How to Target Your Audience
In a recent project (a guide to color printing for a major printer vendor), the client wanted to produce a single document that addressed prospects in several stages of the sales cycle: leads, prospects, and serious prospects. The first draft attempted to reach all of these audiences at once. The result fell flat.

Then we tried another approach. We broke up the piece into separate sections, each speaking directly to its audience. All of a sudden, the writing became clear and compelling. Why? It spoke to someone rather than trying to be everything to everybody.

The lesson: To develop effective marketing communications materials, you need to clearly define the audience you want the piece to speak to. Armed with this knowledge, you can then carefully tailor your message to address the needs of your audience. (I will cover this second step in a future column.)

When considering who a piece of marketing communication will address, you need to consider three issues:

• Market segment
• Audience within the target market,
• Where your audience fits into the sales cycle.

Segmentation
The concerns of prospects and customers vary substantially among different markets. For example, some want feature-rich products; others want low-frills, low-cost products. Some have centralized IS organizations, others are decentralized. As a result, different markets respond to different marketing messages.

Segmentation divides the market into customer groups with their own needs, attitudes, and behaviors. Product marketing managers perform this task, then choose which groups are worth targeting.

Segmentation in the hi-tech industry can be based on several factors, which are typically measured using quantitative market research and statistical techniques. Examples include:

• Usage: the type and quantity of technology use. For example, a relational database vendor might look at the amount of data the system will store and how many transactions will occur per second.

• Needs: Any consideration that might affect the use of the technology in question. A laptop vendor might look at screen size and battery life.

• Demographics: vertical industry, customer size, location, job title of the decision maker. Demographics can help you find the members of your target market.

• Psychographics: Attitudes, lifestyles, risk tolerance, and so on. For example, do you wish to target early adopters that try new technologies to gain a competitive advantage or companies that prefer proven technologies?

• Customer Environment: Many vendors need to consider technologies their customers already use, organizational structure, existing applications, operating systems, number of sites, and geographic dispersion.

Note that your organization should review its market segmentation strategy regularly. Because the hi-tech market is so fast paced, a segmentation strategy that works one year may not work the next. For example, if your company targets early adopters, you might need to change your strategy during an economic downturn when many early adopters become much more cautious.

Position in the Sales Cycle
Now that you've segmented your market, you're ready to determine who the piece is targeting (see sidebar) and where it will fit into the sales cycle.

If you plan to use the piece at the beginning of the sales cycle when readers have minimal information, you'll want to inform them about your product or service. If it fits into the middle of the sales cycle, you'll want to provide detail to persuade them that you offer the right choice. If you will use the piece near the end of the cycle, it should motivate them to buy.

The goal with all hi-tech marketing materials is to reach the right customers with the right messages at the right time. Only after you have determined the market segment your piece will address, the audience, and where it will fit into the sales cycle can you develop messages that will speak to your intended audience.