The Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo 2019 in San Diego had experts talking about the increasing number of challenges marketers face these days as a result of audience and media segmentation, as well as fast-evolving consumer behaviours across different platforms.
Marketers are coping with the potential loss of target audiences because more and more people tend to buy through ads incorporated in their Netflix and Amazon Prime Video subscriptions. Then there's also the rising media prices and increasing number of competitors to deal with. To manage these growing challenges, Gartner, Inc. has offered the following three tactics to assist marketers in their identification and engagement with their target audiences.
Know the Nature of Your Audience
Defining your target audience with care does not stop at addressing the "who" part. Consider keeping in mind that responding to the "how," "when," and "where" is just as important. Try to keep a handle on the big picture, even if that is becoming increasingly hard to do with the digital clutter generated by the era of big data. Knowing the nature of your target audience more or less means embracing inclusiveness. Think, for example, in terms of how multiple audience segments can translate to higher number of views.
Don't lose track of the different ways with which your advertising campaigns can reach target audiences. You have your first-party data. You also have third-party data gathered from media panel sources, social media platforms, compiled files, as well as the tech tools at your disposal when you launch digital ads. While planning how and where to engage with the various audience segments you have, keep in mind these important factors for multimedia activation--privacy, portability, persistence of marketing messaging, scale of advertising campaign, and precision.
Branch Out and Harmonise Your Multimedia Marketing Plan
Your digital media plan must be well coordinated in terms of projected reach and frequency of ad deployments, otherwise you are simply wasting your limited marketing budget. After identifying your target audience, go through your media plan line by line. Pay attention to the areas where quick changes in consumer behaviour are normally reported, so you can adjust accordingly.
One example of a fast-changing dynamic is the TV viewing behaviour of consumers. The big-budget line items in your marketing plan, as well as the possible overlaps in the media used by your target audience, must also be carefully taken into account and scrutinised constantly.
Make Measurement Errors Part of Your Marketing Plan
You are going to make miscalculations and targeting misses, even with advanced analytics and inclusive audience segmentation. This means you need to make allowances for imperfect measurements right onto your marketing plan.
All in all, leverage resources you currently have, such as the in-built tech tools for your ads. Focus on key indicators, such as cost-per-incremental reach point. Because fluctuations in audience needs, demands, and preferences across media platforms are always going to affect even the most thoughtfully constructed marketing campaign.