How Did This Year's Programs Perform?
Now is a great time to reflect…
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part
3
If you haven't been asked to answer this question, make sure you take the time
to determine the answer anyway. As budgets are prepared for the next year, many
marketing managers are taking a hard look at results. Even if you don't have
prior numbers to compare to, do you know which programs performed well, which
did not, and why?
Let's start by taking a look at the three things that can make or break any
marketing program:
- Market segmentation - the target you are trying to reach
- The Message - what are you selling
- The Offer - the call to action
This three-part series will focus on how each of the above impacts the success
of your marketing program. The first component, market segmentation, creates
the foundation for your entire marketing program.
Market Segmentation
When was the last time you really took a look at you target market for a marketing
program? Were you just handed a list of markets to focus on, or did you really
take a look at the target and identify a real need for your solution? And, when
was the last time your mailing list was scrubbed?
End users are savvy these days and are privy to many of our approaches. They
take less than three (3) seconds to look at a message and determine whether
it is something that will help them. So, as marketers, we are now up against
buyers who know the drill, and really want to know the answer to only one question:
Will this "solution" help me in my job? And the word "me"
is an important operative in the question.
2-4 Digit SIC Codes Don't Cut It
The days of casting a big net to spread broad messages to a broad audience
are no longer working. If you are relying on using 2 to 4 digit SIC codes as
a primary way to "select" your targets, your programs will become
too broad to answer the important question above. You need to dig deeper into
the nuances of each vertical market. Marketers who are creating narrowly focused
targets find the return on their marketing dollars is increasing.
Developing a Highly Focused Target Audience
Marketers need to get more specific. And, I mean much more specific than broadly
brushed business problems and solutions. To start, you need a fine-tuned contact
list of targets.
- Look at the past.
a. What types of companies have purchased your systems to date?
b. Who participates on the buying team? Identify each function who is involved.
c. Who has responded to your programs before? Record the titles with the offer.
d. Who is downloading information off the web site (besides competitors…)?
- Telemarketing
When you want to develop a new audience or target, telemarketing can be an
invaluable, low cost approach to developing this target. Once you have identified
a market that has a need for your solution, you can set up a telemarketer
to focus on identifying real contacts at a specific company. This may sound
like a lot of time, but it works and will save money in the long run as you
won't have to deal with such issues as bad addresses, inappropriate titles,
misspelled names, and postage for each mistake. It all adds up.
- Segment your list even more
Capture as much information as possible for each contact and make sure you
can create multiple lists from a master list. Functional titles (i.e., purchasing,
finance, etc.) and industries (i.e., automotive, electronics) are important
search criteria when pulling a list together. Separate out functional titles
and markets that do not have anything in common when developing a target market
list.
Less is More
One-to-one relationship marketing has been a topic for discussion that makes
a lot of sense on the surface, but it seems almost impossible to actually accomplish.
It means appealing to the "me" in the question above. How do
you build a 1-1 relationship with one contact at a time? Well, narrowing your
target audience is the first step in executing to this level of marketing performance.
This is especially true in those markets that have large subsegments, like
manufacturing. By focusing on what makes each subsegment different vs. alike,
you have a better chance of honing in on a business issue that is not widely
addressed by other technology providers in the market.
In fact, a smaller audience will yield a higher program return if it is targeted
properly. I realize there are fewer economies of scale when you are marketing
to 10,000 contacts vs. 1,000, but the waste and expense in the 10,000 will be
far greater. Reach the mass audiences using lower cost methods, such as public
relations. But, when it comes to marketing campaigns, less is always more.
Stay tuned for next month's article that will talk about how
focused messaging plays an integral role in program success.
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