Deep dive into: Hyper-targeting

Let’s deep dive into the marketing industry’s latest buzzword: hyper-targeting. What is it, what are the advantages, and how can you apply it to your marketing mix?

What is it?

Hyper-targeting refers to the delivery of a highly customised message to a narrowly defined segment of the market. In other words, promoting your product in a very specific way to a niche portion of your target market. It’s the antithesis of the “spray and pray” method of mass marketing; a less is more approach that values the quality of consumer interactions over quantity.

Why we love it

According to a study by IBM, 56% of consumers feel the communication coming from brands is irrelevant or unimportant to them. This might not have mattered a decade ago, but with Millennials now weighing in as the most valuable consumer group worldwide (with $200bn in spending power in the US alone), brands who are unable to connect with this group have their days numbered.

Like no generation before them, Millennials crave authenticity and personalisation. In fact, A 2014 survey, Engaging Millennials: Trust and Attention Survey, reveals that 84 percent of Millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. Hyper-targeting allows us to take advantage of the data we have available to create a more focused and effective marketing strategy that responds to the Millennial need for brand realness.

Similarly, a study conducted by Infosys revealed that 86% of customers say that personalisation has an impact on what they purchase. By knowing exactly who your customer is and what they want, you can increase customer acquisition and retention.

Where mass marketing offers a way to reach a broad volume of potential customers, hyper-targeting allows you to more closely target less of the right people, and accelerate your path to growth. It also holds a special power for smaller businesses, providing a more effective means of communication with less resource wastage and more measurable outcomes.

Knowledge is key for hyper-targeting

Know your audience. This shouldn’t be overly strenuous considering the abundance of information that is now at your fingertips (for free!!). Understanding the key demographics (age, gender etc) of your target audience is nothing new for marketers, but the real gold is to be found when you dig a little deeper: How can you further segment your audience? What are their key interests and purchase behaviours? What places are they going to, and who are they spending time with? This depth of knowledge will be pivotal to a successful hyper-targeted campaign.

Focus on: hyperlocal

There are a number of different factors by which you can segment your markets, such as niche interests, communication channel preference, or specific age ranges. Focusing on hyper-locality as your defining factor will give you a detailed understanding of your audience within a certain geographical segment. By looking at the location of your audience, we can learn where and how they receive messages, how they communicate, where they shop, and where they spend their recreation time. This will allow you to better optimise your resources and allocate them where they will be most effective. Setting geographic parameters will also allow you to hone in and place your product in meaningful settings, such as gyms or cafes they visit, taking you one step closer to closing the path to purchase.