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How to Make Messaging Relevant to Your Target Market

Elisa Ciarametaro | Articles > From the section: Lead Generation

November, 2014 |

Effective messaging is what connects sellers with their optimal target market. It represents the heart and soul of your offering. Companies use relevant messaging to generate interest from their primary target audience, and establish trust and credibility with potential customers. It helps companies attract and engage with potential buyers and build relationships.

Developing that marketing message requires substantial thought and understanding. By creating compelling and captivating messages, companies find commonality and unity with their target market. The goal is that these prospects will choose their product or services when they are ready to buy.

Qualities of a Good Message Strategy
Relevant messaging strives to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.
Yet to achieve messaging that establishes a credible connection with a potential buyer, sellers have to be willing to take the time to understand their target customer in detail.

As a potential buyer, I am inundated daily with communications from companies trying to make a connection with me and prompt me to buy their product or service. In some cases I have expressed interest, in others I have not. Today, if I want or need something, I can pretty much find what I‘m looking for without much help. With so much out there, how do I know what to choose? That becomes the dilemma. The company that provides messaging that resonates with me wins.

Challenges to Getting Through to Your Target Audience
As buyers we are faced with

A daily flood of wanted and unwanted communications from sellers
Information overload when we do or don't seek data to evaluate solutions
Demanding business challenges and priorities that consume days and nights
Limited time to review and evaluate information
Frustration with sellers that fail to understand what buyers want, when and how buyers want it
A desire to quickly and clearly differentiate one seller from the other

As B2B sellers and buyers, we need to deliver and be willing to accept messaging that is relevant to us. Being relevant for your buyer means knowing what is relevant to your buyer.

Sellers: Tips to Identify Different Target Audiences, and Develop Relevant Messages

Here are a few simple thoughts to help sellers provide relevant messages to potential buyers.

Understand you may have many target audiences. Determine the number and type of target audiences you wish to engage, as messaging to each will probably vary.
Understand the unique set of circumstances your potential buyer is concerned with or wants to improve. Each buyer audience may have a unique or similar set of multiple pain points or pleasure achievements. Knowing what those are will help you develop messaging that speaks to their relevant buyer issues. See what they are inquiring about; ask them what is important to them. Provide messaging that establishes a relationship and draws you as seller closer to the buyer.
Get answers on how to best solve potential buyer pain points or pleasure achievements. Ask customers who may have had the same or similar issues. Or ask employees who interact with prospects and customers. Find out what customers need or want; find which companies they researched, why they selected you. Ask, are they happy with their choice? What benefits or return on their investment did they get?
Understand unique buyer timeframes. So many times offers are sent to get a better deal or get an added benefit included if the buyer acts quickly. While that can be enticing to those who are planning to make a decision within the given offer timeframe, it can be annoying, appear pushy or have no impact on a potential buyer who is not ready.
Differentiate your message for each target audience and rise above the noise.
Vary your messaging to the same target audience.

While these points may seem basic or obvious, they work. However, knowing that they work does not guarantee success. Actually taking the time and effort to plan, create, implement and deliver relevant messaging to each individual target audience is definitely easier said than done.

Understanding your buyer and your different target audiences, and creating, testing, and delivering relevant messaging will help your company connect with potential buyers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elisa Ciarametaro is founder and CEO of Exceed Sales, providing end-to-end lead generation and demand generation services that deliver results. Learn more at ExceedSales.com or at Elisa's blog, ExceedSales.com/blog.