The following post is by Hollie Geitner, Vice President for Client Services at WordWrite Communications of Pittsburgh. WordWrite is a fellow member agency – with Houston’s DoubleDimond Public Relations – of PR Boutiques International.
HubSpot’s 2018 State of Inbound report found that 63% of companies view generating traffic and leads as their biggest marketing challenge.
Many of our clients and those we talk to regularly have expressed similar frustrations, asking: “How do I connect with my target audience when there is so much noise out there?”
It’s a reasonable question. Traditional advertising is less effective than it once was, attention spans are shorter than ever, and newsrooms are shrinking by the day.
Perhaps it’s time to consider an alternative – communicating with your center of influence (COI), or those who directly impact the decisions of your end-users/end-buyers. In many cases, those are people or organizations you’ve been aware of but haven’t really invested the time or resources into just yet. These folks are actively looking for viable options for their clients (your ideal customers) and the sooner you make those influencers a priority, the sooner you may see results.
Consider builders or contractors who work closely with realtors, financial advisors who market to attorneys and accountants, manufacturers of safety products who communicate with risk management consultants…
In most cases, this narrow COI audience is trusted by those who ultimately purchase or use your product or service. They are a good referral network, and in ideal scenarios, you might be able to do the same for them, making it a beneficial relationship for all. In working with these groups, the key is not to sell, but to educate and inform. Offer something that helps them solve their clients’ unique challenges.
Identifying your COIs is only the first step, however. Just like your customers, you have to understand how the COIs operate, what they read, how they consume information and how they work with their own clients. Your outreach strategy might include social, digital and traditional marketing and your messaging will speak directly to them. You’ll need to tweak your customer messaging a bit, but it is well worth the effort.
The COI strategy is particularly helpful today as social media allows for highly targeted advertising focused on interests, key words, geographic location and industries served.
If you feel you’ve hit a plateau in your marketing efforts, it may be time to rethink your strategy and focus on your own COI network.