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Moving communication campaigns into action |
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If in doubt, get targeting 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. Over the past two weeks I have had meetings with several clients, associates and friends who are working on new marketing communications materials. And in nearly every case there has been the same problem. It goes something like this. I ask them who their new marketing materials will be aimed at. And they reply 'everyone'. That's not to say everyone on the planet. But they do mean that the materials need to have a very broad appeal. For example, a company selling its products and services to end users and distributors is looking to produce a brochure that would be suitable for both types of customer. In another case, someone looking to gain commercial sponsorship is producing a brochure that is intended to be read by potential lead sponsors who will need to spend many thousands of pounds and small businesses who would only spend a few hundred. The reason that this approach can be a problem is that it is very difficult to write marketing materials that appeal to a wide range of readers. As a result, you can end up playing it safe, leaving out specific information to avoid the risk of confusing sections of the readership. Different groups might have different problems and they might be looking for different information. By trying to appeal to everyone, you can end up appealing to no-one. Despite this, there is a tendency for us to send the same information to quite different groups. Even I am guilty of this. Just look at Marketing Booster. It's for marketing professionals AND business owners, potentially two very different groups in terms of experience, the type of marketing they do and so on. Maybe It would be better if I ran two e-newsletters; one for each type of reader. So I would urge you to consider the possibility of targeting your marketing communications wherever possible. As an example, I have been working on a project in recent months for a client company in a business-to-business market. They used to produce one brochure to explain their product range. When we looked at producing a new brochure it became clear that they have two very different types of client who can be easily defined by their job title or company sector. We have now created two brochures instead of one. Even though the products they feature are the same, they are described in completely different ways. Each brochure focuses on the needs of the respective customer types and explains how the products can be used by each type. We believe this will reap benefits as the brochures are used through the next year. Ultimately, the decision about whether you can take a similar approach will come down to resources, in terms of time and budget. But it might be worth investing a little extra if it means you can provide information that people will always find relevant, hopefully creating more interest and sales as a result. Copyright 2004 Richard Groom |