Any marketing campaign will have a variety of different goals that it must accomplish, all at the exact same time. Having said that, the overarching objective remains the same: you’re trying to get the right message in front of the right person at exactly the right time.
Some brands execute extensive marketing campaigns in order to raise awareness, either for upcoming products and services or for their organization as a whole. Others are attempting to take prospects and convert them into paying customers.
Regardless of the reason, one trap that you don’t want to find yourself in involves getting the wrong message in front of someone who otherwise would have been the right person. The risk of alienating potential audiences isn’t just a tightrope act that businesses have to walk – it’s also far easier to do than one might think if you aren’t exceedingly careful with every move that you make.
Thankfully, all hope is not lost. With the right strategy by your side, it is still possible to successfully marketing to a diverse customer base without alienating any one particular group. You just have to keep a few key things in mind along the way.
1. Use cosmetic customization
The strategy of cosmetic customization is an important one, as the goal of any marketing campaign should be to allow as many people as you can to see themselves represented in your product. If you want someone to believe that yours is the product that will solve a major challenge they have or make their lives better in some way, it’s always crucial to show this, not just tell it. Cosmetic customization is a big part of how you do it.
Sometimes, this can be executed as simply as by highlighting a specific benefit of your product on one type of packaging, while highlighting a different benefit on another. The product remains the same, but how you convey its advantages will vary depending on which group you’re talking to. In other scenarios, with Amazon’s iOS and Android app being a prime example, customers can use their smartphone or other mobile device to literally see how a product will look in their home before they purchase it thanks to augmented reality. Even providing specific product recommendations to consumers based on their past purchasing histories is a great example of this idea in action.
Not only does this make it clearer what your product can do in a general sense, it also helps people learn more about what it can do for them in a specific way. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
2. Consider multiple formats
Another one of the best ways to market without alienating potential audiences involves using multiple advertising formats whenever possible.
With so many marketing options out there, you won’t rely on any one for success. It will come down to how you use multiple formats at the same time, each feeding into the larger whole that is your campaign.
Create specific content for social media sites, for example, using not just text but also video and audio content. Personalize your website in a way that makes the experience of visiting the site unique, but still consistent with every other piece of collateral that you’re putting out into the world.
Doing so doesn’t cause fragmentation among your campaign — it does quite the opposite. It allows you to offer satisfying, engaging experiences wherever your potential customers happen to be, all without sacrificing either the quality of the message or the content itself.
3. Use adaptive customization
Adaptive customization is another marketing technique that you can use to play to the strengths that make your potential customers unique. Consider personalized email recommendations, for example. Rather than allowing someone to receive an email message that feels generic and like it was sent to countless other people, a customer receives something that appears to have been created just for them. Not only are they more likely to pay attention to it at all, but they’re also far more likely to engage with the content. The same is true of personalized web experiences as well.
All of this is paramount because, in part, it helps to optimize every dollar that you’re spending on advertising. The more personalized your messages are, the more likely someone is to act on them – thus generating more sales and increasing the overall return on investment of your marketing campaign. With the right tools this strategy doesn’t have to feel intrusive or inauthentic. While a lot of modern consumers have a cynical perspective when it comes to traditional advertising, this level of personalization and customization doesn’t have to fall into that category.It becomes another layer of the quality experience that only you can offer to consumers.
4. Don’t overlook the value of your data
Every day, your business and the consumers it was built to serve are creating massive amounts of data that offer invaluable insight into what you should be doing when it comes to marketing. You know what people like and what they dislike. What they need and what they want. It would be a wasted opportunity to not use this to your advantage, leveraging that data to reach a wider array of customers.
With the right tools, you can easily collect information about your current customer base and use it to separate people into smaller groups. Then, you can target each group with more precise messaging that again raises engagement through personalization. You can better understand both the interests and needs of each group and then spend time creating content that appeals to them significantly.
Not only that, but data will also allow you to track the progress and larger return on investment for your campaign, too. It objectively allows you to see which techniques are working and which ones aren’t, allowing you to double down on the former and eliminate the latter on a regular basis.
5. Keep your personal views private
One of the easiest ways to alienate potential audiences these days is to allow your personal views on just about any topic to bleed into what you’re doing with your business’ larger marketing campaign.
We all have our opinions, but with things being so polarized in the modern era, that doesn’t mean you need to share them at every opportunity. Not everyone will have the same views that you do. They won’t all share the same values that you hold important. This isn’t a bad thing – it’s a way of life. But people value doing business with brands that have similar ideals to their own and once you confirm that you do not fall into that category, rest assured people will quickly begin to look elsewhere.
Always try to keep your personal opinions out of your marketing strategy, regardless of how passionately you may feel on any one topic. You likely have personal social media pages and similar channels for that outlet. Instead, focus on presenting the facts – let people know who you are, what you do, and why it can make a difference in their lives. Then, let them use that information to make their own decisions.
6. Don’t stereotype your customers
Another major mistake that you should avoid when it comes to marketing has to do with stereotyping your customers. Don’t assume that you know everything about a group based on preconceived notions. Again, use those massive volumes of data that are being created to understand the facts of the matter.
Stereotyping doesn’t just alienate potential customers – it also reflects incredibly poorly on your brand, too. The type of reputational damage that you can do will take years and a lot of hard work to recover from, if you’re even able to do so at all.
When you and your team members sit down to craft your marketing strategy, focus on presenting the most accurate and respectful portrayal of your customer base as you can. Take what you know and use it to make decisions that empower your strategy and your brand. Don’t let what you assume run contrary to that goal.
7. Consider a wide range of input when developing marketing strategies
Finally, when developing the type of personalized advertising strategy that works well in the modern era, don’t forget to get input from the most diverse group of people possible. You have to consider things from a variety of angles and more often than not, that means considering perspectives that are not your own.
Think about your target audience and the diverse group of consumers that it is made of. You’re talking about people with many types of backgrounds from virtually all walks of life. The thing that is supposed to unite them is an interest in your business’ products and services — at least in this context. But if you’re only crafting content based on your own experience without considering anyone else’s point-of-view, you run the risk of alienating major chunks of that audience and leaving quite a lot of money on the table at the same time.
Whenever possible, always solicit feedback from potential customers to gain a better understanding of what they’re looking for. You could even use techniques like A/B testing to see which version of an ad performs best among a smaller group before rolling it out to a wider audience.
If you want to learn more about how someone wants to be marketed to, go ahead and ask them. Put up a survey on your website or solicit feedback in emails to again learn about what people like, what they dislike, and what they want to see more of.
In the end, remember that successful marketing campaigns are built not just on the strengths of your products and services, but what you know about who those products and services are actually for. Especially during a time when more competitors are cropping up regularly, you can’t afford to send collateral into the world that ends up pushing people away as opposed to bringing them closer. Strategies like those outlined above will go a long way towards preventing that from happening.
