Whether through direct mail or email, in-store signage, or highway billboards, the most effective marketing is tailored to your target audience. Recently, HubSpot compiled a list of questions to help you target your messaging with laser focus. Let's look at seven of them.

1. Am I targeting the right audience?

Target audiences can shift and change. Your target audience might be different from what it once was. One national motorcycle brand, for example, recently discovered that its fastest-growing customer segment was now younger and more highly educated than its older, more traditionally blue-collar customer base in the past. This allowed the company to reframe its messaging to reflect the changing face of its riders.

2. What defines this audience?

This is where audience profiling comes in. What are their ages? Household income? Level of education? What do they look like demographically? Behaviorally? Psychographically?

3. What matters to them?

What life stage are your customers in? Are they new college graduates? New parents? Are older adults starting to think seriously about retirement? Insight from third-party data such as magazine subscriptions, nonprofit donation history, and credit card purchase history can be beneficial here. 

4. What motivates them?

Once you create profiles of your target audiences, you can better understand what motivates them to buy. For example, new college graduates face pressure to excel at their jobs. This translates into messaging that reflects confidence, status, and success.

5. Where and when can we reach them?

How is your target audience interacting with you? What channels do they use most? Are you more likely to get them to pay attention if you follow up your direct mailer with an email or a retargeting ad on Facebook?

6. What are their perceptions of your brand?

Is your brand already well-known in the marketplace? Is it an up-and-comer? How can you use this to refine your messaging? Think about AARP. The organization knew that its target audience was working longer, more active, and living longer, healthier lives than in the past. It needed to reinvent its brand to attract new members, and the "You Don't Know 'AARP'" campaign was born.

7. What does their purchase journey look like?

Different messaging resonates differently to varying stages of a customer journey. Direct mail may draw people into the sales funnel, and a retargeted ad may re-engage them if they don't purchase immediately. A follow-up email or printed collateral may seal the deal.

These are just some questions to create a powerful marketing campaign. How many are you asking?