He who tries to do everything ends up getting nothing accomplished. This truism applies aptly to the world of targeted marketing. Business owners need to step back and figure out who their clients actually are. The large group of customers in your stable is actually just a combination of many small groups.
Let’s assume you sell doorknobs of all varieties. Some buyers might be women in the midst of home decoration. Others might be men purchasing them for an office complex. Yet another might be a college student needing to replace one which was the casualty of a raucous party. These are all quite different individuals. They will respond to different approaches.
Keep this in mind the next time you seek brochure printing companies. Market brochures, however inexpensive, still need to be read by the intended recipient. If you use the wrong design and copy for the audience receiving it, then it constitutes lost marketing opportunity. Brochure printing expense should provide excellent return if utilized properly.
Craft different messages for varying market segments. Customers who feel the product or service is tailor made for them are far more likely to be converted. Don’t be a business that tries to be everything to everybody.
I have a friend who likes to buy herbs and various other kinds of plants. Well, in our city is a store aimed at Wicca’s, a very small, niche market if there ever was one. They send out catalogs to people along with postcards talking about their products in relation to this market.
The thing of it is this store also has a good selection of herbs. Even though my friend doesn’t know anything about Wicca, she still goes in and shops there for the various herbs.
Just because the store focuses on a small, niche market, they’re still open to other people to come in and buy things that have nothing to do with that market.
A lot of businesses don’t seem to understand that you can focus on a niche market while still being open to other people to come in and shop. Everyone doesn’t have to be part of the niche you’re targeting for him or her to find something of interest in your store.
I guess I just get tired of seeing stores that seem to decide, this is our niche, so we’re closing ourselves off to everyone else. Targeting a niche is effective, but only if you remain open to the general public as well. At the very least, the store in my city wouldn’t be getting the business of my friend had they not been open to other people.
If you’re trying to please everyone odds are you won’t please anyone.
I don’t like feeling like I’m just another face in the crowd to large companies, and mass marketing does a good job of making me feel this way. After all, they seem to think my unique interests, the things I enjoy, the people I spend my time with, can be targeted by the same ad campaign that targets everyone else.
I’m a little more unique than that.
And really, part of it is just a matter of them being lazy. They don’t want to take the time to design a unique newsletter or brochure, or do the proper research to make a direct mail postcard campaign work. No, they just want to make a single ad that everyone will like.
This is just a failure on their part in understanding their market. If they won’t take the time to develop a good strategy I won’t take the time to come and shop with them. I can’t put it more simply than that.
Maybe those mass marketers will start to learn their lesson. Until then, I’ll give my business to the store who takes the time to understand what I want to buy.
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