Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

I agree -- better messaging would do your client better than providing information to groups that aren't interested in some of it. Sending everything to everyone is overkill and may result in him losing clients.

Since you didn't say what the educational content was (topic), it's hard to come up with marketing messages, but you are on the right track in improving those and not spending more money on media. Be SEO and audience savvy.

Maybe you can sub-segment the segments so the messages can be REALLY specific to each sub-segment. The narrower your targets, the more effective your targeted messages will be ... and that should deliver better results than a "one size fits all" approach.

Your question was a bit leading - the limited information you gave us will make us agree with better messaging. Quite likely better messaging (and probably also better targeting of that message) would be the right route, but I'd want more data before making the decision.

The response you are getting is very typical "I didnt know you did that".

Think the Coca Cola rep. He's in the store ready to sell product. The customer say's Oh no, we don't sell soda. The Coke reps says, "no problem, we offer Minute Maid, Fruitopia, Simply Fruit, Odwalla, etc etc" And the customer says "I didn't know you did that". (simplification I know one rep doesnt market all of their brands)

The point is the Coke customer doesnt need to know they offer brands they don't need. Be lazar sharp in your marketing Create one message and its chanels for product A, B and C. The reason the message is diluted is because the marketing is diluted. So by shortening the distribution of the message, you can go farther in your budget.

I agree with everyone else. The only time you care about the "I didn't know" response is when it involves a solution they could have used.

Find the pain points within each segment and build your messaging and concepts around reaching each specific target with the solution to their pain. Your method of reaching high-schoolers may be completely different than your method to reach adult learners. However, where appropriate, also include some "boilerplate" content that explains the full breadth of your offerings, and include this in ALL your messaging. For instance, in printed collateral I like to include some of this high-level messaging on the back of each brochure.

The key to multi-segment marketing is a combination of targeted messaging plus tactics, and skill in using elevator statements that include all segments where appropriate, or where you may be speaking to any or all of your segments.

Your client wants everyone to know everything?

Really?

And they're in the education niche? And we wonder why standards are as low as they are.

I think your client needs to wake up to the fact that every client doesn't care about every offering: they only care about the offering that's most important to THEM and to THEIR specific problem AT THAT TIME.

Offering EVERYTHING to EVERYONE is a waste of resources and a waste of people's time. Segment the messages so that they appeal DIRECTLY to the needs and desired outcomes of the audiences in question.