Niche Messaging

How focused is your messaging on niches? When you communicate with your audience, are you still spraying and praying, or have you taken personalization and 1-to-1 to heart and directed your messaging to a specific core?

The Power of Personalization Study was released today by the CMO Council. You can get a free copy of the Executive Summary here (registration required). The report says that, "Marketers are still missing the mark on how to leverage and utilize data, and because of this they are unable to realize the full potential of personalization tools, services and solutions."

Although the study also found that, "The new emphasis and importance of individualized lifecycle marketing techniques is escalating as companies see the impact, differentiation, loyalty and word-of-mouth results of customized communication. [And]...56 percent of marketers believe personal communications out-performs traditional mass market delivery; digital, database-driven channels (email, web, contact centers) reportedly offer the most upside potential for engaging in customized communications[.]"

Given the fact that data remains a challenge, there are ways to iterate your marketing toward individualized activities. The thing is, you've got to start somewhere, because if you wait until all your data is perfect, then you'll be waiting a long time, and missing a lot of opportunities.

One of the best things you can do to begin trying to segment smarter is to create personas by analyzing your ideal customers. From there you can choose to segment by industry and by role. If you have to choose only one, choose role. You are marketing to people first.

Then break it down to industry and role. Attention is focused differently based on responsibilities. Industry can affect the way a solution is leveraged or the priority it holds in the overall company strategy, so check for triggering events.

When you think about roles, don't forget there are levels of roles. One level is the person's functional role within the organization and another is their influence on the buying process. A manager may make the purchase decision, but if the end user's input can carry a lot of weight.

In analyzing the audience for a communication, think about their perspective on the topic. Points you would highlight for one audience are not the same in importance for another. Where a technical audience wants feeds and speeds, a managerial audience wants business impact, for example.

If you develop content around a particular topic, knowing which points carry weight with which segment will help you develop a set of communications that hits the mark with each group. On the other hand, sending the same messaging to the entire audience, regardless of individual perspective, is potentially wasting attention that you may not get another chance to catch.

Comments

[Chris McCrory]

Nice post about niche messaging. I have found that by creating content from various perspectives you can communicate a consistent message targeted to a specific group. Even if that group is only one person.

[Ardath Albee]

Thanks, Chris!

And it's that consistency that works. By creating continuity with your message focus, you have a better shot at generating a dialog of connected interactions that builds momentum.

Ardath