Who do you think your company’s most important target audience really is? Your main prospects? Your existing customers? Both of these answers are close. But perhaps your most important audience is typically a group that most companies ignore – your employees.
Lots of companies spend a significant percentage of their revenue on marketing. They develop well-thought-out ads designed to inspire prospects to call. They produce beautiful brochures telling customers all about their great products and services. And they design slick websites that carry their branding and messaging strategies to the masses.
Your employees are your first line of contact with customers. They possess the ability to either make or break your company. Yet how many of us actually spend the time to communicate our marketing and messaging strategy to our employees? Whether they are interacting with a new prospect or an existing customer, your employees must understand your company’s message, image, and branding strategy. And, more importantly, they must understand how to communicate these messages to your customers and prospects at the point of sale.
Here’s a little test to see if your employees understand your company’s marketing strategy.
Randomly stop a cross section of your employees and ask them the following questions:
- In one sentence, explain our company’s mission. What do our customers buy from us? (If they only say the name of your product, you’re in trouble!)
- Who are our main competitors and what makes us different from them?
- What is the most innovative thing this company has done in the past year?
If the answers to these questions are in line with your company’s marketing strategy, then you’re doing a great job. If not, you need to do some work to get your most important audience on board.
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Gumas wrote the book on Challenger Brand Marketing. This article about target audiences has been an excerpt from Marketing Smart. A collective of proven marketing strategies and tips to help Challenger Brands take on their larger competitors…and win! Download an E-book version of the Marketing Smart for free here.
