Targeting

The internet broke marketing. It changed marketing by breaking down traditional silos, fracturing audience segmentation and causing context collapse which, in turn, affected the effectiveness of marketing messaging.

To be fair, marketing had been in stasis since the 1960s when E. Jerome McCarthy gave us the traditional marketing mix which the advent of the internet transitioned into the 4Es of Experience, Everywhere, Exchange and Evangelism. It was bound to break the moment something new and rapidly evolving challenged its principles.

So now we're here: Marketing, Sales, Product and Customer Service, traditionally clearly differentiated departments that work, mostly, alone have to swim in the same waters.

Targeting your audience in this world requires a clear understanding of the why of your product: what does it really do and who does it serve?

Marketers who always used the Unique Selling Point (USP) as a means of differentiating what they marketed won't be surprised of course. Yet, even seasoned marketers go wrong, mostly because truly understanding the target audience is difficult and the departments that usually come in contact with potential customers: Sales and Customer Service don't normally or easily talk to Marketing or Product.

An integrated approach to in-business communication goes a long way towards dispelling misconceptions and clarifying what a business does and how it does it.

That, of course, requires honesty and trust.