A lot of people misunderstand what true advertising is. They believe the ad itself is the most important part of every advertising campaign.
The truth is, the perfect ad that’s sent to the wrong audience won’t deliver the results you’re after. To be successful you need to a great ad AND a specific target market. It takes both. A terrible ad sent to the right audience won’t get results either.
I recently ran a two-day workshop in Sydney and San Francisco. Usually, the Sydney events are easier to fill because I have hometown advantage and the US events are a little bit harder. So, we wanted to run a Facebook campaign that filled the event (quickly), required very little lead nurturing, added people to our list, and built trust so future events would be even easier to market.
We only had several weeks to work with before the event started, so time was definitely against us. We also knew we didn’t want to come across too strong. If we sold too hard, we’d push people away rather than bring them in.
Here’s the first key principle we used to pull it off.
Pinpoint Your Prospect
The first key to running any successful advertising campaign is to nail the targeting. Before you do anything else, you have to pinpoint your prospect.
If you don’t identify the perfect person for your offer, you’ll end up going broader than you should and you’ll get lost in a crowd of noise.
The real goal is to find a message-to-market match. We need to speak the right words to the right people who are in the right phase of their business for our solution. That’s when we start to see some pretty amazing results.
To pinpoint your prospect for a Facebook ad campaign, there are three main points you need to consider.
1. The Four Forces
First, you need to know what moves your prospect. In Black Belt, we call these The Four Forces.
Think about your particular market and ask yourself these four questions:
- What frustrations are my prospects facing right now that they want to move away from?
- What do they fear will happen in the future?
- What do they most want to happen right now?
- What are their aspirations for the future — their hopes and dreams?
2. Behavior
Next, you need to know your prospects’ behavior.
For example, on online platforms, soccer moms behave differently than businesswomen. It’s not exactly a ground-breaking discovery, but many coaches tend to look at the behavior of one segment and apply it to all others.
You need to get a real sense of what your target market is doing online — not someone else’s target market.
When are they online? What do they like to do? Who do they like to follow? Who influences them?
3. Market Trends
Finally, you need to understand the market trends. Even with the perfect solution to a problem, if the timing is off it won’t serve anyone.
For example, let’s say you’re in the mobile phone business. You know that teenagers love texting and surfing the web, so you decide to target them and sell BlackBerry smartphones.
It’s a great solution for some people, but a 10-year old smartphone won’t excite too many teenagers in the age of the iPhone 7.
Understanding market trends is really about keeping your finger on your prospects’ pulse. What keywords are interesting them now? What topics are “yesterday’s news”?
Once you pinpoint your prospect, you can turn your focus to crafting the perfect ad that grabs their attention and leads them to take action.
How effective do you think Facebook ads are? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave a comment below.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you grow your coaching business:
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