“Why?” you’re asking. Well, according to recently published research The 2008 Annual Decision Maker Index, 78% of the respondents (IT decision-makers in large organisations) felt marketing approaches made by new IT suppliers were poorly targeted.

The respondents said they felt like they were just being approached as part of a low cost, low effort campaign that wasn’t in any way personalised to them.

Across all marketing communications, the Index shows that less than a quarter were seen as relevant. And given, in an average week, a decision-maker receives an average of:

• 20 direct mail pieces,
• 145 emails,
• 25 calls,
• And 5 event invitations,

of all the communications they are likely to receive, decision-makers are most likely to see event invitations as of interest (see my earlier post on getting this right). But even for these, less than a third are classed as relevant. If you want to make your marketing communications stand out, you have to make them compelling and relevant. There are plenty of factors that show why no single communication piece can deliver the full potential in a market. For one, credibility is as much a result of sustained communication as it is something that a single piece can demonstrate. Interestingly, the audience themselves also acknowledge the importance of timing: an issue may be irrelevant one month and top of the agenda the next.