How To Inegrate Special Interests to Drive Traffic

Define Your Target Audience

When you begin to advertise and market one asect to consider is how do I integrate special interests to drive traffice? When I mention special interests I am not talking about your interests but the interests of the target audience you are attempting to reach. I am very surprised by the number of so called business owners that when asked who their target audience is will say everyone. Wrong answer there is no way your business be it homebased or a brick and mortar structure will reach everyone. The key is to know your business and your best customer so as to crerate a strategic marketing plan that works.

Knowing  who the bullseye is  the 1st step to integrating special interests to drive traffic. One can not just blindly throw things out there in hopes to reach your target audience. You must define the audience. This is done by:

1 :Knowing who your product or service appeals to.

2: Knowing what they read, what they watch, where they shop, what music they listen to, what are their hobbies, what is their income, what is their marital status. Defining theses and other attributes will help to attract the customer that will spend money with you. BY knowing these attributes you can do a targeted approach and reach your audience if your target audience listens to christian music you may want to consider advertising on Christian Radio Stations or doing a promotion where you give away Christian Music CDS.

3: Conducting surveys asking questions like what made you do business with us, how did you hear about us, and also asking potential clients/customers about their interests.

How To Integrate Special Interests to Drive Traffic

Be Aware Of What Is Going On Locally

You have now defined your target audience and now are ready to promote your business. The  question here is where do I start? One way to answer this to answer what is going on locally? Another is where locally is my target audience?  By knowing about the local area where you will be working or where you will be locating a brick and mortar business will give you what is often referred to as the home field advantage. If your target audience is high school students then forming partnerships with the local high schools is a good start, you can sponsor some of the clubs, you can support the  by supplying prizes or promotional items, you can set up fundraisers at your location or through your services. You can find the places that these students hang out and maybe do a cross promotion with the business. You can distribute information about your business at the activities that these students attend. By finding out what other activities they are involved in or finding media geared towards them you can  attract their business. For example they are visiting MTV.com you can find out the cost of placing a banner ad on this site and doing a pay per click campaign to get them to your site or even set up an affiliate program where they place your ad on their site and you give them a % of the sales.

This is great way to market, how many people see this daily. An ad about your product or service appearing here can help attract your target audience, For example your ad states wear your schools jersey, hat, or shirt to XYZ on Monday and receive YOUR OFFER HERE.

 Bus Bench ads are also effective as those driving will see your ad and thus you will gain brand recognition.

Billboards are also effective in getting the message to many people.

In addition to using these methods you will want to incorporate Newspapers, Magazines, Radio, TV, Social Media, and other avenues to drive traffic.

How To Integrate Special Interests to Drive Traffic

Being Creative and Aware: Planning and Implementation

Being aware of what is happening around you is a key component so you can capitalize on the opportunities that are presented. A few strategies to use are:

1: Join The Chamber of Commerce and design a special offer for their members. You can present a special  Discount Card that when presented will donate a % to the chamber’s educational fund.

2: Connect with The Youth Sports Programs and design something specifically for the participants, parents, coaches, and other volunteers.  Do a Youth Sports day where a % of sales is donated to the league.

3: Look for special events that you can tailor a promotion for.    In my community there is  event every year, Relay for Life to benefit The American Cancer Society. Having a team and paying the team registration fee of $100 is a great deal as you can have a booth and set up all types of promotions to showcase your business.

4: If you have  professional teams in the area you can do promotions like if The Home Team Wins receive $5 off your next order/purchase

5: Look for activities like conferences and conventions that may include your target audience and offer items to place in the welcome bags or if conducive to your plan set up a table at the event.

Imagine a banner at the game or a table where you could hand out information or maybe a promotion like take a penny off the price for each point the home team scores.By sponsoring a game like this you can attract this audience imagine the PA Announcer saying don’t forget the half-time 3 point contest is sponsored by ______________________. If ______________ scores 100 points everyone receives a free_____________ from _________________________.

 A special costumed character with your logo on it handing out information at a community event will attract kids and then attract their parents. The character can also be used at your location, if you are brick and mortar business.

The key is to know what is happening and to be proactive and creative:

How To Integrate Special Interests to Drive Traffic

Some More Ideas:

 

The month of March brings a phenomenon known as march Madness. You can do a promotion where after selection Sunday everyone coming to your business is given a bracket and they have until the following Thursday to turn it in. The person with the most wins will be awarded a gift card to use in your business. You can sponsor local March Madness watch parties at Local Sports Bars with everyone getting their first drink courtesy of your business. The possibilities are endless you can make a list of all 68 teams and anyone wearing any of those teams apparel on a given day gets a 10% discount. March also means St.Patrick’s Day and you can do The MDA Shamrocks For Dystrophy Campaign or you can adopt another charitable entity and host a party for them or do a wear green on a certain day and receive a 10% discount, you could give out rainbow related candies or other items. Again the more creative you are and the better you market and advertise the better your results will be.

 Baseball season kicks off  in April and you can sponsor a trip to a game if you are in a Major League City. If  you aren’t and there is a minor league team in your area you can sponsor a night out to the park. You can organize a game where your business and its associates and customers play the Police with the money going to The Police Athletic League. You can sponsor a watch party. You can host a chance drawing for charity for memorabilia. Again with a little creativity you can build your brand and integrate special interests to drive traffic.

There are many things to capitalize on in the next few months like The Presidential Election, The Summer Olympics, Local Festivals, Baseball Season, NBA Playoffs, Football Season, NHL Playoffs, End of The School Year (Think Proms and graduation).

Jonathan JDOGG Lederman has over 30 years of marketing and media relations experience and has helped to integrate special interests to drive business. His ability to walk into any business and come up with ideas that build a brand and increase revenue is incredible. His knowledge of The South Florida MarketPlace is impressive. JDOGG is the person to turn to when you are looking to maximize your message.