Targeting Your Audiences Network

Incentive: Strategy

Targeting Your Audience’s Network
November 11, 2009

By Paul Hebert

Things were so much simpler in the old days. Launching an incentive marketing program was a matter of designing a pretty brochure with nice pictures of TVs and golf clubs or a couple of beach shots if it was a grand travel award. Then, it was sending the stuff to a printer, proofing it on the press (don’t want to spell “Carribean” wrong—oops, “Caribbean”), and mailing it to the list provided by the client. After that, you sat back and had a cocktail, knowing you just launched a program.

It doesn’t work that way anymore, of course. Like consumers, your employees and your channel partners are bombarded with messages, all promising something new, exciting, profitable, time-saving—you get the idea. Your audience is almost immune to your messages. Even if you are offering a chance to earn an award worth thousands of dollars, the impact today is less than that even a few years ago, simply because it gets lost in the marketing onslaught.

The statistics are sobering. According to this INC article, the number of daily marketing messages people received back a few years ago was pegged at roughly 3,000, and I’d venture it’s more than that by a factor of two with the proliferation of social media in the last few years. Some sources say the average person belongs to at least two social networks; others say between five and seven. The fact is we have more messages hitting us every day from more sources. What does that mean?

Filter and Ignore
When we are overwhelmed with information, we resort to two tactics: ignore and outsource.

First, we ignore the information, assuming that if it is important we will see it again. That’s why you don’t always get a response to your first e-mail or message; people are overwhelmed and can’t deal with it right then. They will rely on you to remind them. They will respond when the correspondence shifts from important to urgent.

Secondly, we outsource. People turn to their networks of trusted friends and business associates and determine if they should pay attention to something. Instead of individually deciding to pay attention, people look for the “buzz” among their social groups. And that’s where those of us who run programs for employees, channel partners, and consumers need to look. As incentive and reward professionals, we need to adapt to this new reality of network-based marketing.

For Employee Programs
When it comes to marketing employee programs, more is better: more communications, more contact points, more information but in smaller and easily digestible chunks.

Employees are no different than consumers; they’re getting a lot of stuff in their inboxes, their instant messaging feeds, their intranet groups, etc. They will ignore you until the frequency of the message keys them into the fact that it is something to pay attention to.

Monthly mailers and a “one-size-fits-all” update on a company intranet won’t cut it. A schedule of daily, weekly, and monthly specific information is required. Your communications planning needs a strategy that takes advantage of the multiple contact points in the communications ecosystem but also uses specific messages to target groups. A standard “Check out the award earners this month” e-mail won’t register, but a “Check out what Bob in the next cube did” will. Messages in specific areas of the intranet that are frequent stopping points for groups (whether in context or not) will get attention.

Find the influencers in the organization and give them special access to communicate information about your program. People will pay attention to people, and don’t assume it’s people with titles. Influencers are everywhere.

For Channel Programs
Find out who influences your channel. Can you enlist them in promoting your program? Channel programs don’t always hit everyone who can impact your results. Many times, there are hidden pockets of possible participants. Access those hidden pockets by looking at the ways your channel normally gets information.

Is there a very popular site that services your industry channel? Buy an ad on that site promoting your program. Call the site owner and offer to do an interview with him or her. Connect with your audience members through the channels that influence them.

For those in your channel that are already deep into social media, what do you offer them to promote your program on their networks? Does your program include a reward for every tweet? Do you look for or post ideas about earning your program’s awards within Linkedin groups? Could you?

Many industries have association sites. Can you buy ads there promoting the success of participants that will propogate your message on to others?

Time to Look Around
The network is the modern marketing medium. Getting employees, channel partners, and consumers to pay attention to and get excited about your incentive program is a full-time, 24/7 job that can’t be supported by old media ideas. Jump into the networked communications economy now!

Paul Hebert is managing director at i2i, an incentive design consultancy, www.i2i-align.com. Over the past 20-plus years, he has worked with Fortune 100 clients to develop non-cash reward and recognition strategies within overall engagement plans.

Incentive Magazine

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