In working with companies deep in a direct marketing tradition who are now struggling to use social media marketing and websites tailored to communities, one of the most difficult concepts for them to "come to terms with" is the differences in how to target these two very different market channels.
Direct & Integrated Market Targeting
Direct and integrated marketers use email, direct mail, telemarketing and the traditional mass medias [TV, radio, etc.] to acquire and develop markets. When you examine direct and integrated marketing programs, their segmentation and targeting systems are built on one central concept - that an individual's past behaviors predict their future behaviors.
When an integrated marketer wants to target an offer, they select their targets using predictive models which examine past purchases and the demographic/psychographic characteristics of the individuals and households they are considering. In the direct marketing industry, this type of targeting is termed RFM & P. This term means the strength of your relationship to a company and your likelihood of response is determined by the R recency of last purchase, F frequency of total purchases, M monetary value of your purchases, and P products you purchased.
The key to understanding traditional integrated marketers is -
THE PAST PREDICTS THE FUTURE. By looking at a past history and household characteristics, we can determine who is the best prospect for a future marketing effort.
Social and Web Targeting
From our work in social media marketing, the targeting is much different. In social marketing, we want to understand elements more immediately concerning to the prospect. While their relationship with a company is important as is their demographic and lifestyle characteristics, the most important aspects to determine how they will react to a social media or web community site deals with the ways an individual uses social and web media and the communities they use.
While we will discuss specific characteristics in future blog entries, we generally want to know 1] what is triggering an individual to action, 2] what social and websites do they use to find experts to help them determine the best solution, 3] how long and how much are the investing in solving their problem, 4] what expertise to they have in the past, and 5] what are their individual / household characteristics.
Why is this important?
As we will discuss further in future blogs, social and web marketing need to use web survey, focus groups and other primary research to determine the needs, value, and size of key markets. By understanding the triggers and drivers of the needs of specific markets, companies can focus their web, social, and integrated marketing efforts towards the markets of highest value. Knowing their drivers and needs as derived by primary research allows marketers to build marketing tools, apps, community collaboration sites, and products to best attract and retain web cruisers.
As we will show in our next blog entry, companies need to combine primary and secondary research to target their best markets. Today, while our past experiences play a role in our future relationships, our immediate triggers, needs, and wants are the most powerful motivators. Integrated marketers who ignore these critical dimensions run the risk of creating social media and websites with minimal value to their current and future customers.
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