The Science of Marketing

The practice of PR has been evolving since its inception. What started as a way of reaching as many people as possible has already taken a step forward to a more targeted approach – with practitioners isolating a few different audience levels and segmenting the media and messages they use to reach them. But with corporate blogs playing a greater role in PR strategies, it seems we are in the midst of a giant leap in customized communications. With this shift, the meaning of the "P" in PR is changing – from the Public-at-large to People as individuals.

Corporate blogging lets companies harness the viewpoints of multiple authors and focus on the unique interests of their constituents. Where a news release was once expected to tell a complete story to the whole audience, a blog can now break that story into smaller pieces that appeal to audience micro-segments. For a high tech company, that means a product manager’s blog can address the technical concerns of IT managers, while the CEO can talk to the business interests of CIOs. Blogs also create an opportunity to reach special interest audiences – individuals that care about environmental initiatives or compliance issues – with content all their own.

In a blog, a company has at its fingertips a forum for focused communications with well defined audience segments – groups of people with common interests that share a depth of knowledge and use a distinct language. The first step in harnessing this powerful tool for customized communications is learning about these groups of people, understanding their interests and how they want to be treated, and choosing a company ambassador who can speak to them on their terms. That’s how I want to interact with my favorite companies anyway, and how I’d like them to think about communicating with me.

What are you doing to speak to individuals?

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