Spreading loss: Why we might be overdoing it with targeting in B2B marketing

For most marketers, it's a real mood killer: the word spreading loss. But there are also scatter gains in marketing. If you target your messages correctly.

Leads, pointed target groups, even more pointed ones Personas, precise targeting: the desire of many marketing organisations to be in the Content marketing Reaching only the people they want to reach may be based on the experience of having had to accept a certain scattering loss with print advertising in the past. Spreading loss: for marketers there is probably no word with a worse reputation. And they are right, of course.

But in a media cosmos in which the role of print is no longer stage-filling and digital channels and social media platforms with all their targeting cascades set the pace, we should let go of the idea that wastage per se is a bad thing. In its reciprocal meaning, wastage can also mean that companies can use other messages for brand building and to reach out market buyers. All too often, too precise targeting also leads to a loss of Content marketing The result of this is that the customer is only reached by those buyers or prospects who have just stopped at a promising station in the customer journey at that moment.

You may know the already legendary campaign of the British "Economist": a quote in white letters on a red background with the content "I don`t read The Economist" and below it "Management trainee, 42". With such banners and subjects, the British business magazine was not necessarily targeting those who are about to take out a subscription, but those young people who, because of their perhaps just beginning careers, have not yet reached positions for which reading the "Economist" would be obligatory. Of course, it is not content marketing, but it is also clear that it is an emotional message that has been chosen - in contrast to the advertisements on the website of the "Economist", in which certain subscription packages are advertised.

What we want to say: A scattering loss is not always explained by a too broad target group analysis, but above all by the wrong message. If you want to do brand building, as the Economist has just done, you need content that makes a company a brand. Brand chisel.

Let's dive into the statistics a bit: LinkedIn - and they should know - recently communicated that its members change positions or industries every four years on average. Someone who is an IT trainee at a paper company today and therefore not really authorised to make decisions on the acquisition of new software can be the head of IT at an automobile company in just a few years. There are hardly any straight careers any more. If the current head of IT at the car company already came into contact with a software brand during his time as an IT trainee, he will remember it - and perhaps come to an investment decision more quickly. However, this brand building requires a different message - it cannot be about sales activation.

B2B Marketing and Content marketing must be oriented towards long-term perspectives and think about this component. Otherwise you run the risk of merely marketing for the moment. And moments are usually over quickly.