Is anyone hard to reach?
It’s something we hear time and again. How will a campaign connect with the ‘hard to reach’?
What’s usually meant by this phrase is the very old or young, the socially disadvantaged, those with ethnic backgrounds or from rural communities.
The implication in many cases is that these groups deliberately distance themselves, refuse to listen or be engaged.
But here’s the thing. If you asked them, would they consider themselves ‘hard to reach’ or would they be more likely to say that the service providers are actually the ones who are hard to reach?
Speak to someone in the marketing department of a credit card company, a mobile phone manufacturer, a sportswear retailer, a local football club. Do they find these people ‘hard to reach’? Not really.
When someone calls your home during dinner for a telephone survey you’re probably pretty hard to reach. Why? Because the person at the other end of the telephone isn’t offering you anything of tangible value and isn’t connecting with you on your terms. So you politely decline and hang up.
People are only as hard to reach as you make them. The secret is not complicated in principle.
First, make sure you have something to communicate that’s of genuine relevance to these groups. Not what you think they might want or might need, but something that is actually of real value.
Secondly, communicate in a way that acknowledges any conversation is a two-way process. Talking someone’s language isn’t just about translating copy; it’s about style, tone, intent, what you say and how you say it.
Now I’m not trying to pretend there aren’t significant challenges out there and I’m not trying to oversimplify the solution, but in some ways it really is that basic, at heart.
Look at the brands that do connect with your hard to reach groups, what can you learn from the way they succeed?
If you’ve got something of value and you communicate in a way that genuinely seeks to engage with people on their terms, you’ll find they’re easy to reach.