Good news: your business can connect with hundreds of millions of potential customers online.
Bad news: your competitors have equal access and are already throwing money on the problem.
Not so good either: Your powerful, seedy team needs to figure out how to connect with hundreds of millions of potential customers.
Or do you
In order for your business to grow big, it sometimes helps to think small – especially when it comes to your marketing strategy.
We’re talking about micromarketing, which is aimed at a small group of your customer base and can be a transformative strategy for your business.
Let’s examine what micromarketing is and why it matters. We’ll also explore examples to inspire your first micromarketing campaign.
What is micromarketing?
For your company, micromarketing means drilling down beyond the level of Niche marketing (targeting a specific segment within the larger market) specific individuals or microgroups (“extremely small” groups).
By targeting smaller, more specific audiences, you can tailor your reach and use the audience’s insights to tailor your messages for more personal and effective marketing.
Yes, this takes a different kind of time and effort than traditional mass marketing – and it’s worth it.
Why invest time and resources in micromarketing?
Micromarketing requires more resources – when you measure your efforts against potential customers.
However, targeting specific, segmented audiences is often more effective in the long run at attracting high quality leads and turning those leads into customers.
Sure, your first micromarketing campaign probably won’t reach the same number of people as a Super Bowl ad. But you will surely be spending far less than the required $ 5.6 million on a 30-second commercial.
And just as important, you don’t want to reach every Super Bowl viewer when you can create targeted ads that inspire and excite a smaller pool of very interested consumers.
With micromarketing, your efforts are aimed at creating personalized messages and speaking directly to the people most likely to respond to your pitch. The advantages are in your ROI.
Mass marketing vs. micromarketing: pros and cons
See table here.
As you can see, micromarketing requires a higher investment to target each individual but a higher return on investment as each individual is much more likely to respond positively to your call to action.
Think of it this way: Your cost-per-click (CPC) may increase with an online micromarketing strategy. However, if done well, you will also see an encouraging decrease in your cost per conversion – a much more important KPI.
Micromarketing opportunities
Thinking about and creating a micromarketing strategy is an opportunity to take a step back, consider aligning your sales and marketing efforts, and make sure that your customers’ success is what you look for first and foremost.
Do you sell complex business software or massive industrial machines? Your region or industry may have few potential customers. In this case, micromarketing is probably the most effective strategy for your needs – you need to find your potential customers and just Your potential customers. Everything else is a waste of time and resources.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering a possible micro-marketing strategy for your business:
- Who will buy your product?
- Who is the decision maker buying it for their company?
- Who will your product help most – and why is it so perfect for them?
- What are the needs, fears, hopes and dreams of your customers? What are their interests and passions and what makes them happy?
- Who are your customers following online?
- Who does your ideal customer want to be?
- Who does your ideal customer admire most?
These questions, along with an ongoing understanding of your buyer personalities, should guide you to the answer to the two key questions that determine micromarketing decisions and campaigns:
1. Who is most likely to reply to your messages?
2. What is the best way to talk to them – and not to anyone else?
For example, if you know your product will require a CMO buy-in, you can use strategic micromarketing to target CMOs through a targeted marketing campaign on LinkedIn.
Ultimately, micromarketing helps you get your product right in front of those who matter most.
Next, let’s look at some examples to see how micromarketing is in action.
Examples of micromarketing
1. Coke creates a “Share a Coke” campaign.
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Coke’s “Share a Coke” campaign was launched in Australia and has since expanded to over 70 countries. If you haven’t seen a name on a Coke bottle before, here are the essentials: the marketing team in Australia selected 150 of the country’s most popular names and printed those names on Coke bottles with orders to share the Coke with friends and family.
The campaign is a fantastic example of micromarketing. The campaign enables Coke to connect locally with people in specific regions by identifying a group of names that are most popular in that area. And the results were amazing: the summer that Coke was first introduced in Australia, Coke sold more than 250 million bottles with names in a country of around 23 million people.
2. L’Oreal Malaysia uses local, user-generated content.
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L’Oreal uses micro-influencers and user-generated content to break down geographic barriers to products and open up markets in authentic, engaging and personal ways.
For example, L’Oreal Malaysia worked with local micro-influencers to create video tutorials on products for L’Oreal, Maybelline and Garnier. The videos were passed directly to the influencer audience. As a result of the campaign, L’Oreal Malaysia recorded a 12.9% increase in engagement rates and 1.9 million trending impressions.
Instead of struggling to individualize content internally and overcome cultural differences, L’Oreal used local influencers to increase interest in its products for each local market.
3. La Croix uses branded hashtags to find content from micro-influencers and reach new audiences.
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La Croix leverages micro-influencers by looking for Instagram users who have used branded hashtags like #LiveLaCroix and then asking those micro-influencers for permission to use the user-generated content in La Croix’s marketing materials.
This cuts costs significantly as La Croix does not have to produce the materials, and allows La Croix to target any audience of micro-influencers for more personalized, effective content.
4. Sperry republishes the content of the influencers on its own account.
Sperry identifies influencers who share Sperry products on various social channels and republishes these images on the official Sperry account.
This enables Sperry to take advantage of in-brand content with a pre-made segmented audience while foregoing a more official influencer strategy that would require more budget and resources. Instead, these micro-influencers are happy with the detection and exposure in return.
