26 April 2010

By Catherine Proulx, Managing Director, Twist Marketing

Part Two: Pedal to the Metal
In our last article, we talked about the importance of target markets as the route by which you reach your targeting destination. “Open for business” and “everyone's welcome” may give you that warm, fuzzy feeling, but they're too vague and general ... like knowing you want to drive to Alabama, but only knowing to head south. Instead, once you've determined the ideal destination for your community; where you want your marketing strategy to take you, start setting a specific route for getting there by defining your target markets.

The first critical element in determining a good route for your community to take on the road to success (whatever you've decided success looks like for you) is being brutally honest about your starting point, which can be as inconvenient and uncomfortable as folding and re-folding that pesky map, but infinitely more rewarding. It can be painful to admit, for example, that your community may not be appealing for a full-week stay, but the admission empowers you to successfully navigate a side road that will bring you the day-trippers who will come out in droves and, in turn, drive your economy. It may sting, too, to acknowledge you don't have a terrific opera, thus letting the socialite tourist take her millions to Nice or Milan, but ignoring the dead-end side road to her money means you can focus instead on the highway that leads toward the families of campers who will come back to your area, year after year, and for generations to come.

Another key factor is understanding your destination: do you want more of what you already have in place so you can create a commercial/industrial cluster (like Silicon Valley) or would you prefer to attract the businesses not currently in your area to fill service gaps for your residents?

What are your labour force resources and needs? What is your existing industry and resource base, and what new enterprise will best complement what you already have?

Once you know what you have to offer, and what you'd like to attract, you can start looking around at who wants what you have, and who has what you want – in short, you can define your target markets.

And this is when you really start to see amazing mileage for your marketing investment. Instead of a vague, watered-down message like, “everyone's welcome”, you can craft a message that will really speak to the people you want in your community. Everyone may, indeed, be welcome ...but not everyone will respond to your marketing campaigns, and not everyone will be happy with the outcome if they do. Don't waste time, energy and fuel by detouring to try to get everyone on board. Make sure that each stop you make, each road you travel, will net you a passenger who wants to hear your message and join in your community's journey.

Knowing who they are also tells you what will get their attention—what will excite them, intrigue them, compel them. And you'll know where to find them, too: the publications they read, streets they drive, television shows they watch, websites they frequent. If trout fishing really is your claim to fame, there are hundreds of magazines, television shows, conferences and the like focussed entirely on people who will love your community...without the wasted effort of pitching to the doll-making association down the road at the same time.

Instead of a diluted message that reaches everyone but speaks to no one, defining your target market serves as both a roadmap and translator, telling you how to craft your message and where to deliver it. It's the most efficient, effective and economical way to get from where you are now to where you want to be.

The Twist: Trying to be everything to everyone is counterintuitive in marketing. Although it appears at first blush to keep your options open, what it really does is limit your potential. Despite speaking to a smaller audience, targeting specific markets promises an exponentially larger impact.

For more marketing articles, please visit www.twistmarketing.com/resources