In today's highly fragmented communications environment your company’s media choices can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Think about it. You advertise. Your marketing message is received by some customers more than others. Assuming your marketing is effective, the customers you win will more likely be ones engaged with the media you select. Over time, your existing customers will be more likely to be engaged with the media on your existing media plan, less so with others.
But what if you want to bring in new business? Are potential new customers following the same media as your current customers? Maybe not.
While most companies understand the media their current customers use, it is much harder to understand what the media usage of non-customers.
Here's the trick, you need to ask them. Calling non-customers is harder than existing ones who you have regular content, but it is worth doing.
One manufacturer we researched, used largely traditional trade media as their primary channel. Our research confirmed this as the right choice for existing customers but far more of their non-customers were involved in newer electronic media.
At another company we found the current customer base engaged in electronic media of all kinds including social media. When we researched their non-customers we found a similar pattern except that non-customers had a significantly greater interest in reading e-newsletters.
We found some significant differences in media use between customers and non-customers for some companies, with others the difference was small.
But until you talk to some non-customers, assuming your current advertising is reaching them is dangerous, even if you have proof your advertising is reaching current customers.