April 15, 2005

Successful businesses start with a marketing plan that details exactly where the company wants to be in terms of revenue within three to five years. The plan also needs to explain how it will get there.

An articulated communications strategy, including marketing and public relations, is responsible for building the awareness and credibility that lead to sales needed to reach those business objectives.

Any successful communications program has three basic ingredients – positioning, awareness, and third-party credibility. Communications programs require strategic alignment with business goals to ensure that the right messages are reaching the right audiences.

While market influencers such as the press and analyst communities are receptive to broader corporate messages, to be successful you must also incorporate narrowly and specifically tailored messages to key customer and partner targets. We refer to the recipients of broad messages as “macrotargets” and the recipients of narrow messages as “micro-targets.”

Macro-targeting is the approach to business communications with which most people are familiar. Macro-targets are media, analysts, and other broadly based market influencers who can validate your business model, enabling the generation of a high level of awareness for your company. Your business receives the important third-party credibility that comes through coverage of your messages in various publishing outlets (such as magazines, analyst reports, briefings).

Establishing a positive reputation in the market is the first step to generating sales leads. Remember, the goal with macro-targeting is to build confidence in your company, making it easier to get in the door with sales prospects, partners, etc. People do business with those they know and trust.

Yet keep in mind that these messages may be too broad for the specific contacts that form your business development target base. You need to add micro-targeting to your corporate messaging and positioning strategy when looking for an introduction to a specific business entity for the purpose of developing partnerships, prospecting for customers, or seeking investment.

Micro-targeting is the strategy that focuses on specific people, companies, and organizations that can more immediately affect revenue enhancement and overall success. This enables you to go beyond high-level messaging and provide important information to a focused audience with the goal of facilitating business meetings.

All businesses thrive on capital, customers, and partners. These three things drive revenue. This is where micro-targeted messages become essential. They answer the question “Why?”: Why invest in us? Why buy from us? Why work together?

Develop messages that show specific synergies between your company and the target audience in question. That means taking the macro-level messaging you may use for public relations purposes and concentrate it for the narrow segment of prospects that will help you drive your company’s revenues.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you have to use macro-targeted and micro-targeted communications together. If you generate media placements, you’re already on track with macro-targeting.

Getting to the meeting stage with those that can help you meet your capital, customer, and partnership goals requires close attention to micro-targeted messaging. Context is everything.

Contextualize your business proposition with what you know of your prospect’s business. Reaching the media with macro-level messages gives you general credibility, and delivering your PR results to your sales prospects on an ongoing basis gives weight to your micro-targeted messages.

Source: B2B Marketing Trends