In the A – Z of Marketing, T is for – Targeted Marketing

I often meet people who tell me they’ve tried all sorts of different types of marketing because “Well, you have to, don’t you, in order to see what works!” or because everyone else in their industry does something, so they think they have to do the same. When I ask them if that marketing works for them, they usually tell me that it doesn’t.

So how do you know what marketing will work for you? Targeted marketing will always work. When you know exactly who your target market is, what they want and where they hang out, you can create a marketing strategy that actually works.

Here’s a true story for you to consider. Four years ago, someone had the idea of creating a local food festival in Wallingford, in Oxfordshire. The Wallingford Food Festival was born and the first one ran over one day, attracting around 30 local food producers to show off their wares. About 1500 people visited the event, coming from all over the south of England. In its second year, the numbers of both producers and visitors increased a bit, but the real change didn’t happen until the third year. 40 producers booked stands for the now two day event and visitor numbers reached an amazing 4000 over the weekend. This year, there were 50 producers and nearly 5000 people came through the gates over the Saturday and Sunday!

How did they do it?

The Wallingford Food Festival is held in May each year. In January 2013 the organiser decided to ask a local marketing company to develop a Social Media plan for promoting the event. Working with an improved website, where visitors could buy tickets online and where producers could book a stand, the team went to work. Regular email newsletters were sent out to producers to encourage them to shout about the event. Facebook and Twitter were used to reach prospective producers and to engage with local people, encouraging them to visit. In 2013 tweets where posted from Monday to Friday during business hours and the campaign ran until the end of May. At the Festival, anyone buying tickets on the gate were asked for their email address, so they could receive newsletters and information about the next event.

The next campaign started in January 2014 for this year’s Festival. This time, more focus was put into Twitter and Facebook, with posts being sent out all through the day and into the evening, seven days a week. The producers really got behind the campaign to help spread the word. Someone was on hand over the whole weekend, to answer the flurry of questions that came through Twitter (what time do you open? Can I bring my dog?) and to send out reports, photos and updates. The result? Far more engagement, more followers, more mentions and more people enjoying the Festival!

All because the marketing was targeted to local people who are interested in family events and good food. There was no point paying for advertising in national papers (although the Sunday Times did a great review of the event for free!) LinkedIn is great for business, but when you want to talk to consumers, Facebook and Twitter are better. Food is very visual, so they’re great ways of showing some of the delicious things that could be bought over the weekend.

So, the next time you find yourself wondering what sort of marketing will work for you, think about your target market. Get to know them, what they want and where you can find them and you’ll be able to carry out marketing that really works.

Take look at www.WallingfordFoodFestival.co.uk because we’ll be doing it all again next year!