The Secret Weapon to Maximizing the Impact of Your Marketing

The comedian George Carlin once joked that, “’Meow’ means ‘woof’ in cat.”  

In this short, punchy statement, he lays out a really smart way to approach our everyday interactions: Know how people (or animals) communicate and meet them where they are.  

We just finished a big project for a client and the immediate feedback was that our findings carry more weight because of our ability to speak in their ‘language’ and use specific examples from their website and our conversations.  

You probably do this with your customers as well. That’s part of the service industry that we’re all in.  

But how many of you are doing this with your marketing assets and campaigns? Run a campaign just targeting healthcare? Write an eBook focused on security risks facing banks? Developing Copilot use cases specific to manufacturing? 

Every industry has its own distinctive ecosystem, complete with its own language, regulations, pain points, and opportunities. Generic marketing messages that try to speak to ‘everyone’ can fall short, leaving potential clients feeling unheard and underserved.  

The results of our 2024 State of the B2B Tech Marketing Industry Report support what has been recommended as marketing best practices for years: tech companies that take the time to tailor their messaging to the unique needs, challenges, values, and priorities of targeted industries can gain a competitive edge.  

86% of respondents report that industry-based marketing works better than generic marketing. 

So why would you try to reach all your prospects with the same language, the same messaging, and the same sales and marketing assets? You wouldn’t! 

Best Practices for One Industry don’t Translate to Best Practices in Another 

Industry-specific targeting stands as a powerful strategy for elevating your sales and marketing efforts, ultimately boosting revenue.  

Customers need to have confidence that you understand their goals and pain points. By adopting a tailored industry approach, you not only communicate in their language, but also demonstrate your understanding of their specific needs and challenges.   

A savvy marketer recognizes that while your solution may cater to a wide audience, engaging the director of a government agency differs significantly from engaging a hospital administrator or a bank CEO. Each requires a distinct approach to effectively guide them through the buying journey.     

Embracing an industry-specific strategy empowers you to make the most out of your campaign investments. Take a look at how one of our partners successfully executed this approach.  

Industry-Specific Marketing with Quisitive 

Quisitive, Microsoft’s 2023 US Partner of the Year for Industry, recognizes the important role that an industry-specific focus plays in their marketing endeavors.  

Last year, when they wanted to run an account-based marketing (ABM) campaign, they knew their first step was to pinpoint which industry they should zero in on and define their precise target audience.  

To help answer this question, the Quisitive marketing team looked at their ideal customer persona (ICP), where there was significant potential revenue, and which customers were profitable. They dug through their data examining website engagement, ad interaction, webinar enrollment, and intent indicators, among others.  

Based on that assessment, Quisitive determined that their ABM campaign would deliver the most impact if they focused on healthcare.  

To succeed in this campaign, they recognized the need to not only grasp current trends, patient and provider needs, and the current demands of the industry, but also to showcase their expertise in meeting healthcare technology requirements.  

Their approach infused healthcare-centric imagery, language, and an understanding of common pain points in every touchpoint and campaign asset. They even leveled-up by creating a healthcare-specific interactive scorecard tailored with HIPPA compliance and other critical security concerns to help decision makers assess the strength of their data security.  

The outcome? Their campaign surpassed all expectations. Their substantial engagement translated into qualified leads. The sales team’s feedback was that they were happy with the caliber of the marketing qualified leads (MQLs) received and were able to build a robust pipeline.  

Get Started with Industry Marketing 

In today’s competitive landscape, the power of speaking your client’s language extends far beyond client meetings and project deliverables—it’s a cornerstone of effective marketing strategy. In other words, you don’t want to woof at a cat or meow at a dog.  

Just as our recent project with Quisitive underscored, tailoring your messaging to resonate with specific industries isn’t merely advantageous; it’s essential for capturing attention, building trust, and driving conversions. Why settle for one-size-fits-all messaging when the path to success lies in crafting narratives that directly address the pain points and goals of your audience? 

EMM can help you build targeted campaigns that reflect a nuanced understanding of your prospects and take your marketing efforts to new heights. Contact emma@emminc.com to get started.