I published a blog for Real Magnet today on how to use content to target without segmenting. It's part 2 of a series. Part 1 is here.
Remember the Pontiac Grand Prix commercials that touted "Wider is better?" In content, I think the opposite is true. The greatest challenge that email marketers (and anyone else trying to reach customers with content) face is clutter - all the other stuff in inboxes that makes whatever it is you're trying to get in front of people seem only marginally important. In my experience, the best way to cut through clutter is to be intensely relevant to a smaller segment of the audience. You can't be more interesting to everybody all the time, but if you find the population you're uniquely qualified to speak to, and you create content aimed expressly at them, you'll win.
In 2007 I put that theory to the test when I launched a site called GamJams.net. I made the word up, in part so that I could take credit for anything showing up in Google or anyplace on the wild web that used the word. The site covers amateur bicycle racing in the Mid-Atlantic. You want niche? I've got yer niche right here. When I launched, I knew that the total number of licensed competitive cyclists in the region the site covered was about 5,000 people. Within about 6 months, the site was doing tens of thousands of visits per month from right around 5,000 different people, 95% of whom were in MD, DC and VA. Made from equal parts hobby, passion and proof-of-concept, the site still has about the same audience size today.
The point is, I think you can win without being big. I think how important a brand is in people's lives creates more opportunities than the sheer tonnage of people a brand somehow grazes.
Comments