Video Transcription:
Why is marketing to "everyone" a bad idea?
When I talk to small business owners about who their ideal customer is, often I get answers like "Well everyone's my customer, Tom," or "Anyone who'll buy from me."
So you probably think the more people you can get in front of the better your chances are for success right? Wrong.
This may seem counterintuitive at first but narrowing your focus to the right customer instead of everyone will make marketing much easier and more successful. To find out why keep watching.
Hi I'm Tom Malesic, founder and President, of EZMarketing and you're watching Ask EZ. This is where small business owners go to get real answers to their marketing questions.
Because trying to market to everyone makes it much harder to do marketing.
First it's harder for you to know what direction to go. So imagine you own a shoe store. Everyone needs shoes right? So everyone's your target audience?
But how do you reach everyone, and what types of marketing should you use? You have no idea what to do and how to get started, and you're going to end up wasting a lot of time and a lot of money figuring it out.
Versus if you're selling high performance athletic shoes to runners. Now you know your target audience is probably younger to middle aged, they're highly active, and probably really health conscious. You might want to advertise in running-related websites or maybe you're going to sponsor a local race.
Narrowing gives you a much clearer picture of who your customer is and how to market to them.
Also it's harder for your customers to understand and trust how you can help them.
If you had a heart condition would you rather see your family doctor or a cardiologist? Right, you'd see the cardiologist because you know that that person has the specific expertise needed to help you.
Now imagine how bad it would be if your doctor tried to market to everyone. What's their message? "Whether you have a cold or back pain or a brain tumor I can solve all your health problems!"
1) you probably won't believe them, and 2) you're less certain that they're even going to be able to help you with your heart condition.
I know that sounded ridiculous but that's what many businesses are doing. You're trying to be a one-stop shop for everyone and when you try to serve everyone you end up serving no one. You make it harder for your customers to understand your message and for them to want to buy from you.
So narrowing in on a specific audience and ideal customer will make your marketing so much easier. It'll give you the direction for your marketing and will make it clear for your customers which is going to save you a lot of time and a lot of money.
If you'd like some help to figure out who your ideal customer is and how to make
your marketing a lot easier, sign up for our free, on-demand workshop. It's called "How to Identify the Perfect 'Right Fit' Customer."
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