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Maximized Target Marketing

Five Focal Points

by Julia C. Peterson

To be viewed as a strategic and valuable partner in the modern organization, today's Information Center must target and focus its knowledge efforts. Here are five areas where information center managers have proven success in focusing marketing efforts, and some tactics you should consider.

1. Focus on top revenue-earning areas in the organization. Hold meetings to determine their strategies. Then, determine what teams or task forces are forming to work on the strategies. Do your utmost to have an information professional from your staff assigned (either temporarily or permanently) to all to all important teams, task forces and committees.
2. Focus on key decision makers. Find out their priorities, board assignments, other responsibilities such as a geography or a non-operating staff supervisory assignment or key customer assignment. Send these key people information that is analyzed and prioritized, particularly from sources they would not normally see.
3. Focus on large-revenue projects or initiatives. Conduct interviews to determine these projects. You can also work in tandem with your firm's Strategic Planning group to determine projects, but let the operating unit know you are involved. Most important, don't let your valuable contributions become someone else's deliverable.
4. Focus your staff's efforts on top-revenue areas. Let your staff specialize. This builds invaluable staff product and business knowledge and fosters close working relationship with client/customer.
5. Focus on your successes. Utilize case studies, success stories and client testimonials to demonstrate your group's value. Focus marketing stories on results of the project i.e increased revenue, major acquisition, new geography expansion, new business entry, new product development, cost savings, time savings, not the tasks you performed. Be "dollar specific": Have managers profiled in the case studies note the dollar amount, not the Information Center staff.

Brochures can do a great job in telling your story. If you include a pocket in the brochure, you can then customize for a specific client/customer groups. Also, keep in mind that video is an excellent portable tool for telling your story. Likewise, the Web and your company Intranet can also promote the Information Center's presence and focus on leading edge information-delivery tools.

If you can consistently demonstrate the power of fact-based information by doing value-added, analyzed work, key mangers will become ambassadors of your service and tell other high-level decision makers about the great input and service they received. Focusing your efforts is your key to success and strategic viability.