When marketing your services or widgets, what approach do you use? Do you scatter your marketing efforts over a range hoping to accomplish something? Or do you aim carefully, hitting the target most of the time?

Marketing of shotguns

Gun buffs are going to shoot me here (no pun intended), but every time I use the term “Shotgun Marketing,” I get this vision of Al Pacino shooting in Scarface: I’m repeatedly told that he does. No use a “shotgun”, but you get the idea.

A shotgun fires projectiles over an area in the hope that at least some of them hit the target. The word “shotgun” is actually defined as “covering a wide range in a random or ineffective manner.”

Examples of shotgun marketing include cold calls, mass mailings, and large-circulation general newspaper ads. In the online world, shotgun marketing includes banner ads on sites that get large numbers of generic visitors and spam emails.

If you’re a professional services business (virtual assistant, web designer, etc.) and you haven’t properly screened your prospects, your marketing will have the same ineffective scattering effect. You’ll cover an area with postcards, direct mail campaigns, newspaper ads, or online advertising without even knowing if your prospects are “being hit.” Depending on your business, this could be a good thing or a bad thing; Either way, it will get very expensive very quickly.

Naturally, you get broader coverage by using the shotgun approach to marketing; this could be good if you’re trying to cover an area to let them know it exists (for example, a new coffee shop or a new mechanic in town). The downside is that it’s expensive, as studies show you have to be in front of someone 7-10 times before they recognize your name.

marketing of rifles

I think you know where we’re going with this. Rifles bring things into focus, allowing you to aim carefully before you pull the trigger.

If you know your target audience, really know them, you should be able to launch marketing campaigns with sniper-like precision.

“Rifle Marketing” allows you to be more personal in your marketing campaigns. You can also create slogan campaigns that are made up of more than just a simple postcard or letter.

For example, to symbolize how much time (or business) your prospects are wasting (wasting) by not hiring you, send your sales letter in a small trash can with a label (always send First Class). Your letter is likely to be opened more often (and faster) than all the other letters that arrive in envelopes via third-class mail.

Innovative campaigns like the one above not only increase the chance of potential customers calling you, they tell the customer something about you before they even speak: you’re results-oriented, think outside the box, and think before you jump. . This is the type of person that smart entrepreneurs want on their team.

Which approach is better?

At first glance, you might want to say that the “rifle” approach is better than the “shotgun” approach. However, it depends on your business, your personality, and your target audience.

Shotgun campaigns are, by their very nature, less personal than rifle campaigns. This may be appropriate for your business. In general, I think of shotgun marketing to build awareness and rifle marketing to get results.

Whatever your preference, remember to keep your marketing campaign true to your personal style and that less well done is much better than more poorly done.