A recent Forrester report claims that a 60 second video is the equivalent of 1.8m written words. And I believe it, as I am one of a group of people that prefers to consume information at a high level, in short concise chunks. Video works for me. The same however, cannot be said of any of the Finance Directors I have worked with, or many of the Managing Directors either. These ‘types’ tend to enjoy the detail and a 2 hour read of a 10,000 word document is much more preferable.
So where does that leave us marketing folk? Stuck in the middle of a preference war that, if you’re not careful can easily be influenced by the detail loving FD and MD.
What it really means is that we must understand our audience. This applies not only to our outbound marketing, but also to how we present on a one to one basis. We need to know what makes them tick so that we can fully engage. Unfortunately in marketing one size does not fit all, we must cater for the masses without becoming generic.
I am currently the process of implementing a communication strategy that achieves just that. Giving our employees and therefore our target audiences the option of wordy solution pitches, though to 1 page overviews and of course, my favourite, the 60 second video elevator pitch.
The final piece of this jigsaw lends itself to CRM strategy. We must capture these preferences for our customers, prospects and even our own employees to make sure they receive our information and consume our brand in a way that maximises it’s strength and effectiveness.
About to produce some new material? Think about the audience before you start writing.
Great article and you are right; you can very much do this stuff yourself at a much lower cost than paying an expensive agency. However, that assumes that you discount the opportunity cost incurred by not doing stuff that adds greater value to your business and which better reflects you skills set and what you are paid for.
Posted by Richard Wyatt-Haines | September 8, 2011, 6:58 pm