I’m going to share an interesting and useful concept for you known as narrowband marketing. It very much covers how marketers today need to act in order to maintain relevance to their customers and prospects. This concept is something that I believe every small business needs to adopt in order to be successful at marketing without being evil. The best part is, some of you are already doing it.
Narrowband marketing is the concept of tailoring a marketing campaign specific to a recipient’s interest. More explicitly, it results in longer-term relationships, better conversions, minimal complaints and increased loyalty. No, it doesn’t relate to whether you dial-up or use cable for your Internet service … (who dials up anymore?!)
As opposed to broadband marketing, narrowband is about being narrow, select, exclusive and relevant. Broadband marketing is appropriate in certain situations, but don’t expect to earn any loyalty or respect from your recipients. Broadband limits how select and intimate you can be with your subscribers.
It’s more than email. Narrowband marketing leverages a number of different types of communications so you’re able to provide them value beyond one medium. Email is great, but think about how nice it would be to get a phone call or a letter in the mail for something they did. If nothing else, think about whether or not your competitors may or may not be doing this and you’ll be able to fly past them and wow your customers and prospects.
So how do you do narrowband marketing?
Start with shrinking the size of marketing targets you send to — here are a few ways to segment your list. I know that’s not something many people are used to, but it’s so empowering when you do it. When you send a message to people and you know exactly what they want and provide it to them, it makes it the message that much better. When you send a message to everyone, you are targeting no one. It’s okay to have three, four or five different variations of the message if you will elicit a better response from recipients.
On your next marketing campaign, consider different ways to connect with your audience. That is, leverage the power of direct mail, maybe a phone call, a simple gift, a way for them to request a free report or consultation. This will help you further segment your audience’s interests and provide more captivating content.
And finally, consider the limiting length of your messages. If your target is smaller, then generally your message should be shorter as well. It’s not necessary to explain everything when you already know their interests and provide relevant content. If you’ve done your homework, you probably won’t need more than a couple paragraphs of copy to get your point across and entice them to act.
Narrowband marketing is even more important now with the advent of Hotmail’s Sweep feature and Google’s Priority Inbox. These are tools ISPs have developed for users so people receive only the most important communications to their inboxes. Limiting the number of irrelevant, unnecessary messages you send is the first step to be perceived as important. If you fully adopt permission-based marketing, narrowband marketing is a snap and you might already be doing it.
I’m interested to hear how you use (or what you think of) narrowband marketing. Share your experience in the comments below! Soon, I’ll share how we leverage narrowband marketing to make our Email Marketing 2.0 features really shine.
[Image credit: dmuth]
Posted In: Email Marketing Tips
