How to Think About Your Target Market for MASSIVE Results
Remember the old saying, “dude could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves?”
The powerhouse salesperson trope is kinda cool. It feels powerful. You feel an admiration towards the idea.
Until you know better.
Spending time and energy trying to sell a saucy dessert to someone wearing stylish gloves is like typing up an email with your feet.
One guy might be impressed, somehow. But as far as the email is concerned…
…you could’ve been more efficient!
(Not to mention the after effects won’t be ideal for the woman OR the keyboard.)
There’s a concept I fall back on CONSTANTLY that helps put the question of “who is this marketing for” into perspective.
For the time being, I call this the “marketplace continuum” concept. (I know it ain’t a sexy name.)
The main premise is well known in marketing:
If you want to maximize your selling efforts you have to forego trying to sell everyone.
I picture the marketplace continuum like a line up. A bit like this image:
Imagine this line represents every human being in the world. Wouldn’t it be swell if they all bought your offer? Unfortunately that ain’t gonna happen. Just like my ’82 Toyota ain’t gonna cross the Sydney Harbour by itself.
No. Matter. What.
Lots of humans won’t EVER buy your offer. Eliminate them from your sphere of consideration.
This is (probably) most of them, too. I like to account for everything here. Infants, hunter gatherer people in Tanzania, off-the-grid folks in South Australia, etc. etc.
Maybe that sounds foolish but I think knowing EXACTLY where the boundaries are in advance keeps you focused within them. It also keeps you from ignoring the fringes.
This also includes everyone who won’t even see your marketing message. They don’t have internet. They won’t walk past your sandwich board. Their demographic doesn’t live where you’re marketing. Etc. etc. etc.
They might not be able to afford your offer at all.
Or maybe it’s people who don’t have the problem you solve.
Cut all those humans from your thinking when you design your promotion.
Nice one.
Now you know you don’t have to empathize with those people when you craft your message. You can…
Focus on the ones who have it in ’em to buy your offer!
Before I move past this point I want to give a real example.
I used to sell stereo and home cinema systems out of a “hi-fi specialist” storefront. This was my first foray into selling anything at all. (Besides selling lollypops when I was in seventh grade, but that’s another story.)
If you don’t know anything about specialist hi-fi stores, they sell similar stuff to Best Buy but they tend to carry higher ticket stuff too.
They’re essentially a retailer who carries niche, performance audio products that focus on reproducing recordings accurately. That’s in contrast to mainstream, “lifestyle” audio products which are meant for a market who can’t perceive high fidelity in audio. (Or can’t justify the prices).
What I’m getting at here is…
…specialists cater to hobbyists!
Now remember we’re talking about NOT targeting people who will NEVER buy. Sales and marketing efforts thrive when they follow this mantra.
Well there was something very interesting I learned during my time on that sales floor. Especially because it was my first sales job — so I was extra concerned with how people FELT while I was trying to sell to them.
Once in a while (actually pretty damn often) I’d greet a customer and get to chatting to them… and they’d be really keen to talk.
They’d ask lots of questions. And talk about their own systems. And on and on.
My boss would ignore or brush these people off. Sometimes he’d talk to them for a sec, smile, then walk away abruptly. At first I thought this was a bit rude. I’d stick around and talk to these people for a bit.
And while chatting to them I’d try to get them onto whatever product seemed like a possible fit. Half the time they’d show interest and ask questions.
Then, sometimes after multiple hours of discussion, they’d say “See ya!”
And out the door they went.
Are you picking up what I’m putting down??
The lesson I learned very quickly was…
These people were TIME WASTERS!
They were never, EVER going to buy something. Therefore, any selling effort made at all was… a waste of time!
This is a GREAT example of a “red herring” on the fringes of your possible buyers set. If you’re not making a strong enough effort to focus your selling (or advertising) on genuine possible buyers…
…a demographic like this can suck energy from the campaign.
In the example above, these false prospects sucked energy out of my selling by taking my attention away. Away from productive tasks and other prospects.
The idea is to CUT these red herrings out of your consideration while designing your marketing assets. That will leave you with a “population set” that CAN be convinced to buy.
OK!
It’s getting exciting now. There’s some meat for this sandwich after all.
Moving on. Let’s dive deeper into this possible buyers set.
This group has it in them to buy… but there might be some very different people in there.
You STILL have to decide which ones to resonate with.
If you had a real life crystal ball and could see the future, these people would all buy your offer at some point. They just need the right marketing message, or the right timing, or the right financial standing, or whatever.
It should be clear now that people who AREN’T in this group are 100% a waste of time. By definition.
Not a shred of your message should be concerned with them. (Excluding matters of law and socially acceptable publication.)
You should try to choose the subset with the most people in it.
That sounds obvious. But the best subset might also have different types of people within it. There could be some overlap and you may be able to speak to multiple subsets with one message.
Which brings us to the limiting factor: Your message.
Let me explain.
It would be great if you could cram every angle… every person’s language (how they talk about the problem)… every pain point… every benefit… EVERYTHING into one campaign.
But time and again it’s shown that ONE MAIN IDEA hits.
one could die from a condition that’s already been cured.
In every area of existence you must polarize to impact.
Marketing is no different.
And so, in order to create an impact your message must be committed.
Here’s a simple example to get your mental juices flowing: What if you want to sell wheelchairs?
Do you pitch to the altruistic, caring young woman who’s pushing it?
OR the paraplegic bloke who’s sitting in it?
Because if you think about it… you can’t TRULY resonate with both in the same exact message… can you?
The pusher might care that the seat is comfortable. But you appeal to their benevolently selfish nature with your ergonomic handles. That’s where their buying emotions might be found.
Meanwhile — bloke does not have time to think about those handles.
Now maybe you’re thinking, “Oh I can sell both of them. I’m a bad-mo-fo at this, and I’ll write the hell out of a sales page to prove it!!”
And you know what? That’s not impossible. That’s due to a little thing called “market sophistication” that was introduced by advertising legend Eugene Schwartz.
The concept identifies different stages in the lifecycle of a particular market.
At the start, just solving the basic problem is all it takes to sell. Down the road people become jaded, the market becomes saturated with options, and… you gotta get CLEVER to make sales.
The luxury of a low-level market sophistication is pretty rare nowadays. Right now we’re trying to solve harder problems.
So hear me out.
Your sales message will catch fire if you combine intensity of resonance with size of possible buyer subset.
Resonance + Population Size = RE$ULTS
What’s possible depends on market sophistication for your niche, subjective reality of the problem you solve, cultural climate and… probably 1,000 other things.
That’s where testing comes in.
Each time you publish your marketing assets you’re getting a reading on those two variables above. (Resonance and population size.)
We know that your population size is limited by your possible buyer set.
And your resonance level is reflected in the message you’re showing to them.
But you can’t test something that doesn’t exist. So you take everything you already know and everything you can possibly research, and you design the best thing you can in a vacuum.
You can research and study, look for patterns…
You can get feedback from people who have seen testing data in comparable campaigns…
But you don’t know JACK until you test… Jack!
Run your “best thing,” hopefully sooner than later as they say perfectionism withers the soul. You got a benchmark now. Tweak intelligently, one thing at a time like a good scientist would do. Let the data (not the ego) do the steering.
Each time your iterations hit whatever stream of humans you’re targeting, you get a response. A vibration. A semblance of activity in direct response to the effort of your team.
Move left. Hotter? Good. Colder? Move right.
The better your results, the better you know you’re resonating with your possible buyer set.
Of course… all this ASSUMES your message has rock solid fundamentals.
The fundamentals of good copy exist across the spectrum. They’re designed for humans. Without them… all your testing is a waste of time…
…like selling to a narcissistic hi-fi nerd with an empty bank account.
…
Thanks for reading! I hope this train of thought got your gears turning.
By the way… if you want to hire a copywriter with those rock solid fundamentals to write and test your next killer promotion, get in touch and let’s talk!
