The more accurate you are when you target online shoppers the more successful you’ll be.
There are 3 factors that will determine your success with an eCommerce business:
- Targeting the right audience with advertising.
- Having the right message that resonates with your target audience.
- An online shopping experience that has no friction.
This article is about the importance of targeting the right people and with the right message. Without targeting the right online shoppers then all the rest has no point.
I won’t get into the details of how exactly to target your audience on specific platforms in this post. I do however cover some of that in other posts, mainly on Facebook ad targeting but I will expand to different platforms.
The focus of this also assumes that you’re paying for marketing. there are ways to get organic marketing but for eCommerce, organic marketing is more difficult.
Knowing the right audience is the first step to target online shoppers in a way that’s helpful to your online store.
The Right Audience
Understanding your audience is where it all starts. Without fully understanding your audience you won’t know where to reach them and with what message.
You need to know your audience and every aspect of them to the point of being able to picture them as a person you know very well.
You’ll need to know
- Their age range
- How much money they make
- What interests they have even beyond your products
- Typical gender
and anything else that is relevant to target online shoppers.
Knowing your audience is essential to every other step of targeting online shoppers. Share on XWhere do you start learning about your audience?
This is a common question and one that deserves a thorough answer.
Luckily a thorough answer doesn’t take too much with the help of Google.
Google gives you tons of data on who is searching for different keywords so you can see details about who’s searching for them.
In other words, you can look at different keywords and see where they’re being searched from, and what device is the most common with that keyword.
Google Shopping Insights is a great place to visualize where people are searching from for various keywords.
Simply search for a product and you’ll see an overlay of where people are searching for that term.
You’ll get an idea of search volume and location.This is helpful because you can see trends over time and what device people are using (lower left).
This is helpful because you can see trends over time and what device people are using (lower left).
Is your keyword waning in popularity or is it just getting started on an uptick?
If you want to see some details on who makes up different areas of the map, click the view demographics button.
You can see the demographics of the country and then break that down further into a city with the search box.
Now you have a slightly better idea of who the people are in the areas that dominate your keyword search terms.
When you target online shoppers you’ll need to account for 3 different aspects of your message to potential customers.
The 3 Aspects Of Targeting Online Shoppers With The Right Message
Being on point with your message to online shoppers is part of your overall appeal to consumers.
Knowing your audience helps you get there but you need to also intrigue consumers.
Right Message
Having the right message is the only way to actually spark that intrigue from consumers.You can put advertising out there all day long but if you don’t have the message that resonates with consumers and pushes them to action then advertisements will fail.
You can put advertising out there all day long but if you don’t have the message that resonates with consumers and pushes them to action then advertisements will fail.
The right message could be solving a pain point for consumers. It could be selling a lifestyle. However your product appeals to your target audience is how you need to target your message.
Right Time
The right message also must be aligned with the right time. You can target advertising on Facebook to match with people at certain times in their life.
Google will let you target people searching for the type of products you’re looking for.
So, at the exact time someone is searching for a wedding ring you can pay for advertising that shows up on their search for wedding rings.
Right Place
People are doing different things depending on where they are on the internet.
If someone is on Facebook then they’re probably not looking for what you’re offering. It’s important to target advertising and form the message based on this.
If a consumer is searching Google then they already know what they want so the message might not need as much attention to emotion but more to reason.
Having the right message at the right time and in the right place is important. Share on XMany of these aspects can be achieved with knowing your audience and also advertising in the right place.
Advertising on Facebook may be your ideal place or Google could be the best place. Your specific audience and needs will determine which is best, not the cost of acquisition for each one.
Tieing It All Together
Each part of the consumer’s journey is important and must seamlessly be tied together.
That means you’ve accounted for the trip consumers take from the advertisement they see all the way through the final checkout process.
Every part of an online presence whether you’re selling industrial manufacturing services to a product on an eCommerce store relies on understanding your audience.
To effectively target online shoppers, you have to understand what makes your audience tick.
From there you have a better knowledge of how to target them with advertising that meets them at the right place time, and with the right message.
Your eCommerce store needs to be ready to accommodate the most demanding requirements.
From the product page to the checkout process, every part of the journey should be analyzed and perfected.
Maybe you’re just getting started or maybe you’re already trying your hand at eCommerce. Whatever your situation is, a free consultation or an analysis of your online presence will help you down a path of growth.