According to the US Census Bureau, there are over 120 million households in the United States. When designing a direct marketing campaign for your business, it’s certainly not practical to target everyone. Not everyone will want or need your products, and sending direct marketing campaigns can be expensive. Since many businesses are dealing with a limited marketing budget, it’s important to focus your resources where they are most likely to result in sales. This marketing strategy is called targeted marketing, and it is truly the secret to producing successful direct marketing campaigns.

Sending direct marketing campaigns to a very broad audience is a common mistake, and it can be a costly one. Think about it: If your company sells diapers, for example, an untargeted campaign will probably reach some new parents, which is what you want. However, it will also be reaching teenagers, couples without children, and seniors, all of whom are extremely unlikely to purchase diapers any time soon. And you’re paying money for them to see your advertisement! Marketing to an untargeted audience risks spreading your money and resources too thin, and your response rates will likely be dismal. No wonder direct marketing is viewed with suspicion these days! However, smart businesses know the importance of zeroing in on a niche market. By choosing the right audience and tailoring your marketing messages accordingly, even the smallest businesses can give bigger corporations a run for their money.

When it comes to spending your marketing dollars and optimizing your campaigns, it will be much more effective to narrow your audience down to targeted prospects that are the most likely to become customers. If you try to be everything to everyone, your message will become vague and less impactful. Marketing to a smaller group that is likely to be responsive is a much better option than marketing to a large group where most people will simply throw your mail piece in the trash. Narrowing your focus will differentiate you from your competitors who are trying to get everyone’s attention.

By targeting particular demographics such as age, gender, and location, you can tailor your message to that specific audience and make it as relevant as possible. However, many business don’t realize that basic demographics are just the tip of the iceberg. Data companies can target based on much more complex characteristics, including psychographics, shopping habits, lifestyle preferences, hobbies, and much more. So when you’re trying to figure out who your target audience should be, don’t be afraid to get specific! You can always broaden it later, and a good data company may surprise you by finding things you didn’t even know were possible!

Some businesses are wary of targeted marketing because they fear excluding prospects who could potentially become customers. It’s true that, by utilizing targeted marketing, you will be marketing to a much smaller group of people. However, when targeted marketing is done right, you will only be excluding people who are unlikely to purchase from you. This will ensure that you do not waste your marketing budget on a non-converting audience. So don’t worry about losing out on potential customers; even with the smaller audience, targeted campaigns usually bring in much more business than untargeted campaigns.