Customer Preferences in Online Advertising-Part 3 of 3
By Karon Thackston

In part two of this series, we discussed the annoyance
factor of online ads and how to overcome them. In this
last article, I'll tell you how to use behavioral traits to
direct advertising efforts rather than demographics.

I am a strong proponent of defining your target audience.
If you don't know who you are communicating with, how
will you be able to do it effectively? Jupiter
Communications' (www.jup.com) survey backs up my
claims.

What Difference Does Behaviorism Make?
I'm sure almost everyone has heard the phrase features
vs. benefits. The entire premise behind this statement
is that you must tell the audience what's in it for them.
How, if you don't know their concerns, their hopes and
their needs, are you going to define benefits that will
make a difference to your target customer?

The difference between demographics and behaviorism
is that one tells you the basics and the other tells you
the details. Demographics let you know that your
customer is a man employed in upper management who
is 45 years old, has 2 children and makes approximately
$50,000 per year.

Behaviorism tells you that, because he's a man, he is
compelled by information-type ads. (If he were a she,
she would most likely respond to animation or sound.)
It also tells you that he's burned out on corporate politics,
having a mid-life crisis, can't being to think of how he's
going to pay for college for 2 kids and is in bad need of
a raise! Now… which profile do you think you could
communicate more effectively with? The demographic
or the behavior? (It's a rhetorical question!)

Target Everything About Your Advertising
People hear the phrase "target marketing" and "target
audience" all the time. But do you understand how
extremely important those phrases are to the success
of your marketing campaign? You simply must, MUST
know your target audience.

When you communicate with them through advertising,
you absolutely have to be able to address their fears,
their problems and their concerns with a solution. They
want to know what's in it for them. If you don't
understand what they need, you simply can't answer
that question.

Targeted advertising increases sales!

When you create an advertising piece, especially online,
every aspect should reach out and grab your target
customer. This means the copy (especially), the design,
the colors, the photos, the graphics, the packaging
(if applicable), the ordering process… absolutely
everything.

Segmenting Your Broad Market
One trouble that often plaques businesses is the fact
that their target audience is so broad. If that is the
case with your company, try segmenting the market
and appealing to each segment's behavioral traits.

For example: perhaps you're a Real Estate agent. You
need a Web site and want to appeal to several segments
of the Real Estate market. What can you do to
incorporate the behavioral traits and other preferences
of so many people?

Divide your site into smaller areas specifically targeted
to each segment. You might choose to have a link on
your home page that says "Need to sell your home?
Click here!" In that section you can speak specifically
to the needs and concerns of home sellers. (Who are
usually women!)

Another area might be directed toward home buyers.
These people want lots and lots of information, including
pictures. Be sure to give it to them along with some
articles dealing with hiring a moving company, transferring
your utilities to a new address and how to prepare
children for a new school. Get it? Major decisions
require lots of information.

Keep Focused On the Customer
Above all, keep focused on your customers and their
needs. Resist the temptation to use your favorite
shade of pink as a primary color in your Web design
if your customers are mostly men. Remember that
you can choose to include an optional flash presentation
within your site if you're dealing mostly with women.
And always, always address your target market's
concerns and needs with benefit-oriented copy.

By combining the information within the 3 parts of this
series, you can truly make your online advertising more
powerful… and more readily received by your customers.

***The initial survey (about which I have written this
commentary) was conducted by Jupiter (www.jup.com),
a worldwide authority on Internet commerce.

About the Author

Karon is Owner and President of KT & Associates who offers
targeted copywriting, copy editing & ghostwriting services.
Subscribe to KT & Associates' Ezine "Business Essentials" at
BusinessEssentials-subscribe@topica.com or visit her site at
http://www.ktamarketing.com

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