Fill Your Space

Have you ever tried to color a large space with a marker?  What happens?  Right…it may start off ok but the more you color, the wetter the paper gets and that marker starts running a little bit dry.  Now, if you’d started with a crayon, chances are, you would have ended up with the perfect picture. Why? Crayons are made to do that – cover large spaces with beautiful splashes of color – markers, not so much. 

Like the marker, are you trying to do something you were not designed to do?  Are you attempting to target a market that you don’t respond to and who doesn’t respond to you?  The word target market has become so cliché to me.  Holding two degrees in Marketing myself, I’ve heard that term over and over during both my educational and professional career but it wasn’t until recently that I realized what a target market is NOT.  It is not everybody!  Even more specific – it’s not about the most people you can get, but the fewest.  Being a small business owner is a tough gig and the last thing you want to do is spend one dollar targeting an individual  who is never going to buy from you anyway.   

Look, I hear ya.  In sales, it’s all about activity.  But, guess what, calling on the wrong people only to be dismissed, sending mailers to those who will only trash it, or sending email blasts to just ANYBODY who later hit the SPAM button isn’t the activity you want.  My challenge for you is to take some time and truly identify who your target market is.  Don’t just say, for example, doctors.  Ok, there are thousands of doctors in just as many specialities.  Will you call all of them?  What will you say?  What’s your value add?  How will your product/service specifically meet needs that have gone unsatisfied within that demographic?  Not sure. That’s what I mean. That has to be spot on.

It’s all about developing what is called a persona.  When you create a persona, you are drilling down to who exactly your ideal customer is?  Going back to our doctor example, you may only want to work with cardiac surgeons who earn far less than $500,000 a year,  has a family with kids, volunteers services at the local medical clinic, and champions healthcare for underserved communities.  Now, you say – how on earth do I find all that out?  You do your homework.  You network and connect.  You show up where they hang out.  Take your findings and gear your message to topics relevant to that group.

I read a comment a local entrepreneur made that really resonated with me.  She said that a small business owner must be careful not to ‘dilute their focus’ by trying to be everything to everybody.  Dilute means to ‘water down’  and a watered down message sprayed on the wrong people is draining and can depress your business growth.  Be intentional about truly identifying your target market, develop your ideal persona and become an expert at how your product/service can serve that clearly defined group. Then go for it.  You’ll feel good knowing that every hard-earned marketing dollar is being spent on people with the highest propensity to buy.

 

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