Kyle Pate

Stop! Do not spend another dollar marketing online until you take the following into consideration:

• Your total audience is not your target audience.
• Tweens & Elderly aren’t buyin’ anything.
• Don’t fall for Facebook.

Let’s consider the market for a magazine. You’re the head of marketing for a print and online magazine. To begin with, there are two easily identifiable revenue streams: print subscriptions and pay-per-click display ads on the magazine’s website. If the goal is to increase sales from print subscriptions, who is your target audience?

This is the point where many confident business people make a misguided decision. The magazine probably understands what it’s total audience is, however that is not the target audience for our goal. A respectable magazine may be enjoyed by a variety of demographics, that does not mean all of those people are the type to pony up for a print subscription.

Do your ROI a favor and axe the teens and very elderly. This may seem counter-intuitive to anyone who uses Google Analytics, for in some circumstances these demographics may compose nearly 30% of a website’s traffic. Don’t be fooled. They still aren’t going to buy the print subscription, and in my experience they don’t purchase online content either. America’s internet-addicted teens and tweens probably frequent your site, but I warn you – don’t hang your business on the hope that they’ll click the ads on your website.

Don’t Fall for Facebook

Target Audience

As head of marketing you’ll no doubt want to run at least a small campaign online even though you’re promoting print subscriptions. Especially considering the prevalence of online magazine content, many potential subscribers are bound to be using the internet despite enjoying a physical copy of their subscriptions.

If you want attract purchases, focus on the part of your audience who is actively purchasing. Regardless of how many or few people from this demographic there are, these are the money makers. It is dangerous to generalize too much about who these customers might be, but I feel confident in suggesting that you start with those who make more than $40,000 per year. Other specifics can very drastically (Overstock.com serves 68% women vs. Ebay’s 50/50 split).

Once you’ve sculpted your true target audience, its time to catch them in the act. Display (graphic) ads require research. Not only do you need a honest target audience, but you need to know where that audience likes to browse the web. Ads are annoying to everyone, there’s no reason to pretend otherwise. What a wise marketer must do is gage how likely a visitor is to leave the site their on because of an ad. This is the number #1 reason I tell people, “Don’t fall for Facebook Advertising”.

People aren’t on Facebook to leave Facebook. Rather, Facebook is a communication site – where people browse and chat. A majority of people who click a Facebook Ad (causing you money), will click the “back” button the moment they discover they’re no longer on Facebook (or “bounce”). An amazingly easy way for small businesses to completely waste their small advertising budgets.

By focusing on capturing people where they are likely to be interested in distractions (i.e. google search, ehow.com, discussion forums, blogs about your industry), you earn the lowest bounce rates and highest praise from your co-workers.