Recent trends have shifted the marketing model from STP – segmentation, targeting, and positioning – back to that of mass marketing. The publication and success of Byron Sharp’s book, How Brands Grow, has shown a wide range of different concepts for mass marketing, thanks to a mixture of data and case studies. While the approaches in this are sound and make the case for many companies, businesses should be wary about throwing out their targeted marketing campaigns for mass marketing.
The Case for Target Marketing
As people and technology change, so do their tastes and habits. Take the closing of major chains like Blockbuster, Kodak, Radio Shack, and Borders – these businesses were caught in a digital shift that saw many of their business and sales models move online and against competitors who met this new technical emergence. One of the reasons these giants failed was by not meeting the demands or interests of their customers.
At Change3, we’ve dealt with several B2B clients who had previously been doing mass marketing to their clientele, but they weren’t gaining any traction in terms of results. They may have hit some of their target market, but in many cases they were hitting outside of their circle. Our team looked at their marketing strategy and instead focused on targeted segmentation by following this process:
- Identifying and emphasizing their target markets. For example, a 2014 McKinsey study discovered that targeted online marketing resulted in a 25% increase in email conversions and a 60% increase in on-site conversions.
- Aligning their content to these targeted markets. We saw an engagement increase by 200% when we aligned a client’s newsletter to better match their target market.
- Optimizing their social media outreach. To go with the above, we used content and images from the new newsletter design to promote on their social media. The new design also increased engagement by 200%.
- Adjusting their paid advertising. We adjusted the paid advertising for another one of our clients, which increased both their website and social media visits, from between 0 and 29 website visits at the beginning of the year, to over 350 at the summer mark.
- Updating their website and social media to reflect these markets. As with the above, our client saw an increase in both visitors and followers, from a total of 0 engaged followers on Facebook to well over 1300 by the start of summer.
What each of these did was find who the optimal targets were for these companies, whether it be business leaders in technology or a designated city within a certain state; by identifying and emphasizing markets, we were able to pinpoint and understand their customer base, which led to being able to align their online content to that base.
For social media, we used target marketing to find their ideal customer base and used their posts to encourage engagement with those segments. The result was an increase in traffic to both social media platforms and their websites, which we also updated to modern standards.
While mass marketing can be fine for larger enterprises, such as Mars or Coca-Cola, other companies may not have the budget or resources to just focus on a scatter shot of marketing; not only does this take time, but it can also waste money with no valuable ROI. By targeting your customer base, you’re actually reaching out to customers that your competition hasn’t thought to target, which can not only put you ahead but can help you develop new offerings and products.
