Tag Archive for audience vs. market

The Clean and Green Club, September 2021

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Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip: September 2021

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Are You Confusing Your Market and Audience? BIG Mistake

In a recent newsletter, Chris Brogan wrote, “The other day, I tweeted out something like, ‘Hey, who here can help shiny up a sales page for me?’” and then went on to list the responses and his process of choosing who to work with. I realized even as I was writing back to him that I wanted to share my thoughts with you, too. Here’s the relevant part what I sent him. You can see the archived sales page we’re discussing (since he has indeed replaced the copy) at https://web.archive.org/web/20210507210632/https://ownermedia.leadpages.co/insider/

I L O V E “shiny it up”–nice addition to the language. I missed the post where you made that request, or I probably would have responded.

I say “probably” because your existing sales page is quite strong–at least for a word nerd like me. I love replacing the “new normal” with “New Better”–especially since I’ve been thinking hard about the opportunities to make a better world as we emerge from the pandemic. I’m sure you’ve heard that it’s too long, but that’s an audience thing. If I and people like me are your target audience, it’s not too long because it got me to read all the way through. And it felt much less lengthy when I switched from reading it on my phone to re-reading it on a computer, BTW.

I will be very curious to see what magic Sandy works. Three changes I would make would be:

  1. A MUCH stronger headline than “Small Business Owner Tools and Support”–something focused on the benefit (goal made easier and/or problem solved or at least helped) and an action step
  2. Change the five “I” bullets to “You”
  3. Spread the testimonials out instead of grouping them together (and possibly add more)
  4. Since you used Cyndi’s testimonial as a teaser early on, I’d use her entire blurb there and not repeat it later

It got me thinking more about the difference between audience and market, though–because I AM your audience, but I’m NOT your market.

I’m your audience because I love good copy, I run a microbusiness (a solopreneurship, in fact), and I encounter some of these issues in my business. But I’m not your market, because 1) I historically haven’t reacted well to online courses and tend to abandon them; 2) I can’t keep up with the firehose of information already coming my way; 3) I tend to multitask while listening to webinars and teleseminars, and if I’m paying for the content, that means I have to not multitask to get my money’s worth, and therefore there are fewer computer hours in the day to get everything else done; and most importantly, 4) I’ve already developed a bunch of support systems and networks of people I can bounce stuff off–ranging from online communities to 1:1 peer masterminds where we mentor and help each other.

Until now, writing to you, I really hadn’t thought very much about the truth that [audience and market] don’t always align even when it looks like a fit. Since I’m thinking about it now, this note is likely to evolve into my monthly newsletter main article.

Other places where a market and an audience might not match–these, I *have* thought about before–would include:

  • K-12 and college-following-right-after-high school educational settings, where the market is parents or teachers but the audience is kids
  • Services for elders, purchased by younger caregivers
  • Services provided by nonprofits working in poverty situations; their market is donors in wealthy countries, but their clients (the audience) are individuals with zero disposable income and little infrastructure
  • Corporate B2B sales where the decision-makers are not the users

What’s new and different about *this* conversation is the situation where the audience is almost the market, but non-obvious factors get in the way. So thanks for the insight ;-).

And here’s the relevant part of his reply to me:

There’s quite a lot of food for thought in here so thank you for that. We both agree that a new better might be much better than a new normal.

If you’re curious about what his copywriter did, visit https://ownermedia.leadpages.co/insider/ . The version I’m looking at begins,

Owner Insider

“WAIT, WHAT? THERE’S A MEMBER COMMUNITY AT OWNER MEDIA?”

If you’re seeing something different, you can see if Archive.org has that one (paste the above URL into the search field on that site). As of the day I’m writing this in August, the most recent Archive copy is the May 7 version that begins “Small Business Owner Tools and Support.”

Next month, I’ll give you my response to Chris’s “Shiny up” new sales page.

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Discover why Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield, futurist Seth Godin, and many others recommend Shel’s 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (and download a free sampler). Autographed and inscribed copies available.

Are you ever stuck on the hamster wheel, just barely getting by? What if I told you there are always ways to create more impact, more income, and more freedom?

>Maybe you’ve seen others thrive and asked yourself, “Why can’t I create those kinds of results? How do I figure out what the cutting-edge experts are doing?”

Well, if you’re like my friend Christine Schlonski, you get a bunch of these super successful, heart-centered experts and authorities together and ask! She won’t even charge you to hear our answers, if you listen live to her Profitable Coach Summit. But it’s not just for coaches. Any entrepreneur will benefit.

You might recognize some of the speakers’ names–Milana Leshinski, Jeannie Spiro, Dan Janal, and many others–and, of course, Christine herself. She is not only brilliant, she’s also a lot of fun to be around. Plus, all of these strategies are heart-centered; they’ll feel right from the get-go.

Get your complimentary ticket to The Profitable Coach Summit here: https://ci340.isrefer.com/go/PCS/shelhoro/

The best part is, these sessions will give you guidance and insights on how you can become a profitable coach with the impact and freedom you desire.

Here’s just a taste :

  • How to Create a Business That Feeds Your Soul and Your Wallet
  • The World’s #1 Media Coach Will Show You How To Generate Top-Tier Media Coverage (without paying anything for it)
  • Turning Webinars on Their Heads: How to increase interaction and conversion with shorter, story-based presentations.
  • Converting LinkedIn Content and Connections to Conversations
  • The Four Sales Languages
  • Small Events, Big Back End: How To Build a 7–Figure Business With Retreats & Mastermind Groups
  • How To Triple Revenue In One Year With 3 Simple Steps
  • MY TALK: Finding the Profit in Purpose and the Purpose in Profit: The Sweet Spot Where Profitability, Social Change, and Healing the Planet All Intersect
  • And many more…

==> https://ci340.isrefer.com/go/PCS/shelhoro/ for your no-charge ticket, then tune in September 21-26.

PS–if you can’t make all the sessions, there is an upgrade package to get all the recordings.

View highlights from (and listen to) more than 30 podcasts ranging from 5 minutes to a full hour. Click here to see descriptions and replay links.

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Sell with Authority: Own and Monetize Your Agency’s Authority Position

Sell with Authority: Own and Monetize Your Agency’s Authority Position by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner (BookPress, 2020)

Don’t be put off by the subtitle if you don’t happen to run an advertising or marketing agency. While the book markets itself to ad agency owners, the authority strategy is far broader. I actually tried to think of an industry vertical where an authority strategy couldn’t work, and I failed. When I think of toilet paper, I think first of Marcal and its authority strategy around forest preservation…when I think of transportation, I think about the way Toyota and Tesla made electric cars a status symbol in vastly different markets—by positioning their customers as authorities in combining functionality (Prius) or performance/luxury (Tesla) with environmental responsibility: customers who were smart enough to be pioneers in our brave new path to a clean future. In agriculture, I think of the hundreds of organic foods businesses that use their packaging to educate consumers and position themselves as authorities on healthy eating and healthy land use.

So…what’s an authority position? According to McLellan and Woessner, you pick a niche, which could be driven by your industry slice, your audience, or the problem you solve (p. 31). In a Venn diagram, your niche is the intersection of several circles, as on the cover and on page 36, where the intersection is agencies—we’ll substitute “businesses”—with your expertise, those who “give a rip,” and those with your unique point of view. That intersection is tiny slice of a huge pie, and if you define it properly, it may only have one dot in the intersection: YOU! People who need your exact expertise, benefit from your point of view, and see that you actually care will discover that hiring your company is the only choice.

But I’d a add a caution: make another Venn diagram to establish market viability: One circle for who needs your expertise (and your solutions), another for who is aware of you or can become aware after minimal exploration, and a third for who is willing and able to pay for that expertise. THAT intersection is your actual potential market, and it should be a lot bigger than a single pinpoint.

I made the mistake of not doing this research 25 years ago when I released my book on how to have fun cheaply. It turned out the frugalists who wanted information on how to legally and ethically see entertainment for no-cost, travel for a fraction of the usual place, and find dating options that cost little or nothing didn’t want to pay for that information—and despite consistent national publicity (including ABC News, the MSN home page, and Redbook, among many others), it took me 8 years to sell through a 2000-copy print run of a $17 book.

You develop a detailed and unique point of view on the issues in that niche (pp. 37-43), perhaps asking how your clients are missing the mark (p. 41). Next, you develop a single content “cornerstone”: a central marketing strategy including the six building blocks on page 51. Something like a book, a regular podcast or blog—that consistently gets you in front of prospects who welcome those messages, that plays the long game—that both helps your audience (of actual prospects) get better at their task and deepens your connection with them. Once one cornerstone is firmly established, you can add a second.

From the cornerstone, develop “cobblestones”: little drips of enticing content that engages, informs, and brings people into your orbit.

In other words, everything should be strategic. As you develop your cornerstone content, you get to play journalist. Call your prospects, invite them to be interviewed, and then turn snippets of the conversation into cobblestones that promote them—and you.

Strategically maximize your efforts with everything from adding captions to all your videos (p. 70) and loading them natively into not just YouTube but other platforms including LinkedIn and Facebook (p. 137) to turning clients and prospects into marketing partners (p. 112), to detailed rinse-and-repeat recipes for getting the most exposure from every effort (pp. 156-165), and even a list of software tools they use.

Each chapter has one author, by the way: a very easy way to collaborate on a book.

Connect with Shel

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Turn Your Sustainability/CSR Report Into Powerful Marketing!  http://goingbeyondsustainability.com/turn-that-nobody-reads-it-csr-report-into-a-marketing-win/

About Shel

Speaker, author, and consultant Shel Horowitz of GoingBeyondSustainabiity.com helps businesses find the sweet spot at the intersections of profitability with environmental and social good — creating and marketing profitable products and services that make a direct difference on problems like hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change. His 10th book is Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World.

If you’re not already a subscriber, please visit http://goingbeyondsustainability.com and scroll to the very bottom left corner. You’ll find lots of interesting information on your way to the subscription for, too.

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