Friday, October 26, 2012

How to Make Your Marketing Messages Universal ...

Marketing campaigns are created to target specific demographics ? people who want to ?snap into a Slim Jim? aren?t always the same people looking for the newest Louis Vuitton bag. Sometimes, however, they are.

To make messages universal, companies used to conduct expensive studies to adapt them for different countries. The great thing about the Information Age is that adjusting your marketing messages for a global audience has been made easier, quicker, and more effective.

Digitizing Your Message

My company started in the information publishing business, distributing information products, like eBooks and software packages. Because it?s a business that inherently operates online, we were able to sell to a global market from the very beginning. Our customers were all over Europe, Asia, and North America, and because the Internet was our platform and what they were buying was downloadable, anyone from any country could become a customer at any time.

Those whose businesses, products, and services are tangible in nature don?t have the obvious digital advantage. I recommend that traditional businesses consider adding an information component to their companies. This is a way to generate leads from different geographic regions; from there, you can convert some of these leads into customers and sell them products connected to your company?s area of expertise. You?ve established industry expertise while also conversing directly with your audience.

For example, you can expand your reach with social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Once you have an online presence, create a small eBook related to your business and offer it for free in exchange for some basic contact information. This builds a list of leads and prospects you can continue to engage with via newsletters, recipes, and tips. These are the people who will become your customers, ordering products online and purchasing full-length eBooks.

It?s possible to incorporate aspects of information into any business. Create a plan to make it work for your company, and use it as a strategy to widen your marketing to include demographics you wouldn?t normally reach. People from every area are looking for more knowledge, and that?s something you can provide from any location.

Targeting Multiple Demographics

The science and art of demographic targeting using online communication tools shifts away from the idea that people are defined strictly along geographic and traditional lines ? and toward the idea that online communities contain groups bonded by common interests and subject matter. They have their own unique values, concerns, norms, and ways of communicating. The better you understand that as a marketer, the better your targeting will be in this new dynamic.

The organization of groups along interest lines makes it much easier to target a single group comprised of people from all over the world. It?s crucial to immerse yourself in the culture of the group itself and learn its nuances. This will be your strongest asset. It will dictate how you craft your marketing messages, as well as how you gauge feedback from your niche group.

Bridging Markets

In both our information publishing and our music promotions businesses, we?ve operated in international markets. Our digital products allowed us to operate in several countries simultaneously. We connected with other publishers online and were able to create a group of publishers from countries all over the world to coordinate projects across the Internet. This enabled us to form international connections with joint venture partners that would never have been possible even a decade ago. Reaching out to partners and investors overseas has never been easier.

In music promotions, we have been involved in connecting independent artists to collaborate and create music across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Africa. Our upcoming music platforms will allow artists to create remixes of their songs with artists from other countries and genres, sharing the results with fans from all over the world. This will further facilitate the international connection of music artists and their fans from every country in the world. These kinds of ideas enable businesses to take a very specific group?s interests and build a new collaborative product or service from them.

Any other industry can create the same level of excitement among its fans ? a company simply needs to facilitate the conversation. After spending some time with niche groups, your business should be able to gather a good sense of the problems these people want addressed ? or added services they wish they had access to. This is your bread and butter.

Keep Evolving

Working with individuals from multiple countries requires taking into account the adjustments needed for each. It?s an evolutionary process. As your business grows, you?ll be presented with challenges, such as effectively conveying complex tasks to international freelancers, dealing with time zones, and communicating your message to customers.

Nonetheless, the Internet brings people together through shared interests; by focusing your message on these groups, rather than along national boundaries, you will ensure your marketing is reaching a diverse community. And who knows? They may be big fans of Slim Jims and Louis Vuitton.

Source: http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/10/26/how-to-make-your-marketing-messages-universal/

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