Target group marketing includes all marketing measures aimed at a specific target group . The more precisely this target group is defined, the more precisely and efficiently marketing can be aligned with it.
Definition of the target group
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A target group is a group of people who share certain characteristics and who are to be reached with a common advertising message.
Target group definition by market segment
There are different precise methods for defining target groups. The simplest way to define a target group is market segmentation based on statistically collected data and life circumstances.
Such data for market segmentation can be divided into three groups:
- Demographics, such as age, gender, and marital status
- Socio-economic characteristics, such as educational attainment or occupation
- Psychographic characteristics, such as values, lifestyle or political orientation
The resulting target group definitions only represent master data and therefore lead to large scatter losses and moderately efficient campaigns when used in online marketing.
Audience definition with personas
In order to define the target group more precisely, one resorts to the aid of the “persona”. Personas are fictitious people who are designed by the marketing team in collaboration with other departments, for example as part of a workshop project and with creative means. Each persona symbolizes the interests and habits of a particular customer group.
Target group marketing in online marketing
Target group orientation plays an important role for all marketing channels, both online and offline. Personas make it possible to align advertising measures with the customer journey and to construct a powerful conversion funnel. With them, all marketing measures can be optimized for very concrete, realistic, coherent personality profiles of the target group.
For this, it is particularly important to consistently align the entire marketing with the personas. This is precisely the biggest weakness and potential of target group marketing. Many companies have already developed awareness of this, and agencies have long been offering tailor-made services and assistance in creating personas. In day-to-day business, however, personas often end up in the drawer. 1
The special performance of target group marketing with personas lies in increasing the efficiency of all marketing measures. Companies that understand this and integrate target group marketing appropriately into the corporate culture will gain relevant competitive advantages.