The Importance of Being Online and Knowing Your Audience

Today, in class, Professor Pat Curtin discussed the importance of being online and knowing your market audience well. As a student, I thought It was pretty straight-forward and simple to find out who the target audience and how to market to them

First and foremost, if a company doesn’t have an online presence, it is impossible to get a sense of the psychographics and online feedback. Companies need to engage consumers and audiences through social media. Social media opens up the opportunity for companies and their audiences to communicate. By creating an online presence the company will get a better sense of whom they are marketing to.

Caddis Fly Shop is a fly-fishing supply and lesson store in Oregon. At first, Caddis had a static website that didn’t allow consumers and customers to interact online. Realizing the problems with a static website, Caddis created an interactive website that allowed customers to post questions and comments, view instructional videos and participate in social media conversations.

From this online presence, Caddis realized that many of their customers were not fly-fisherman, but young women. Teenage and college women were coming into the store to buy feathers, which were becoming a fashion trend. Caddis was able to change their strategies to match the new target audience demands and the needs of the traditional audience.

The key message? Don’t assume that your product or service is targeted at a specific demographic and use social media to ensure you are reaching the correct target audience.