In a recent survey of more than 580 professionals, MarketingCharts* found very interesting results regarding which methods are most effective for reaching professionals with your marketing activities. Following is a quick overview of the most interesting findings:
The C-Suite
With a marketing effectiveness rate of 52%, these executives are the most difficult target group to reach. Good old direct mail has the biggest chance to accomplish that (75%), reaching C-Suite audiences well or very well.
The second most effective method is email (56%) and marketing triggered based on specific needs (42%). Frequent contact in any form on a regular basis is not effective.
The End-User
For end users, content syndication (republishing your content on other sites in order to reach a broader audience) is most effective (79%). This outcome is consistent with our own findings as it relates to SEO and content marketing effectiveness. Direct mail is a close second (77%) as well as email (76%). Using a business/sales development representative is also ranked very high.
The most effective strategy is combining and integrating all these channels. Compared to executives, frequent messaging on a regular basis is very effective with end users.
The Technical Audience
A technical audience is best reached with content syndication (86%). Events are almost equally ranked high with 83%, but since the COVID-19 pandemic began, this channel disappeared or is in process of transitioning to online-only events. It is still too early to measure whether this new tactic will be successful and resonate with target audiences. Emails are also very effective (75%), especially when combined with business development (68%).
The Sales/Marketing Audience
For this group, content syndication is the best way to reach your audience (86%) closely followed by events (82%). Direct mail also works for sales and marketing audiences, but display advertisement is also surprisingly effective (74%).
The Financial/Purchasing Audience
After the C-Suite group, this is the second most difficult audience to reach with an overall effectiveness rate of 60%.
Content syndication is reportedly the best way to reach this audience (67%), followed by events (66%) and email (65%). The least effective method for this group is direct mail.
Conclusions
The high ranking of direct mailings came as a surprise to us. We concluded that the decline in direct mail over the past few years resulted in a much lower volume of direct mailings. As a result, direct mailings have a much higher chance to be noticed again.
Events also ranked very high. If that is a channel you used to utilize, don’t waste time to think about possible online events.
Not surprising was the importance of content syndication. We’ve been preaching for years the importance of a clear and solid content strategy for content marketing and syndication.
If you have questions in regards to specific target groups and how to best reach them, please email us and we will help you find the best channels.
References:
Which Channels Do Marketers Find Best for Reaching Top Target Audiences? MarketingCharts.com, August 5, 2020, accessed August 7, 2020.
