Themba Nkuna's key to marketing success is identifying your audience

The purpose of marketing is not to make noise, it is to communicate.

This is a key point to keep in mind when you are planning to market your business.

It is not necessary to spend huge amounts of money on marketing initiatives that reach a wide audience, instead take the time to think about who you want to talk to and for what reason. How will you speak to the people you want to attract to your product or solution? It’s about getting the right messaging to the right people. This is called targeted marketing or communications.

Tips for targeting your audience:

1. Study the behaviour of your target market: For example, your product might be aimed at the youth, in which case social media rather than traditional TV ads will be more effective.
2. Evaluate the contactability and quality of your leads: If you use social media to market your business, are the people seeing it really engaged or are they just keeping themselves busy by scrolling mindlessly. And, are the right people clicking on your ads? You should also consider how people will find you online, through measures such as search engine optimisation.
3. Qualify your contacts: Think about your ideal customer and ask yourself:

• Do they have a need for your solution?
• Can they afford it?
• Is there a sense of urgency?

Getting to know your audience will increase the effectiveness of your marketing activities and it is possible to do it without spending a fortune.

My advice is to use the free platforms out there, such as Survey Monkey, Google Forms or even LinkedIn. All of these allow you to ask questions to your existing and potential customers so that you can gain a better understanding of their needs, opinions and perspectives.

Get creative with different ways to engage people, attract customers and source information at the same time!