Copy Chameleon: How to craft content that resonates and blend in with different industries

In the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the conman Frank Abagnale Jr.

Throughout the movie, Frank pulls off various scams worth millions of dollars by disguising himself as an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer.

The veracity of Frank’s real-life crimes is disputed, but the movie remains an entertaining lesson in knowing your audience.

Frank is able to evade Tom Hanks’ FBI agent for years because he knows how to blend in. A crucial part of his disguise is a blend of confidence and intelligence: He doesn’t just know how a doctor dresses; he knows how a doctor acts, and he knows how a doctor talks.

Now, let me pause here to say that I am not a con artist. That being said, Catch Me If You Can taught me a lot about how to position my writing, how to be a Copy Chameleon that can tailor the same product features into benefits that speak to vastly different audiences.

Over the past few years, our team has successfully led a wide range of industry-focused campaigns. Healthcare, Financial Services, Technology, Education, Government -  We’ve had a hand in many of the most prominent sectors in today’s economy.

Sometimes, a project involves tailoring the same product to multiple different industries. Our work on Microsoft Copilot is a great example of this.

Copilot, as you’re probably aware, is the AI tool that integrates across the entire Microsoft ecosystem. It can format a PowerPoint, take an initial pass at an Outlook email, and give you bulleted points about that Teams meeting you couldn’t make.

But while the basic functionality of Copilot is the same, they have very different uses depending on the industry. A plant manager at a manufacturing business probably doesn’t have much use for Copilot’s ability to collect financial data and compile it in Excel. Likewise, a financial analyst probably won’t get much out of Copilot’s ability to streamline issue resolution when it comes to complex machinery.

This is why a product as vast as Copilot needs targeted, industry-specific messaging. A huge part of developing that messaging is identifying the benefits of a product or service that have the most value to that particular sector.  In addition, it is often necessary to go deeper by  splitting things up by role within the industry.

Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all message that transcends industries, your marketing campaigns need to speak to different job roles as well.

When it comes to Copilot, we recently teamed up with Microsoft to create a series of role-specific emails to help introduce customers to their new tool. These emails highlighted the different benefits of Copilot in roles as divergent as Human Resources, Finance, and IT.

People who work in HR were given resources not just about how Copilot works for their position, but how they can foster adoption across various roles within their organization. That’s a big part of their specific role, but wouldn’t necessarily be a focus area for someone working in the Finance department.

Marketing to different industries, roles, or roles within industries is an intricate web, but a necessary one. In our recent ‘State of B2B Tech Marketing Survey,’ a whopping 86% of respondents said industry-specific marketing campaigns work better than generic marketing.

That’s an undeniable figure that should tell you one thing: Taking the time to tailor your messaging to the unique needs, challenges, values, and priorities of specific industries and roles can give you a competitive edge.

You don’t have to be a conman like Frank Abagnale Jr. to blend into to different industries. You already know your products or services have value to them, you just need to hone in on the specifics for your different target audiences.

EMM can help with that! Ready to jumpstart your next industry-specific campaign? Looking to develop a Messaging Framework for one particular industry?  Contact emma@emminc.com and let us know if you are looking for a new campaign, or are interested in our Messaging Workshop!