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Moving communication campaigns into action |
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How can you get your messages through the marketing 'noise'? Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. There is growing media and government interest these days in 'marketing noise'. People are bombarded with messages from marketers. TV adverts, direct mail, billboards, emails, text messages, faxes, posters . . . hundreds or thousands of messages each day. If you want to take a step back for a moment and consider how you can get your messages through the noise, go back to a simple question: what is marketing? The best answer I know is the one that a friend of mine always gives. He says that 'marketing is customer satisfaction'. In other words, meeting your customers' needs. So good marketers make sure the right product is made available to the right people, at the right time and in the right place. Now extend that to marketing communications. If your marketing communication policy at the moment is to send general information to lots of people then you aren't meeting anyone's needs. Most people are receiving information that is irrelevant to them. And the few who are interested aren't getting enough information, because by trying to appeal to everyone you aren't being specific enough for your real target audience. So what if you worked harder to meet people's needs - not just in service delivery, but in the communications too? What if you tried harder to send relevant messages to the right people, in a way that suits them and at a time and place they want them. Let's look at what that means from a practical point of view. Here is a quick fictional scenario as an example: * An IT hardware supplier has been sending mail shots that list all of its services to its database of 2,000 local companies for the past two years. The supplier wants to grow its business and feels that its mail shots are not as successful as they would like. * The supplier now works on its database of prospective customers, calling people to clarify their IT hardware usage. As a first step, it identifies 250 companies that are heavy users of desktop laser printers, the supply of which is potentially a very profitable area. * The supplier develops a series of mail shots that deal specifically with ways to reduce the cost of laser printing. The mail shots include hints and tips, mini case studies and product updates. Each time they send a mail shot they include a pre-paid card which people can return if they no longer wish to receive the information. People can also use the card to register for similar information on other products. * The supplier makes sure they don't send irrelevant information about products like small-scale inkjet printing to these people. * Result? The companies appreciate the relevant information they receive and are glad that they no longer receive general mail shots with lots of irrelevant offers. The supplier is positioning itself as an expert in laser printing supply and maintenance - and developing relationships with people. You can probably think of more ways that our fictional company could provide its target of 250 companies with relevant information. (I'd love to hear any ideas you have, by the way. If a few of you send them to me I'll build up a case study that includes them all and share it with everyone who's contributed.) So is there any scope for applying this stuff in your own work? How can you better target your marketing materials? How can you make sure you supply relevant information to people? It's not easy. It takes lots of thought and hard work. But the chances are, you'll get better results by being relevant than by being irrelevant. A real life example to finish with. * I bought a DVD player a year ago for 79 pounds. Since then, the manufacturer's service company have sent me THREE invitations to buy an extended warranty for 99 pounds. So they want me to pay more for the warranty than the DVD player cost. * Somewhere, they need to concentrate on what's relevant, because sending irrelevant information is costing them money and costing them credibility too. Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |