Target A List Audience

Grow Smart With Targeted “A” List Marketing

Target A List Audience

At some point in their growth cycle, most companies learn through trial and error that not every paying customer will generate a positive impact on their business. Growth in the wrong direction can cause any business to stall or even regress. Smart, sustainable business development requires targeted marketing aimed at your most profitable customers in order to attract more of them. This is called finding and marketing to your “A List”, which involves strategically crafting services and messaging around the specific needs of your most ideal clients.

How to Identify Your A List 

Start by mining your existing customer list for the types of businesses that make the most profitable purchases or have the potential to make them. For a manufacturer, that could be a repeat customer that puts in the most lucrative product orders with the most reasonable turnaround demands. For a B2B service-oriented business, that would likely be the type of customer that signs up for a continuous program or contract. While we hope your most profitable clients are the ones spending the most with you, that may not always be the case. There are instances where your biggest customer may strain your resources, leaving you with a razor thin profit margin, in which case you don’t actually want more customers with similar orders. Even if you you consider yourself a “one-stop-shop” for a variety of industries and applications, identify customers who purchase the products and services with the highest profit margins.

Those customers are your A List. The rest of your customer list may still provide some business, and there’s nothing wrong with continuing to serve their needs when those less ideal customers find you, but your marketing resources should be primarily devoted to campaigns aimed at the top tier. The idea of targeted marketing isn’t to shrink business, it’s to grow in the most profitable areas with the most cost-effective strategy.

Use Targeted Marketing to Grow Your A List

When we retool messaging, recalibrate your Adwords strategy, or venture into new digital spaces in ways designed to reach your most profitable customers, not only do you keep those existing high-value customers engaged, more of the same tier will start to find you. By contrast, a business that directs resources towards less desirable customers will become swamped by their least-profitable customers and stunted in their ability to provide exceptional services to the customers they want the most of. That strategy not only drains business resources, it can damage your brand in the eyes of your A List.

A successful A List marketing strategy focuses on connecting and reconnecting with those specific businesses. Potential tactics could be as simple as sending your A List a targeted email campaign pertaining to the specific products or services they want, or offering them a referral discount. This is the easiest, least exclusionary way to market to your A List. Other tactics may involve retooling the aesthetics of your website and social media presence to reach your ideal customer. If your A List is a bulk-buying budget conscious customer, a minimalist, no-nonsense website makeover could be more appealing to them. When your A List is comprised of individuals with advanced degrees, taking an elevated tone to your messaging will likely give you more credibility in their eyes. These types of tweaks may not be appealing to D and C List customers, but it’s ok to allow your targeted marketing to filter out those who won’t benefit the long-term growth and viability of your business. As a matter of fact, that’s the point.

For more information on how to reach your A List and letting go of the customers you don’t need, connect with our team of marketing experts via the Contact page.


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Outsourced Marketing - Disciplines in One Central Location

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Outsourced marketing is when a single firm assumes responsibility for your marketing functions. That might include market and brand research, strategy, sales, public relations, web marketing, and even media printing. An example of outsourced marketing includes telemarketing from companies like SalesFish, who are able to achieve sales over the phone for businesses. However, not all marketing strategies are the same. Not all outsource marketers will have the same structure, so what specific services should you look for in a firm in order to really be effective?

Core Areas of Marketing:

  • Advertising
  • Public Relations
  • Website Development & Usability
  • Social Media Management
  • Sales & Promotion
  • Brand Positioning and Strategy
  • Competitive Analysis

Additionally, some of the advantages of utilizing an outsource firm are the same as if you hired in-house. Streamlining internal processes can be just as important as external image and PR management. Depending on the scope of the services you purchase with a company, an outsourced firm can aid in the following internal needs:

  • Revising/editing Internal communications
  • Sales Process and Script development
  • Hiring Strategies and Talent Acquisition
  • Automation and Digital Tool Suggestions

Using an outsourced marketing company provides an experienced team of specialists in an area of business most owners don’t have an extensive background in. Conveniently, an outsourced marketing company can be scaled to suit projects of any size and scope at a lower cost than hiring and training an internal source. Ideally, enlisting an outsourced marketing firm allows an organization to explore and fully utilize targeted analysis of objectives, connected with the tactical distribution of resources, all focused on meeting a company’s goals as effectively and efficiently as possible. However, it comes down to the team your working with. When seeking out help with your marketing, we recommend connecting with a firm and looking into exactly what services they provide to ensure that they will be a good fit for your needs. Not all firms have the same specialties or will be willing to provide the same services as others, and it’s important to learn exactly what your chosen firm will be responsible for before striking up a working relationship.

We wish you the best of luck in exploring new marketing options in 2016!

To learn more about Outsourced Marketing call or visit us online at https://360direct.com/programs/.