Marketing to Your Target Audience

Three Pitfalls to Avoid

By Adam Stoker

Have you ever said, “If I were buying this, I would like…” We can all fall into this way of thinking. It is an easy pitfall: marketing to yourself— to what you want to hear and see—instead of your target audience. Even if you are similar to your target audience, it’s a habit you don’t want to build or reinforce. This is why EKR works according to our proprietary RACE method.

The RACE method starts with research. Without research, it’s difficult to know whether your finished product will be effective. Once completed, you can analyze your research, which will provide a baseline of measurement and offer key insights into your organization, your competition, and your audience. What you learn in the analysis will give you the information you will need to make motivated decisions in the creation and execution of your marketing plan (because we all know that is the fun part). The best part about this methodology is its cyclical nature. As you run campaigns and collect data, you can return to analysis and iterate when necessary. Without the RACE method as a guide, there are three challenging pitfalls to avoid.

Marketing is about getting the right message to the right people at the right time.

Research Without Reason

The internet is full of information that can help business owners draw a picture of the marketplace. If you’re moving forward using gut feelings or personal instinct about what you’ve previously seen in the industry, it never hurts to back those ideas with solid research.

Entrepreneurship and business creation include being curious, asking questions, and building a foundation that will last. Research pours the foundational concrete for the building of your business so that it is solid and secure in fundamental data that will teach you what your audience thinks and what they do. Regardless of whether your hypotheses are proven or disproven, with proper research and with your questions answered, you are ready to analyze the data to clearly establish your audience.

Purposeless Personas

Marketing is about getting the right message to the right people at the right time. Because you want to make sure you are speaking to the right people, the pitfall to avoid here is creating inaccurate personas. A persona—a representation of a group of customers who have similar goals, buyer habits, and personal profiles—helps you to understand the type of customer you are trying to attract and relate to them as real people. Using personas allows you to minimize marketing waste and thoroughly understand your core audience while speaking to them in the most effective manner.

You will encounter a pitfall if your personas aren’t based on research, if your personas are the result of guesswork or intuition, or if you have more personas than your marketing budget can support. Personas lose their purpose if you write them and forget about them or write them without supporting data. Once your personas are created, your message becomes relatable to each audience, content can be successfully created and executed that resonates and appeals to the right people, and your goals can be reached. When used correctly, personas become actionable, and the results phase of the RACE method will be easier to analyze.

Positioning that Doesn’t Stick

There is a lot of competition for your audiences’ attention. In order to rise to the top, you need to use your personas and to be selective and focused on a specific niche or target audience—otherwise known as positioning. Once personas are created, don’t forget about them! Forgotten personas are like cracked foundations, making the building of your business risky and unstable. Without personas and everything you’ve invested so far, a position statement—a description of your target market as well as a compelling picture of how you want that market to perceive your brand—won’t stick. Your marketing messages are less likely to resonate with audiences if you don’t utilize and live by the information you’ve gathered and analyzed in your research and the personas you’ve created. This also places your business in an inferior position compared to the competition. Identify your competition, use your personas with purpose, and build a brand that stands out. Your authenticity in doing so will push you ahead in marketing.

Moving Forward

Have you found yourself in these pitfalls? Following the RACE method can help you stay on track. Take the time to research and understand your market, your competition, and your correct personas so you can authentically brand and market yourself successfully.

Adam Stoker is the president and CEO of Relic+EKR. He graduated from Brigham Young University’s nationally-ranked advertising program and has been working in advertising for fifteen years. Adam builds businesses, people, and products through his leadership. His role includes overseeing the vision of the company, creating relationships with employees and clients, and identifying growth opportunities. In 2020, he successfully led Relic in acquiring EKR, an agency that specializes in digital marketing and web development. Adam is the host of the Destination Marketing Podcast and author of Touchpoints: A Destination Marketer’s Guide to Brand Evaluation and Enhancement. Adam is listed in the 40 Under 40 from Utah Business and Utah Valley Business magazines.