Are You Targeting Correctly?

Hey!

More importantly, are you targeting them with the right message?

Today’s graph shows you two axises: segmentation and value proposition.

You can segment your market generically or specifically.

Your value proposition sits somewhere between generic and specific.

What does it mean?

Upper Left: Your segment is general, but your value is specific is “Mass Market”.

You are talking about things like Pampers, Tide, or Charmin.

Everyone uses detergent, toilet paper, or could be in the market for diapers at some point.

For you, this is the area where you want to think about your branding.

At some point, everyone might want to find an entertainment option for client entertainment, a date, or team building.

Why not with you?

These people take a lot of touch points to get to the state of buying. But it is the realm of sophisticated mass marketing.

Lower Left: The segment is specific and your value proposition is very specific. These are often your “Early Adopters”.

These are people that bought the early Teslas, they saw Hamilton at the Public Theatre, these are your opinion leaders like bloggers, influencers, etc.

For you, you need to know whether or this audience is meaningful and if you should be focusing on them.

They are likely going to be a pretty small percentage of the total potential market.

You can get these people to buy quickly if you know the market because you will be able to design a campaign that can make them feel spoken to.

This is also where you find the sweet spot for any sales activation campaign.

Lower Right: General value proposition combined with specific segmentation.

This segment is often thinking, “Why Me?”

The segment is very specific, but the message is very general.

This isn’t a completely lost cause, but it can feel a lot like those spam emails that say, “You love the University of Alabama, have you thought about giving us some of your cash?”

TBF, Alabama hasn’t sent me a note like that in months.

The challenge here is that you’ve got the targeting, but the message is still tone deaf or better for brand building.

Sales activation isn’t going to happen easily here.

Upper Right: This is general targeting and generic value proposition.

I think about this with the stuff around “start with why” or “100 pieces of content a day”…it is motivational speaking fluff in most cases.

The only thing that this is really good for is brand building.

You’ll say stuff that is almost universal in applicability, knowing that it might take many touches before you pop to mind for people.

What does all of this mean?

It means that you need to be careful about your messaging.

The reality is that you need to do a bit of all 4.

If I had to guess a specific mix:

• “Motivational Speaker”: 25%

• “Mass Market”: 35%

• “Early Adopters”: 30%

• “Why Me?”: 10%

These are generic guidelines.

The key is that you need to do a mix of branding and sales activation. The right mix will depend on your spot in the market.

Hamilton can get away with a lot more “Mass” now.

Your mileage may vary.