Episode 88 - One thing that's absolutely essential for successful ads
Hello, and welcome to the new school of marketing podcast. I hope you’re keeping warm (if you’re in the southern parts of Australia). We’ve been enjoying the winter months. Tasmania turns into a burst of amazing colours, which strangely I didn’t know I’d missed.
I moved to Australia in 2005, for what was meant to be 5 months but obviously I’m still here, and I have a real love for the Australian gum trees which don’t change colour. Ever. So when we moved to Tasmania we were in for a visual treat, a reminder of Europe (where I grew up). If you haven’t seen Tasmania in autumn or winter you really need to do yourself a favour and visit. It’s spectacular.
Onto today’s topic.
I want to talk about the one thing that is absolutely essential for successful ads.
It’s essential for successful marketing.
It’s essential for a successful business.
Without this part you can apply all the tactics you like, but you won’t sell a thing.
It’s the one thing every marketer will go on and on about. For good reason.
The one thing that’s absolutely essential for successful ads, and a successful business is to know who your ideal customer is and how to speak to them.
There are so many options available to customers that if you’re not directly speaking to your ideal customer, your message is going to be diluted.
If you’re afraid to niche down and get really specific about who it is you’re serving, the people you’re trying to reach will tune out.
The goal is to turn some people on and others off. Completely off. You can’t be everything to everyone, you’ll be ignored.
If you haven’t spent long enough defining who your absolute ideal customer is, you need to go back to the drawing board.
When asked who your ideal customer is, you should be able to name them and tell me exactly what they like and who they are.
And I’m not talking about a fictional person. I don’t want you to make this up.
Despite the countless ideal client exercises I’ve done and sometimes still dish out (because we need to start somewhere), I want you to think of a real person.
You can’t do this exercise from your desk. You need real people.
Even better, if you’ve already worked with someone that you loved working with or had a buyer that you love and want to attract more of, think of them.
Now really picture them. Try to put yourself in their position and live life as them.
So right now, you’re them.
And you’re going to ask yourself a few questions.
What are your biggest frustrations?
What keeps you awake at night?
It could be something that stresses you out, or maybe something that you’d really love to do or purchase.
What do you wish you had?
Who are you jealous of and what do they have or do that you don’t?
How do you want to feel?
What are you passionate about, or what can you rant about?
Really step into your ideal client’s life and write this down in 1st person.
Keep going and really find out where they shop for inspiration, what brands or people do they follow, where they go to have their problems solved. Look at their lifestyle and see if there’s anything that you can take away from it.
For example, I worked with a skincare brand that was no fuss, easy to use and took the complications out of it. It was really for people who were on the go, loved life and getting outside rather than spending time in front of the mirror.
So we targeted people who had outdoor hobbies such as mountain biking, skiing, hiking and camping.
Even as a marketer I sometimes struggle with ideal client exercises and much rather think of someone I worked with and put myself inside of their head.
When it comes to advertising the saying ‘when you’re talking to everybody, you’re talking to nobody’ really rings true.
Recently Facebook removed a bunch of targeting options which means that advertisers now have to go broader with their targeting. The only way to get incredible results with your ads is by knowing exactly who you’re talking to so that you can speak to them with the right message.
Knowing exactly who you’re speaking to will help you formulate your marketing activities and create your content.
You’ll know what platforms they hang out on.
You’ll know how they consume their content and when.
You’ll know which words they use.
You’ll know what to say and when.
You’ll know how to get them involved and engaged.
Once you have a crystal clear image of who it is you’re talking to, it becomes so much easier to talk to them.
So until you’ve got this right, stay away from Facebook ads, stay away from boosted posts, stay away from any paid marketing.
Get it right first.
Start by embodying your ideal client and getting into their head.
Then start by creating content and monitoring the reactions you get on your content.
Then keep tweaking it until you get it right.
And once you have it right, that’s when you can amplify your efforts with Facebook ads.
You’ve got this. This is the most important step in your entire marketing strategy.
Your message is important.
You just need to first determine who should hear it.
Outro
That’s it for this week, thanks for joining me on this episode of the New School of Marketing podcast, I hope this episode was helpful and I can’t wait to share more marketing tips with you next week.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure you visit www.newschoolofmarketing.com to download practical free resources, plus subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.