond positively. 

One example is a company like Coca-Cola. The brand has an extremely loyal customer base and is known for many of its nostalgic ad campaigns that bring back a feeling of a simpler time (one where you very likely enjoyed a Coke, of course). However, Coca-Cola strives to engage and convert the next generation into loyal customers as well by advertising across mediums with ads that are targeted towards younger folks. 

Making your ads diverse enough to attract a variety of generations doesn’t have to be incredibly difficult. For instance, companies like Third Love address generational differences in their ad campaigns by including diverse women of all ages as their models. The subtle message says “hey we sell products to everyone and we’re a diverse company, but we personalize our products for you and your body type.”

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Targeted marketing is an essential aspect of today’s business strategy. Working to attract a variety of different generations requires research and an earnest ability to avoid common stereotypes. Nearly all customers are likely to respond well to ads that touch them personally but also maintain diversity. Marketing is never easy, but a few tips and tricks make getting a good start attainable.