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How to Connect With Your Target Audience, Part I Leverage These Effective Communication Strategies Today By Marie Elwood, Brand Marketing Consultant  September 7, 2010 - Speed Dial Issue 47

One of the great paradoxes of Western civilization is that people are frantically busy...but bored out of their eyeballs. They've got too much to do, and too many ads, options, and opportunities trying to get their attention while they do it.

You have only a few seconds to capture- - and hold- - your target audience's attention. Can you do it?

You certainly can, and here's how. Make your message:
1) Informative and/or
2) Entertaining.

That's it. That's the secret of effective communication strategies: make me think... or make me laugh.

Simple concept. Not-so-simple execution.

Here's where it gets messed up. We have a lot of things we want to tell our consumers/ customers about our products/services, so we design our marketing materials based on all the things we want them to know about us... and then we wonder why they don't pay attention or respond the way we want them to.

When the "information" we're providing is only about OURSELVES and what we can do, we miss the mark. Our target audience could care less. What that busy-bored audience wants is a message fine-tuned to their WIIFM (what's in it for me), not yours. The information you provide has to be valuable to THEM.

Here are six examples of effective communication strategies based on consumer-driven information:

- Home Depot offers a wide variety of free, no-obligation how-to workshops in every store, bringing the company's "you can do it... we can help" tagline (retired in 2009) to life.

- National Grid of Boston, like many other regional utility companies, offers its customers a free energy audit, not only offering specific money-saving suggestions but replacing all incandescent lightbulbs in a customer's home with CFL bulbs-- gratis.

- The Pillsbury Bake-off is 60 years old and offers a $1 million prize to this year's winner. Even if you're a klutz in the kitchen, you can quickly reference a motherlode of mouthwatering recipes from past contestants.

- Benjamin Moore's website offers a Personal Color Viewer online to "show you how paint colors will look on the inside and outside of your home before you pick up a paintbrush."

- Whole Foods offers informational podcasts and a variety of pamphlets designed to educate interested consumers about locally-sourced foods, the definition of "organic", food safety, etc.

- Progressive Insurance has built its entire business around providing objective insurance quote comparisons, with no fee or hassle.

That's the kind of helpful, useful information busy consumers are looking for, and as a brand strategist, I'm happy to help you identify & create this type of breakthrough communication for your target audience. You have information that your customers want... have you decided what it is and how to make it available to them?

This week, take a few moments to think about how you can structure your marketing message so that it gives your customers WIIFM-driven information. In Part II of this series, we'll see how you can make your marketing communication planning not just funny, but effective... so have a great week, and I'll see you next Tuesday!

- Marie

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Marie from Atlanta, GA - USA

This was a fun article to write, and I enjoyed thinking of some of the examples to share with you. Who else do you think is doing a good job of this?

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Thanks!
Marie

Posted at 1:30:pm 09/07/10

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