I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
Find Your Tribe
Do you know who your people are? The ones that care about what you care about and what you stand for? Who get excited about all the ways you build value into your business, products, or services? The ones who say, "I love that" when you explain why you do what you do?
Time and again, I find entrepreneurs define their target market too broadly and then wonder why they don't get the traffic and response they expected.
It's not enough to define the demographics of your market—age, gender, geographic location, income level, and so on. And their behaviors and preferences—shopping habits, communication preferences, tech-savviness, etc.
You need to think more deeply about who they really are—what they believe in, value, and desire.
Here are some questions you might ask yourself about them:
- What types of careers do they gravitate toward? Why?
- How do they spend their spare time? Why?
- Who are the most important people in their lives? Why?
- If there were no limits, what would they be and do if they could be and do anything? Why?
- What is their biggest unspoke fear?
- What are they secretly most proud of?
This is by no means a complete list or even the right list for you. Give yourself permission to come up with questions that make sense for your type of business and customers. The main thing is to know your ideal customers as fully-fledged human beings and not just in the most basic terms and buying behaviors.
When you know your people more deeply, amazing things start to happen.
It's easier to:
- Identify where and with whom they hang out online and off, so you can build a more targeted marketing strategy,
- Develop the rich, relatable language that really resonates, so you can create a successful messaging strategy, and
- Zero in on the right sales and customer experiences to create so you're delivering deep and meaningful value that results in happy, long-term customers, who are delighted to recommend and refer you.
If you're feeling overwhelmed with your marketing, I suggest you reach out to me.
Missed last week's message on how to deal with feeling stuck or just dazed and confused? You can read it here.
Until next week, stay curious!
Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who might benefit from its contents.
Easily Said & Done
I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
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