A report from Catalina Marketing suggests that companies are missing the audiences most likely to convert with many of their marketing efforts. While a majority of the study focused on television advertising, failure to create content that reaches the correct audiences is a struggle for marketers across channels. Brafton recently reported that 70 percent of companies have substantial customer data available, but they struggle to use that data to inform web marketing efforts.
Consumer-packaged goods companies should tailor their content to ideal audiences. The report found that just 36 percent of exposure for the measured content reached up to 98 percent of American households they were developed for. Essentially, marketers are struggling to put their content in the right channels or deliver at the times likely to reach their target audiences.
However, Catalina also found that part of the problem could be a poor understanding of the audiences likely to purchase some items. The study found 53 percent of sales came from demographics beyond those the companies were targeting.
The general takeaway, according to Catalina, is that marketers should avoid targeting demographics based on their size and focus on the value each group offers a brand. As new media marketing efforts of all kinds continue to become preferred methods for businesses, companies such as Google and Facebook are looking to develop new metrics that show value in terms of reach and visibility on the web. For example, companies using Google, whether for paid search or SEO, received some help in the form of the Brand Activate Initiative.
