The way you reach audiences ..... depends on who your trying to reach. Everyone thinks Search Engines is the answer - but it's just another way of reaching people and in many cases, is just the first step to reach people.
As an example, all of my architectural house plan clients got most of their traffic from keyword searches on the name of the architect and the age of the people primarily coming to the site was Gen X or Aging Baby Boomer's. What channels should you use? It's not just about search, that's my point - it's about the every touch-point and there's a good post about that in MarketingPilgrim today.
""To plan effective integrated campaigns, marketers must start with search and layer on site messaging in the media that resonate with target consumers: buzz, blogs, and banners for Gen Yers, deep search and word of mouth for Gen Xers, print and product packaging for Boomer's, and the written word for Seniors," writes Charlene Li, principal analyst at Forrester."
The Forrester Report focuses on age factors but you can expand beyond that:
For Gen Y, age 18 to 26, the most common methods for finding a site are word of mouth from friends, and links from blogs. Surprisingly, Gen Yers also click on banners more often than other generations. Gen Xers, besides being prolific users of search, are best reached by "pass-along" media, including word of mouth and e-mail.
Young Boomer's, age 41 to 50, and Older Boomer's, age 51 to 61, are fond of print media, and are most likely to visit sites they find in print ads, or on product labels. In addition, about 30 percent of Boomer's said they had visited a site they heard about in a news story. Seniors spend less time with media than other groups, but the time they do spend is most often spent with print media like newspapers or magazines. They are also more likely than other groups to type in a URL directly, or to visit sites recommended by friends or family.
My Architect client, using Quantcast data - shows an audience skew like this (below). What do you think the right channels to market to his group are?
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Male 65%, Female 35%
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25-34 yrs 38%, 35-44% 27%, 45-54 19%
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60-100K income - 51%, 100K+ 25%
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Caucasian 87%
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60% have attended college or grad school
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