Almost everybody in business makes this mistake, costing them millions in lost customers. Yes I’ve made it and I’m sure you have too.
The most common mistake every business owner makes is not focusing their marketing precisely enough on the right buyers. Here’s what typically happens…
You think you’ve got a great product or service. It’s god’s gift to the world and anyone with a pulse and wallet should be knocking on your door. Usually that lasts about a week and you wise up, realizing you need to get the word out, but the question is to whom?
Who should you target with your marketing?
You could just broadcast your message to anyone and everyone, but there are two big problems with that.
1. Trying to reach everyone who has money in their pocket means 99% of your marketing will be wasted, because chances are only a small percentage of the total universe of people who can afford your products or services will have an interest.
2. When you try to market to everyone, inevitably you avoid being specific or tailoring your market to particular interests. And in trying to apply to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one, or hardly anyone.
Imagine you’re filling in your profile on one of the online dating services and you want it to appeal to everyone. You fill in the form, and you say you’re tall, short, blonde and brunette, love adventure travel, love staying at home, enjoy living in the country but live in the city, … Which of course would be ridiculous.
But that is what most business owners try to do with their marketing – appeal to everyone, instead of targeting the people who are most likely to buy. It’d be like owning a ski shop and planning to market in every town in the country all year long.
Obviously, you’d be more successful in marketing your skis in cities and towns within driving reach of a ski mountain, and focusing on the fall months when people buy skis, not June or July.
The more you know about your prospects, the more precisely you can target them and market to them.
But here is one mental hurdle you need to overcome.
By targeting your best buyers, you’ll be marketing to far fewer people, but don’t worry, the result will be that your marketing will resonate with them and you’ll sell more.
Take the lead generation services my company, www.ClientsDelivered.com, provides to local businesses. At first glance, there are millions of businesses we could be marketing to. And while we could try to target all of them, that wouldn’t be too smart for the above-mentioned reasons.
What we’ve found is there is a specific subset of people who are the ones most likely to sign up. For www.ClientsDelivered.com, our most eager buyers are local service providers who already have a website. They’ve tried SEO, even hiring someone to do it, and/or they’ve tried social media.
Like you, they may have even tried to set up their own online lead generation system or hired a handful of so-called experts to work on parts of the puzzle. And probably like you, they’re frustrated with the lack of results and looking for a proven lead generation system and someone who can manage it for them.
Which is what we do – provide business owners like you with one integrated, proven online lead generation system that gets the phone ringing and generates sales.
You see the difference?
You can waste your time trying to market to everyone, and appeal to almost no one, or you can precisely identify the problem you solve and the specific types of people you solve it for. With the second strategy, you’ll have instant appeal and generate many more sales.
Want to target more buyers?
Start by answering the following questions:
1. Why do your clients (from their perspective) buy your products or services?
2. What’s the problem they want you to solve for them?
Then use this information to shape your marketing so your ideal clients see themselves reflected in your marketing message, marketing copy, videos, and everything you use to attract buyers. It’s really that simple.
To your success,
Charlie
P.S. One truth about marketing is it’s a lot easier to sell more to a few people than it is to sell to a lot of people. For most small business owners, the real money, the millions in income, is in the niches.
P.P.S. Another simple truth about marketing is that it’s ten times easier to attract the right people to buy, than to try and convince the wrong ones.
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