1. Define your target market. Specific campaigns need to be directed to specific demographics. You can create a simple spreadsheet to break it down.
a. First note which geographic areas you will target.
b. Now break down which age group you will market to – Traditional Workers, Baby Boomers, Gen Y’s, Gen X’s , and/or Millennials.
c. Now within each of those larger groups decide what sub groups you will market to – male, female, vets, students, retirees, etc.

2. The breakdown of the subgroups becomes a starting point for you to create a mini marketing campaign within your larger campaign. Use the breakdown to calculate rough percentages in numbers of potential marketing contacts you will make for each subgroup. Compare this to the entire marketing group. This will help you in allocating both your resources and budget available to market to each subgroup.

3. Traditional Workers and Baby Boomers want to be contacted via the phone, by mail, or by fax or through other traditional media such as written publications or TV. Use a company like Vistaprint for postcard campaigns and a company like Accelero for Broadcast faxing. Marketing to these groups may be more expensive.

4. Gen Y, Gen X, and Millennials rely more on social media. Consider Twitter, Constant Contact for broadcast e-mailing, and Facebook.

5. Within each larger group assess other ways you can market to other subgroups. Targeting specific associations or media that a specific subgroup uses is important. Targeting retired people through AARP publications might work best, while targeting Vets through VeteransToday.com might be best. Each targeted media has different limitations such as cost or limited audience.

Next Up – Specific concerns with marketing plans