It happened again. My work with clients persistently boils down to me giving the same advice after this type of discussion. It goes like this:
Client: I want to sell everyone.
Me: You should narrow your focus and specialize. That way, someone will say, your brand gets me.
When they resist, I take out of my bag of tricks. I ask this question – if your child broke her leg, would you go to an urgent care, general practitioner, an orthopedist, or a juvenile orthopedist?
We seek specialists all the time.
Experts in narrow areas understand our challenge. We go to mechanics who specialize in fixing our type of Euopean sports car. There are specialized veterinarians who only heal larger animals like horses and cows. The best indepedent coffee shops roast and grind their beans today – not six months ago. Vegans seek out vegan restaurants or vegan cheese and now when a brand understands them.
Sometimes I ask my clients to describe their favorite brands or services – eventually, I hear about how much they love a company that understands their specific and narrow problem with a great product.
My most recent client told me she loved a company that helps you find a pet sitter when you go out of town and will stay in your house for free because they want to travel to that town). https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/ Trusted House Sitter isn’t for everyone. It is for a specific group of people who have pets, travel, and get free sitting in exchange for temporary use of their house. She rattled on and on about how fabulous this service was and that it was as if it was made just for her.
The lightbulb went off in her head. I could see it as she got my point.
Tip of The Spear
You can take money from anyone who wants to buy your product or service. But your core messaging, marketing efforts, and website need to identify your ideal client and what pain point you solve.
Maybe you sell the world’s most effective baseball bats for left-handed kids who want to be sluggers. Or you sell dog beds for dogs who like to rip up beds, so you are guaranteed for life and made of Kevlar. Perhaps your product is magic markers that can’t be used on walls – only on specific paper and thus are ideal for little kids.
Often, I’ll ask a client if they published a magazine for their business, for whom would they publish? Kids who like chess, teenagers who want indie music, cat lovers who buy strange hats, or mid-career adults looking to shift into new careers? Thinking like a specialized magazine helps you gain clarity that you can’t be for everyone.
Building a Core Message to Specialize in Your Communications
When you are clear about who your product or service is for, your messaging is simpler to communicate.
A client I worked on, built software built for food and beverage companies that can help them improve productivity by giving line workers more authority. They didn’t work with automobile factories, microchip manufacturers or steel mills. This companies focus in helping line workers be more responsible for efficiency so the company can be more productive.
Their message on their website is:
Empowering The Frontline, To Grow the Bottomline.
Your imagery shows food and beverage, manufacturing workers. No photos of steel mills or car manufacturers or microchip assembly lines. If a different manufacturer from food or beverage calls them, they’ll talk. But their positioning is narrow.
Can you be narrower in who you serve? Is your focus on a more specific community so you specialize in people like them?
Where would you take your kid if she broke her leg?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Francisco Venâncio on Unsplash
