Why ‘Spray & Pray’ Marketing Just Won't Cut The Mustard

So this is the scenario. You have put together a fantastic offer or product and now you are ready to Go To Market. You have decided that direct mail is the way to go. You spend a significant portion of your marketing budget on purchasing a list of companies and contacts and WHAM! Your superb product offer is now out there beating the competition into submission.

3 weeks later, you and your sales & marketing team are sitting around the conference room table, scratching your heads and wondering why the response rate is so monumentally low. Another bead of sweat trickles down your forehead as the MD walks into the room. It’s time to explain……

This is a scenario that so many marketers face on a daily basis. The questions that arise from here are usually focussed on the offer and why it seemingly didn’t tick enough boxes, when the real questions should be centred on the target audience. Who did you target and why? Was this audience ever likely to buy your product/service in the first place?

‘Spray and Pray’ marketing is a real drain on company resources. Technology companies in particular seem to fall into this trap. The key to avoid this is knowing your audience. Just because you have developed a cutting edge cloud based solution, does not mean that everyone will be clambering for it. You need to strategically segment your market, so that you can truly identify your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), preferably per segment. That’s right – segment, segment, segment. This will enable you to clearly define your target market, resulting in:

• A greater understanding of your customer base.
• Concrete segment analysis – see which verticals and segments achieve the greatest sales return.
• Visibility of how segments perform regarding email responses; web/marketing enquiry; qualified sales leads; opportunities and closed won/lost.
• Easy identification of which marketing messages ‘perform’ best for which segment – and consequently modify your messaging for each specific audience.
• Identify USPs for each segment.
• Use results to ensure a higher return for future marketing and sales activities.

The same philosophy applies to lead generation activities. If you provide your best sales people with a large, non-specific database containing Company Name, Phone Number and Website and tell them to ‘go get it’, you could be left waiting a looooong time!! The ‘Spray and Pray’ nature of this strategy often leads to an initial peak in calling/prospecting activity (with little return), which soon wanes as traction quickly stagnates. Why have your sales people waste valuable time calling companies that have little chance of buying from you? You need to focus their efforts calling companies that closely resemble your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and have a much better win rate potential!