The biggest fundamental marketing mistake companies make

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, it's Laura. Today, I wanted to talk to you about one of the biggest mistakes that I see companies make. It's not a big, fancy marketing thing. It's a fundamental mistake that a lot of companies make. It's not getting specific and clear enough about who your target market is. Again, it sounds very basic, but a lot of companies are hesitant to get really specific about who their target market is. So, what's the problem with that?

The problem is if you are not clear on who your ideal client is and who you're trying to market your services or product to, your messaging and the way that you communicate with them and the way that you connect with them is not going to be clear. You're going to be spraying all of your communications out, but people aren't going to be connecting with them if you are not speaking to them specifically and the specific problem that you're solving for them.

The other problem is that if you're not clear about who your target market is, you're going to do a whole bunch of activities, and you're probably going to waste a lot of time and money in doing them. But if you're really clear on you're trying to target, it becomes a filter for the activities that you're going to do. It becomes the thing that you can use to vet opportunities. So, if there's a speaking opportunity, looking at the audience and thinking, "Is this the market that I'm trying to reach?" But if you're not specific, you may take those opportunities and then be frustrated when you're not getting results, and you're not getting engagement from people, and you're not getting the outcomes that you want.

So, the biggest argument I get from people is that they're afraid to niche. It sounds really scary to get specific about your market. They'll say to me, "Well, what if somebody else ... " So, say, for example, you decide that you are specifically targeting women in their 40s who have had a career change and need some guidance and coaching help.

They'll say, "But what if a man wants to work with me?" It's okay if a man wants to work with you if you choose to work with that person, but the majority of your communications are targeted to people within that sector. It's going to help your messaging be clearer. It's going to help your engagement be clearer, and it's going to help you be more effective and efficient in your marketing activities overall.

So, share with me below if you ... Drop a heart below if you've ever had this challenge or if you've had the experience of being pretty broad in general in your target market. For example, I worked with a client at one point, and I asked her who her ideal client was, and she said, "Anyone from 20 to 100." Now, that's a very broad range. What sex? What geography? What kind of problem does that person have? What stage of life are they at? What other products and services do they use?

There's so many ways that you have to get really specific about your market, and doing those things, while it can seem scary, will actually help your marketing be more targeted, more specific, more effective, and it's going to definitely increase your engagement.

So, if you've had the experience of being really broad in your marketing, and you've gotten more niche and found that you've had better engagement and better results, I'd love to hear your examples below.