Back to School

One of the greatest mistakes one can do is ask a copywriter – or any kind of writer for that matter –  to speak.

But hey, since we are living in abnormal times, I did a little bit of speaking recently in my capacity as a copywriter and content creator.

Content Marketing Training

Close to a hundred participants got my take on Content Marketing for 8 hours a day for two full days, across 4 separate sessions. That’s 64 hours of speaking, facilitating, transferring knowledge and of course reminding participants to keep their video feed on.

And in the end, it was my audiences that re-schooled me of a fundamental marketing premise that is constantly taken for granted:

Great Content is Nothing,
If it’s for the Wrong Audience

Yes, I did speak about content marketing, but it wasn’t for an audience that was very interested in the subject matter. Let me skip the whys and hows of this predicament and get to the matter at hand.

I spent days perfecting the PowerPoint; making it as informative, engaging and structured as possible for beginners to grasp. Do note that my knowledge is a clutter of unstructured information I have amassed over the years that needed to be organised, tweaked and moulded into a presentable form – this was my first time conducting an official training mind you.

Ultimately, I was quite happy with the deck, and thought with my (ahem!) wit and charm can sail through.

And for the most part, I did deliver a solid first performance. All was well.

Then, the second batch came aboard a week later. I could not for the life of me get through to them. Participation was almost nil and they all looked like they rather be watching yet another pandemic PSA.

Same content, different set of audience – but completely different results.

Based on the first session, I knew the training content works. So, it was still the right message, but to a wrong audience.

And we all know that getting the right message to the right audience is the key to effective communication. Somehow, I completely misjudged this and assumed that my content alone would be enough to see me through no matter who is in the audience.

But I did manage to somehow salvage the situation by way of changing tactic. After the morning break I versioned the delivery of the content and not stick to the script.

Needless to say, I was more prepared for the following two sessions by varying the presentation and delivery, yet it was the same deck I prepared initially.

Good Content Wrong Audience

Same content, different points-of-emphasis and delivery based on the audience at hand helped to ensure consistent results.

And this same premise can and should be applied to all marketing communications.

Gone are the days when we used to force the same message across all channels in a campaign. Understanding the target audience, and thereafter customising the message – while keeping the essence – is imperative to engage and compel.

A much-needed reminder in this day and age of long-tail audiences and multi-faceted channels.

Here are 5 tips on how to ensure your main communication message appeals to varying target audiences:

  1. Fail First
    Like how I failed with my second batch of training audience, it was a necessary step for me to analyse the audience I was speaking to, hence forcing a re-evaluation and re-thinking of message delivery.
  1. Test Often

Split and A/B testing is much needed to help fine-tune messages, so it speaks directly to the intended audience. This is also a necessary step that provides valuable insights to identify the characteristics of varying target segments.

  1. Guesswork Out

There’s only so much analysis, studying and tweaking you can do. Nothing is certain until you put your content out there and use the feedback to make versions that target different sub-segments.

  1. Pin-Point Pain Points

Nothing works better in marketing communications than being able to identify the pain points of your audiences. Best part? Each pain point allows for versioning of the message for added appeal.

  1. Be Flexible

There will always be a new sub target segment that you didn’t know existed. That’s lost opportunities by ignoring a potentially profitable subset of the market. Always test new variations to seek out such audiences.

What the Tech!

You know, I started in the advertising business as a copywriter in 1998 – that was my first job fresh out of college.

I graduated right smack in the middle of the Asian Financial Crisis and jobs were few and far in between. Out of sheer persistence and a hefty dose of luck, I landed a job as a copywriter for a small independent advertising agency.

I remember having to work without a computer, perhaps it was deemed unnecessary for me although I was the only writer in the agency at that time. I wrote copy by hand on A4 pieces of paper, and once approved, personally keyed directly into the layout on the designers’ gleaming Macs. Yeah, thug life.

This was a time before spell check and autocorrect, which meant I carried around an Oxford dictionary and thesaurus like how one would carry a smart phone now.

Research was with whatever printed journals and publications I could get my hands on. Doing some ‘internet’ research meant I had to wait for an open Mac, which usually happens when the designers were out for lunch.

There was no Google – actually there was but it was pretty crappy then. Yahoo! and Alta Vista were all the rage. Files were transferred using 1.44MB floppy disks, I know, cutting-edge shit. Purchasing stock images meant browsing a printed catalogue, placing the order via fax and someone would physically deliver the hi-res image on a disk a day or two later.

Floppy Tech
Tech can make your content flop

I could go on, but you get the gist, right?

The business of advertising back then was very analog, time-consuming and painstaking. The studio – where we creatives work – was a wonderous world where a lot of effort would go into creating a piece of marketing communication. It was hard, often manual, brain-crunching work – yet very fulfilling.

Then technology happened. Now, just one person can ideate, conceptualise, write, design and disseminate a piece of communication. What took weeks with a team of 5 back then can probably be done in hours today – we’ll leave the quality out of the equation for today yeah.

The entire process has been condensed and simplified – with apps, websites and software. But has it become simple for a person to multitask and create a well-crafted piece of marketing communication? Not by a long shot.

The overload in technology has resulted in overload of communication channels, which has resulted in overloading marketing plans with strategies to cover the constantly evolving and growing list of media must-haves.

It used to be just a website and Facebook page. Now, a marketer must think about separate strategies for Instagram, TikTok, Linked-In, Pinterest, YouTube Channel and every other social media trend to reach a fickle, devoid-of-attention and triggered audience.

And a lot of so-called digital agencies are churning out the same garbage churned for one channel and ramming them down disinterested audiences across other channels, including social media. All this is being done with blatant disregard for suitability of the media for the brand or business, or at the very least proper versioning and tweaking of the message.

Just content after mindless content generated for the sake of adhering to the marketing calendar. It has truly become a cesspool of words, images and videos that hardly means anything nor compels any kind of response.

Digital Evolution

Look, I for one am overwhelmed as well with the volatility, dynamics and continuous mutation of the marketing communication landscape. And there’s no sign of stopping really with AI and VR set to hit the marketing mainstream next.

But having been in the industry for over 2 decades and experienced its progression, I can tell you that the fundamentals are still the same. Strategies may differ and tactics will need to be upgraded to the times, but essentially its all about compelling content that generates leads and thereafter converts to a purchase.

Essentially, it’s about the idea and the objective first, and then take advantage of the type of media that can generate the most results. It’s not just about getting likes or comments or shares – if it doesn’t convert, its just more marketing Ringgit down the loo.

Marketing work during my rookie years was a multi-step, multi-person process, all thoughtfully crafted to the end objective of eliciting response. That seems to still be the idea these days, but technology – be it in terms of marketing tools or the media itself – has not made anything simpler.

So take a step back and look at the big picture as you ideate and strategise. The tech is just to enable, and is not the idea itself.