Marketing Today

Targeting Your Market: The Shotgun v. Rifleshot Approach

Would you educate a marketing director on how to manage software engineers?  Would you e-mail a marketing director about an exciting new accounts payable position that requires no relocation?  If you asked someone if they were happy with the way their money was being managed and they said "yes", would you ask for their business card so that you could contact him/her any way?

Hopefully, you answered "no" to all of these questions.  Unfortunately, for me, these are all examples of real scenarios I've gotten myself into over the last month.  It's amazing to me that with all of the focus on the bottom line, that people are wasting so much time by not qualifying their audiences before they plow right into their pitch while their audience is spending their time plotting an escape plan.

Shotgun v. Rifle shot Approach

I know that the shotgun v. rifle shot approach to targeting your market is at least 20 years old, but should the people pitching me on things that I don't want take the step of checking out my blog to learn more about me, here's how it works.

The Shotgun Approach - a shotgun covers a wide range in a haphazard or ineffective manner with the hope that something will hit the target.  Examples of shotgun marketing include cold calling, bulk mailings, banner advertising on big with random visitors and e-mail spam.

The Rifle shot Approach-  a rifle brings things into focus so that you can take aim before pulling the trigger.  Taking the time at a trade show to ask a few questions of the person you are speaking with to see if they have any interest in what you're selling is rifle shot marketing.  Other examples would be use of targeted ad words, buying qualified lists for a direct mail, or conducting public relations to a small group of publications who share the same audience as you.

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, both the shotgun approach and the rifle shot approach have their place in the marketing mix.  For most of us, it's best to take a more targeted approach when we are marketing our products and services so that we aren't driving away an audience that is uninterested.  It's bad for a company's reputation and it's just ineffective use of marketing resources.  Once you've driven someone off, it's hard to get a second chance to make another impression.

Making Marketing Mischief with the Stainfighters

Did you ever attend a dinner party at someone's house and manage to stain a few things while you were there?  This happened to my friend Nina who was mortified when she thought she'd smeared some blueberry pie right into a mint green cloth napkin at a recent dinner party at my house.  She e-mailed me first thing the next morning to say "Thank you and I'm sorry."  I wasn't really that concerned, but since she felt so bad, I started a load of laundry immediately and we had a little fun with the situation.

Making Marketing Mischief with the Stainfighters

I should mention that Nina is not just my neighbor and friend, but she's also an IT consultant and a marketing geek like me.  By 7:56 a.m. she started tweeting:

@NinaLytton:  can anyone advise @cgunst on how to get blueberry pie stains out of cloth napkins? the culprit would appreciate forwarding

No answer from any of the 45 million plus on Twitter, so I just applied some laundry detergent directly to the tablecloth and dropped it into the washing machine.  Voila!  Stain was gone and I tweeted back at 10:19 a.m:

@NinaLytton After pretreating cloth napkins with All laundry detergent http://bit.ly/kUicp all blueberry stains gone. Ur worries are over.

What surprised us both is that even after I mentioned the name of the detergent with a link to their page, still no one joined our silly, stainfighting conversation.  This got us both wondering how many organizations are actually tracking the conversations about their products online.  While we read about the ones who are, we're guessing there are an awful lot of others out there who are not a part - good or bad - of the customer conversation. 

What about you?  Are you tracking your customer conversations?  If not, why not?  Do you just not understand social media so you are avoiding communication with your customers online?  I hope that's not the case.

Paperie for Inspired Living (Because Sometimes Electronic Just Won't Do)

As much as I love marketing with all of the electronic methods available to me (e-mail, blogs, websites, SEO, etc.), sometimes paper is just the way to go.  It's abundant, inexpensive, and these days a creative mail piece stands out and provides a tangible keepsake that an e-mail just can't do.

What's got me thinking about paper?  Well, I got my hands on a new book called Paperie for Inspired Living that really inspired me.  Karen Bartolomei, owner of a Boston-based business called Grapevine Paperie, has written a book that brings her design secrets for creating unique stationery and decorations to the rest of us.  This 160-page book provides all sorts of ideas (and templates) for making events more special.  And, it's guaranteed to kick start your creativity the way it did mine.

The Experience Doesn't End When the Invitation is Received

Whether you are creating a holiday party, planning a wedding, or throwing a birthday bash, this book recommends creating a "paperie suite" with a creative theme that weaves through everything from the invitations to the guest book to the thank you notes.  This way, the event experience lives on after the invitation is received in the mail.

Inspiration Is Everywhere

Karen Bartholmei says that inspiration for your events can come from graffiti on the side of a building to celebrity fashion on a red carpet to a rural landscape.  It's for you to translate your inspiration into your own design based on what you'd like to convey to your guests.  The materials and design elements you chose will reinforce the theme whatever your budget.

Tips, Tips, and More Tips

Along with the ideas and the templates, this book offers some great tips for entertaining.  Beyond creating a signature cocktail for your event, there is some great advice on the art of being a gracious host.  I liked simple tips on suggesting the dress code for your guests so that they are comfortable and the reminder on how to be ready for your guests whether they come early or late.

Ready to Get Out Your Glue Gun and Rubber Stamp?

Paperie for Inspired Living costs $24.95 and has been available in bookstores and online book retailers since July, 2009.  If you don't pick it up for yourself, then give it as a gift.  Chances are the next event that you're invited to from the gift recipient will be extra special thanks to you.

Gravity Summit Brings Social Media Crowd Together at Harvard

Yesterday, the Gravity Summit was held at the Harvard Faculty in Cambridge, MA.  What a fantastic collection of social media rock stars from hip hop legend MC Hammer to wine guy Gary Vaynerchuk to Domino's pizza man Ramon de Leon who showed us all how social media is done right. 

The seminar focus  was on how to use new social media tools - blogs, wikis, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, online video, and social networks for customer engagement.  Top social media experts Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford took the audience through a full day of information, case studies, special guest speakers, and networking. 

I watched most of the conference online as it was streaming live on CNN throughout the day and through Twitter at #gravsum. (Thanks Master Tweeters Joselin Mane and Jeff Cutler for all the tweets!)  Around 5:00, I headed over to the TweetUp/After Party at the OM Restaurant  in Cambridge with my friend Sarah.  It was great to meet so many of the folks that I follow on Twitter and to get to know some new social media folks including one of my social media idols MC Hammer.  (Special thanks to Robert Collins for posting the pictures of the Gravity Summit Tweetup so quickly.)

For some of the press coverage of the Gravity Summit at Harvard, check out:

• Boston Business Journal
• Boston Globe
• NECN