Wouldn't it be nice if your product had a huge demand you haven't even tapped into yet? Think Beanie Babies: the biggest buyers aren't children, but collectors far into adulthood. But without taking the time to explore the diversity of your product marketing, you might never find that audience of passionate fans.
This guide is going to explain to you exactly what diversity is and why you are missing out by not taking it into account.
Defining Diversity in Marketing
When talking about diversity in popular culture, the focus is usually around race. Though that's a valid way to approach public relations, it's not a very precise way to approach market targeting.
Chevrolet experienced great success with its ‘Find New Roads’ campaign, for example. They took a different spin on diversity, encouraging their audience to broaden their horizons, and expanding beyond their primary buyers.
The majority of companies have a primary audience - consider it their "perfect customer" - but when every marketing campaign is geared towards this perfect customer, many of these companies will fail to maximize their marketing potential. They don’t take into account secondary audiences.
For example, companies are obsessed with targeting millennials, but they are not taking into account other demographics. Maybe the premium product line would also appeal to seniors - but without testing, how would the business ever know? Companies rarely fit neatly into one demographic.
Is Your Marketing Campaign Diverse Enough? Here's How to Tell
With today's access to advanced analytics, it's easier to tell who you're communicating to than ever. Using Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, Facebook targeting, and many other tools, you can see who's clicking on your ads, who's visiting the site, and what they're buying.
If you are targeting the 18-34 male demographic, for example, you may focus entirely on the little data point telling you how many people from this demographic you are bringing in. But if you take a step back you may see that you are also pulling in a significant number of 18-34 females, you might realize you're missing out on a whole new sales funnel.
So What Do I Do About It?
Begin by going back to those analytics, then pick out your second biggest audience. Take a look at this audience and see how much your current marketing campaign is targeted towards them, versus how much value they are producing as buyers.
The good news is if you are still interesting these people and your campaign isn’t directed at them, you have a huge amount of potential before you. Imagine what a targeted campaign could do for them.
So what should your next move be?
Some would say that you need to adjust your existing marketing campaign to incorporate them as well. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, you need to branch off your advertising team into two parts: one creates a campaign to hit your perfect customer and one creates a campaign to hit your target audience.
You can make as many marketing campaigns as you want. If the audience is significant enough, it’s time to start diversifying.
Are You Doing Everything You Can?
Another type of diversity isn't in your audience, but in the way you're reaching them.
Most companies have a preferred way of communicating with their favored demographics - maybe you're running a lot of paid Facebook ads, owning the Snapchat game, or running a popular Slack Group.
Unfortunately, they rarely diversify into other areas. To keep your marketing campaign fresh, you should be trying new things all the time. Not everything will work and you may even lose money through your expectations, but you will be more knowledgeable and more effective because of it.
Here are some tips for getting started:
- Continue to split test: you should only change one aspect at a time in order to gain more accurate results.
- Do some prior research: come into a new advertising avenue with some basic research done so you don’t waste money.
- Reach your people: consult with your target audience to find out what they like and dislike.
Conclusion
Diversity comes in many forms. It refers to the way you market and who you market your product to. To keep growing and evolving, great companies are setting aside a portion of the marketing budget for exploration. This is where you are testing new things without the expectation of making any money.
It may require more time and effort on your part, but your company will come away with more knowledge and the ability to be successful.
How will you start your next marketing campaign?