Using audience segmentation and targeted social marketing to improve landholder management of invasive animals

Researchers have developed an impressive set of technologies and recommended best practices for controlling invasive pests. Some landholders embrace these solutions, but others reject or ignore them. Engagement specialists - that is, those tasked with encouraging landholders to help in the task of controlling invasive pests - generally recognise that to gain cooperation they need to modify messaging and interaction strategies to match the unique characteristics of the individuals and groups they work with, but the specialists often make their modifications based on intuition rather than on a systematic evaluation of specific audience needs. This chapter introduces a method of evaluating audience needs through segmentation analysis and then targeting the segments using social marketing. It also demonstrates how these approaches can improve landholder engagement and increase adoption of best practices for managing invasive species.