Another point of interest that appears in your communication plan is the one about target groups. This subject could (and does!) cover every chapter in entire books on its own accord. I will not be that detailed or embroider the subject in that scale.
Neither am I presumptuous enough to claim a niche expertise in this area. Most who do, these days, have access to extensive and expensive digital tools. This posting, however, deals with the principles behind the field, rather than the technical execution of it.
So, here are some of my perspectives;
The first question that typically rises is which target groups to address, and to what degree you should divide them into smaller or bundle them into larger divisions.
There is a point to keep them separated in the sense that they have different knowledge, needs and motivators. In dividing them into smaller entities, you can address each more properly.
But some kind of bundling is required, since we are talking about mass communication to at least some extent. Meaning you are not dealing in interpersonal communication, if you’re reading this post. So, where to draw the limit? It makes sense to not have too many different target groups.
It is usually a good idea to start within the organization you work with, and choose a number of key coworkers to interview about their contacts with users and customers. Extract what their idea of the most important target groups are, which groups they already talk to, and which ones they would wish to connect with but haven’t so far succeeded in. I will come back to some ideas about what questions can be helpful along the way, and some ideas about the process to get the answers you’re looking for, regardless of which methods you choose to employ. But for now, I’ll stay in the methods field.
Yesterday, I participated in a target group analysis, and we agreed on four clusters of target groups for this specific operation. The principles we hold close to heart is;
- what needs do they have in connection to our operation?
- what challenges do they face?
- what knowledge do they already have?
- what prerequisites do they have, as a group? Meaning, resources at hand, requirements from laws and regulations, etc.
Don’t make the mistake of clustering groups together based on your internal drives and motivators, such as KPIs or your existing channels. The KPIs should be met according to the effect of your actions, and the effect will surely be stronger if you act based on your target group rather than yourself. The channels you use should be decided upon after you decide on target groups, and also based on your audience, not yourself.
The next step is to get to know the target groups. I will cover this briefly in coming posts.
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