I am a strong proponent of defining your target audience. If you don't know who you are communicating with, how will you be able to do it effectively? Jupiter Communications' (www.jup.com) survey backs up my claims.

What Difference Does Behaviorism Make?
I'm sure almost everyone has heard the phrase features vs. benefits. The entire premise behind this statement is that you must tell the audience what's in it for them. How, if you don't know their concerns, their hopes and their needs, are you going to define benefits that will make a difference to your target customer?

The difference between demographics and behaviorism is that one tells you the basics and the other tells you the details. Demographics let you know that your customer is a man employed in upper management who is 45 years old, has 2 children and makes approximately $50,000 per year.

Behaviorism tells you that, because he's a man, he is compelled by information-type ads. (If he were a she, she would most likely respond to animation or sound.) It also tells you that he's burned out on corporate politics, having a mid-life crisis, can't being to think of how he's going to pay for college for 2 kids and is in bad need of a raise! Now… which profile do you think you could communicate more effectively with? The demographic or the behavior? (It's a rhetorical question!)

Target Everything About Your Advertising
People hear the phrase "target marketing" and "target audience" all the time. But do you understand how extremely important those phrases are to the success of your marketing campaign? You simply must, MUST know your target audience.

When you communicate with them through advertising, you absolutely have to be able to address their fears, their problems and their concerns with a solution. They want to know what's in it for them. If you don't understand what they need, you simply can't answer that question.

Targeted advertising increases sales!

When you create an advertising piece, especially online, every aspect should reach out and grab your target customer. This means the copy (especially), the design, the colors, the photos, the graphics, the packaging (if applicable), the ordering process… absolutely everything.

Segmenting Your Broad Market
One trouble that often plaques businesses is the fact that their target audience is so broad. If that is the case with your company, try segmenting the market and appealing to each segment's behavioral traits.

For example: perhaps you're a Real Estate agent. You need a Web site and want to appeal to several segments of the Real Estate market. What can you do to incorporate the behavioral traits and other preferences of so many people?

Divide your site into smaller areas specifically targeted to each segment. You might choose to have a link on your home page that says "Need to sell your home? Click here!" In that section you can speak specifically to the needs and concerns of home sellers. (Who are usually women!)

Another area might be directed toward home buyers. These people want lots and lots of information, including pictures. Be sure to give it to them along with some articles dealing with hiring a moving company, transferring your utilities to a new address and how to prepare children for a new school. Get it? Major decisions require lots of information.

Keep Focused On the Customer
Above all, keep focused on your customers and their needs. Resist the temptation to use your favorite shade of pink as a primary color in your Web design if your customers are mostly men. Remember that you can choose to include an optional flash presentation within your site if you're dealing mostly with women. And always, always address your target market's concerns and needs with benefit-oriented copy.

By combining the information within the 3 parts of this series, you can truly make your online advertising more powerful… and more readily received by your customers.

***The initial survey (about which I have written this commentary) was conducted by Jupiter (www.jup.com), a worldwide authority on Internet commerce.

About the Author:
Karon is Owner and President of KT & Associates who offers targeted copywriting, copy editing & ghostwriting services. Subscribe to KT & Associates' Ezine "Business Essentials" at BusinessEssentials-subscribe@topica.com or visit her site at http://www.ktamarketing.com

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