Many people believe that casting a wide net is the best way to catch more fish.

But the most successful fishermen know what type of fish they plan to catch ahead of time. They make nets with this specific size of fish in mind. And they know exactly where to find these fish, and when to strategically deploy their nets to catch them.

This is why targeted advertisements are, on average, almost twice as effective as non-targeted ads.

Identifying clearly defined target markets and target audiences works like a magnifying glass that focuses the sun’s rays.

“It’s hard to target a message to a generic 35-year-old middle-class working mother of two,” said Elizabeth Gardner. “It’s much easier to target a message to Jennifer, who has two children under four, works as a paralegal, and is always looking for quick but healthy dinners, and ways to spend more time with her kids and less time on housework.”

With a clearly defined target market, every detail of a product or service can be perfectly tailored to their needs and desires. This will result in incredibly satisfied customers and overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Plus, with a well-defined target audience, every detail of a marketing campaign can be perfectly tailored to appeal to their interests, emotions, and world views.  

If you know how to create marketing messages that truly resonate with your target audience, you’ll achieve higher conversion rates, and build a more powerful brand.

Because as real-life Mad Men inspiration Howard Gossage said, “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.”

Howard Gossage Quote

But that’s not all.

Targeting also enables marketers to take “advantage of the massive torrent of data that the digital age has turned on to get better results from digital marketing,” said Ray Velez, CTO of Razorfish.

And this data is vast.

You only have to spend five minutes creating a Facebook ad to be awestruck by the targeting capabilities of today’s digital marketing tools.

So how can you tap into this power?

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