Drill down. Keep drilling. Little bit more…Gold!

In marketing, you have to know who you audience is before you can speak to them. For us, that often means developing personas that incorporate professional and personal traits and behaviors. Drilling down is vital to this process. It helps eliminate all those people who aren’t good prospects or customers and focuses your efforts.

On Wired.com, Mike Isaac reports on Google Map’s Tuesday launch of an intense drilling down of a different nature: Google Maps 6.0 for Android (boo for Apple users). Google Maps now offers indoor mapping of some indoor and public service structures. Now, not only can you find detailed maps of your favorite neighborhoods — and those you dream of visiting — but you can also navigate the interiors of buildings like airports and department stores. (I personally hope parking garages are on the to-map list.)

This new interior-mapping capability is a good analogy for how really drilling down on who your audience is can get you exactly where you want to go. In the case of Google Maps, that might mean finding the handbag department at Bloomingdale’s or the Southwest Airlines ticketing counter at Indianapolis International Airport. We’re not scratching the surface. We’re finding out exactly where to go.

If you have a firm grip on who your audiences are — and you probably have a few audiences — you should know the different tones to use to speak to them and which communication media they use. You should know their values, fears, hobbies and motivations.

These little details help you give your audience members what they need. They also help you feel more comfortable marketing to them. By drilling down on your buyers and potential buyers as a foundational tactic, you can approach any marketing initiative from the perspective of, “Here we need to talk to Audience A. So it makes sense to do B.” You are never starting from scratch.

It’s not too late to drill down and it’s smart to revisit your audience personas to adjust them as things within your company, the market and your community shift. Keep drilling, and you might find gold.