8 Audience Targeting Mistakes Your SaaS Marketing Is Making

Without proper marketing, most businesses will fail to hit the metrics that allow them to scale and develop a solid foundation for the future. This is especially true when focusing on digital marketing—many companies fall victim to the same type of audience targeting mistakes. 

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to recognize them. Not sure where to start? Don't worry, we’ve got you covered. Let's take a look at everything you need to know.

1. Not Considering Impressions Made by AI

People often get caught up in their traffic numbers. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it’s important to understand that this doesn't always reflect growing popularity for your site.

Unfortunately, it’s not impossible for a competitor in your industry to make use of software that provides fraudulent clicks for your campaign.

At first, it may be difficult to understand why someone else would want to spend money on your advertising efforts. But, this practice can be highly detrimental to you.

Many businesses run a cost-per-click (CPC) campaign where they have to pay a certain amount of money for each person that clicks on their advertisement. The logic here is that they pay a bit extra to make their content seen in hopes that the number of conversions they generate will highly outweigh their cost.

If an automated script clicks on your ads, you’ll end up paying for the marketing without actually having a human interact with your content.

So, traffic metrics should only be considered with other numbers like the audience activity on your site, how many visitors make purchases, etc.

2. Ignoring Audience Behavior

In order to facilitate the greatest chance of making a sale or conversion, you’ll need to thoroughly understand your audience. After all, this is how you’ll get them to your site in the first place.

But, you’ll need to pay attention to how they’re interacting with your site in order to optimize your purchase process.

For example, let’s assume that a large percentage of visitors to your athletic apparel company's site navigate to the shoe section of your online store. A particular pair of shoes you released get far more clicks than any other pair.

Upon navigating to the product page though, most users leave the page without taking any favorable action. This means you’re making very little sales and nobody is saving the item for later or adding to their cart, etc.

By analyzing this information, you can conclude that the issue lies on the product page itself since it’s been proven that people are initially interested.

The culprit could be something like an overly high price, poor product description, or a page with a cluttered, unaesthetic appearance.

Your customers' behavior on your site is just as important as the action they take, and understanding this can lead to more sales in the future.

3. Not Taking Advantage of User-Generated Content

Although this term may suggest that you need your audience to create your content for you, it actually refers to the process of them sharing content about your brand.

Since many people are skeptical at first when dealing with a company they’ve never heard of, they’ll be far more likely to take your brand seriously if their friends or family on social media can vouch for you.

It’s not uncommon for a highly satisfied customer to go out of their way to share their experience with their social media followers.

This is especially true for companies that serve a local area or those that sell products on their online store. This scenario ends up having a similar effect as receiving a positive review and will help establish that your brand is both efficient and trustworthy. 

4. Neglecting Customer Loyalty

Ironically, this is one of the most avoidable mistakes that companies make with their marketing.

The premise is simple: since it costs both more time and money to acquire new customers then it does to appeal to existing customers, it doesn’t make sense to neglect the ones you already have.

But, many businesses focus solely on making sales numbers and not on managing their relationship with their buyers. Marketing to previous buyers can be a highly effective practice, however.

Offering deals to longtime customers or even developing a customer loyalty program can go a long way and boost your sales metrics. After all, these individuals have already proven that they’re willing to make a purchase from your brand.

5. Neglecting Nurture Funnels 

As previously mentioned, most marketing plans that brands utilize tend to avoid looking too far into the future. In fact, some are almost entirely focused on making quick, short term sales.

Since not everyone is liable to make an immediate purchase, nurture funnels can help you develop those who are interested in your product or service into eventual customers.

Email marketing, in particular, is often used for this purpose. The message you present to your audience will change depending on where they are in the purchase process (interest, desire, action). 

Nurture funnels are part of a cohesive marketing campaign that should be prioritized to produce optimal results. 

6. Lack of Automation

Far too many companies neglect automation. Some disagree with the use of automation for business endeavors, while others simply don’t understand it.

Regardless of your stance, incorporating automation into your marketing efforts is an objectively rewarding practice.

Automating your marketing emails, for example, will serve to both save you time and contact your potential customer at an ideal moment. A typical scenario involves sending schedule emails to your audience after they sign up for your free newsletter.

This content will have special offers, explain what your brand is all about, etc. you can use your marketing analytics to determine what time of day is best to reach out to them through this method. 

Chatbots are another example of how automation can benefit you. These provide your site's visitors with the opportunity to learn more about your brand, answer common questions they may have, or contact a representative.

7. Failing to Utilize Branded Keywords

This type of keyword is simply a phrase that begins with the brand of the associated company. “Nike shoes,” for instance.

Since branded keywords aren’t notably effective until your company has a significant following, it may seem strange to prioritize them. But, most people who search for branded keywords have the intention to make a purchase.

By researching branded keywords that your audience may be searching for and including them and your paid ad campaign, you can optimize your brand's presence on Google's search results.

People are far more likely to trust a brand if it seems to dominate the first page of Google, so make use of all the available space that you can by using both organic and branded keywords.

 

8. Using 'Blanket' Targeting Methods

Proper marketing requires a deep understanding of your audience's thought process. So, you’re not going to be able to use one type of marketing tactic for every customer situation.

Factors that influence a buyer's behavior include:

• The level of awareness they have of your brand

• Whether or not they’ve made a purchase in the past

• What type of device they tend to use most often while browsing the Internet

• What problems they have that your product or service could solve for them

As you may expect, communicating with a new customer as if they were one who’s already made multiple purchases may not provide them with the basic information about your brand they need to know.

Conversely, the same can be said for speaking to loyal customers as if they had never heard about your company.

The more thoroughly that you understand your audience's thoughts and intentions, the easier it will be for you to gauge how they need to be interacted with. Otherwise, you run the risk of investing your time and resources into a marketing effort that won't provide anything in return.

Resolving These Audience Targeting Mistakes Can Seem Difficult

But it doesn't have to be.

With the above information about these SaaS audience targeting mistakes in mind, you'll be well on your way toward refining your process and making it as efficient for your business as possible.

Want to learn more about how we can help? Feel free to get in touch with us today to see what we can do.