Few things in business excite me more than when I see a client of mine grasp the following concept. It’s a preverbal light that once turns on, changes everything in their business. I don’t mean sort of changes things, I mean really changes everything. It’s like putting on another lens.
Think of it as equivalent to the red pill in The Matrix. Once you take it, everything changes.
But before we get into the specifics of what this concept is, let’s tackle one important truth all business owners must agree upon. There are two things in business you must never fully relinquish to someone else or you’ll face certain consequences time and time again, ignore at your own risk.
- Your checkbook
- Your marketing
I’m not saying that you can’t get help in both area’s but the nature of your business’s existence is predicated upon the functioning of these two things. You owe it to yourself to be involved in both. Never fully relinquish either to others. This is the oxygen to your business!
With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.
The first thing you need to do today to change the trajectory of your business is to pick a market to pursue.
Market, audience, niche, whatever you want to call it. The point is this, shrink the size of who you are trying to reach.
People are different in the way they think, what motivates them, what they respond to, what hobbies they have and hundreds of other things. You shouldn’t speak to them in generalities.
When you speak to everyone you speak to no one but when you speak to one you speak to many.
Most marketing material, social media post, postcards, commercials, ads all have one thing in common, they aren’t speaking to you specifically. It’s such a missed opportunity.
I remember debating someone on this who was a tech guy. He said nobody reads mail promotions anymore. I was making the case it’s very much a active gold mine to this today. He disagreed and said it’s all tech. All marketing should be digital.
He said he never reads the direct mail he gets in his mailbox. I bet he doesn’t. But the reason isn’t that there is something wrong with an ad hitting his mailbox the problem is generalities on the mail itself.
I went to his profile, found he loved a specific local ice cream brand, visited it’s location, had a tee-shirt of the company and basically dreamt about it. I asked, he if a direct mail piece from “Uncle Jacks Ice Cream” (made up name) landed in your mailbox would you stop and read it?
We all know the answer.
Everything else that will make this work starts with a target market. It’s totally up to you who to pick. Have fun with it.
Here are some target market ideas. Start by looking at your previous customer list…
- Ever customer who has bought your product or service and had a beard
- Single mothers
- Work at the same business
- Live in the same subdivision
- Kids go to the same school or play the same sport
- Read the same magazine subscriptions
- Age grouping
- Income grouping
- Same hobbies
The list really does go on forever. I often suggest looking at either the most profitable clients you have and see if there are any similarities (which there are) or just look for any obvious groupings.
The second thing you need to do today to change the trajectory of your business is to consider the right method or methods to get their attention.
This is about delivering your promo or marketing to that group you’ve selected. This to me is the most exciting element of this whole thing. The more unique you can be the better.
Once you know who you are marketing to then you can determine how you are going to market to them. Get creative here.
Here are a few ideas…
- Airplane banners
- YouTube Ads
- Linked-In
- Public Transportation vehicle wraps
- Direct mail
- HOA Sponsored event
- Buy the list from someone already selling to them
- Partner up with another product offering company combining both products
- TV ads
- Radio ads
- Newspaper ads
Honestly think way outside of the box here. This can get so fun when you know who it is you are targeting!
The third thing you need to do today to change the trajectory of your business is to bring it all together with the right match.
The right match is the offer and the copy. By copy I mean the words you put together to entice them. If you don’t like the word “entice” let’s say alert.
Either way what you are offering them and how you are offering it matters. But here is when the lights should start turning on….you get to speak directly to them. Its the audience you picked!
Couple things here about matching the market with the method using your offer.
Most business go wrong because they are only fighting for people who are ready to buy today. It’s less than 15% of the any given market.
Want to immediately change your future business? Offer something non-sales like thats pure value to your customers that lets you know they are interested in your business at some point in the future.
Go after a MUCH bigger piece of the pie. Future customers. People buy from those they know, like and trust.
Your goal is to fill wheelbarrows of future clients that know and like you and you build trust by providing more and more value over time.
This can be a free report, free recorded message, a gift, a course, anything that causes them to raise their hand and say, “hey, I’m interested.”
Then you spend the rest of your time, building that relationship up so that they buy when they are ready. Yes you lead them but only to the point they want to be lead.
This will give your sales team boat loads of pre-qualified prospects. Making it much easier to sell. And at that point, are you really selling? You’r just giving your customer what they want.
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