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If you love listening or reading horror stories on the internet, then you might have heard scary accounts of people seeing someone that looks exactly like them on the street. German folklore called these look-alikes “Doppelgangers.”

 

But what do Doppelgangers have to do with digital marketing? What does an ancient horror story have to do with modern-day marketing?

 

Just like evil sorcerers in some horror myths that create evil look-alike of people, marketers also create what is called “similar audiences” that they use to widen their range of potential audiences based on their current customer profiles.

 


 

The Myth Of Doppelgangers And “Spirit Doubles”

Account of Doppelgangers, or “spirit doubles” as they are generally termed, have been spotted in many different cultures around the world.

 

According to ancient origins.net:

 

The mythology of spirit doubles can be traced back thousands of years and was present in many cultures of the past, holding a prominent place in ancient legends, stories, artworks, and in books by various authors.

In many cultures, seeing a spirit doubles are a sign of bad omen, often associated with death and misfortune. Paranormal enthusiasts warn against interacting with spirit doubles because of their often evil nature.

 

 

German author Jean Paul was the first to use the word “doppelganger” in his 1796 novel Siebenkäs and has become a popular term worldwide.

 


 

Creating Doppelgangers In Marketing

In marketing, the concept of “doppelgangers” don’t have any ominous origin or back-story.

“look-alike modeling” is a marketing strategy that works by creating profiles of people who act similar to a brand’s current customer base. It’s a marketing strategy that utilises a large amount of both online and offline data across a wide timeline and an intricate algorithm created by a Data Management Platform (DMP) to come up with an accurate profile of like-minded audiences who are likely to buy the brand’s products and services.

 

Since brands need to grow their customer base in order to compete in an ever-changing marketplace where there is tight competition, the need to increase brand awareness and to target audiences that are likely to buy into a brand’s offer is a crucial objective of brand marketing. That’s why creating similar audience profiles is a delicate mixture that could make or break a brand’s marketing effort.

 


 

Tips On Creating Effective Similar Audience Profiles

Creating similar audience profiles is a delicate process that requires a lot of planning and filtering in order to get core behaviours traits that coudl potentially affect a customer’s purchasing decisions.

 

If you’re looking to create an effective portfolio of similar audience profiles, here are some tips we can offer:

 

1. Accumulate Lots of data

Since creating similar audiences requires knowing a customer’s purchasing behaviours, shopping patterns, likes and dislikes, and specific interests, this means that you’ll need a large amount of data to create an accurate picture of similar audiences.

 

Accumulating data of your customers will help you find similarities and interests that may have led to them purchasing your brand’s products and could be a key factor to finding others who have a similar interest. The more data you gather, the more accurate and the likely the chance you’ll have an effective similar audience profile.

 

2. Only define vital traits and attributes

Because similar audiences use an algorithm to capture similar audiences based on traits you feed to the data management program, it’s important to only put in variables that are vital to your customer’s purchase patterns.

 

While this will result in a smaller similar audience profile, you can ensure that you have a quality similar audience profile that will yield a higher chance of closing a sale. You can just re-calibrate your similar audience profile later on when you have a better brand reach and a larger customer base.

 

3. Split test your similar audience profiles

Lastly, you can further optimise your campaign by making sure that your targeting similar audiences that are responding to your campaign.

 

Since similar audience profiles are created through a systematic algorithm based on variables set by you, it means that there is a chance that your similar audience profile is not yet fine-tuned and will not give you the most efficient similar audience profile that is likely to engage with your brand’s image. To make it more fine-tuned and optimised, it’s good to split test each profile and see which of them will result in higher engagement and audience attention.

 

 


 

Time To Create Your Audience Doppelgangers

Increasing your brand’s image is no longer as easy as it once was before the age of digital marketing and globalisation. With competitors appearing from across the globe, it’s crucial that you’re targeting audiences that have a likely chance of being a follower of your brand rather than a shotgun style of brand marketing.

 

Creating similar audience profiles and optimising your marketing efforts to reach the right kind of audiences is a tough job and requires special knowledge of digital marketing and audience profile creation. For tough jobs like these, it’s wise to hire a competent SEO team to help you increase your brand’s audience.

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