 Great photo by icon0.com We recently worked with a consultant who targeted certain professional-services firms, with the aim of improving their cashflow. While we were working on the website copy for this client, the conversation took an interesting turn:
Who was this website to target? Sure, it’s the “professional-services firms.” But who within them? Aha. Big question. Defining, and ranking, the “person target” within your intended audience is one of the most important, yet overlooked, exercises you can undertake in your business. So let’s talk about that. Concentric circles For the client we’d mentioned above, the initial target was the owners of these professional-services firms. But since the offering was all about improving cashflow, the better target was those people within those proserv firms handling the billing. While both audiences would appreciate the offering—and even though the practice owners would be the ones to approve the purchase, and sign the checks—it was determined that the billing people were the ones who were more desperate, who needed this yesterday, and who would beg, plead, coerce, and threaten their bosses to spring for this offering until they actually did... compared to the owners, who might regard this more as a nice-to-have. Hmm. Mind you, this is a subtle distinction. It required a good degree of customer intimacy for our client to see, and then act upon, the difference. But it certainly affected our job, and our messaging. It’s a totally different offer, addressing a totally different set of pain points, if you’re selling to the billing person vs. the practice owner. Not that we intended to alienate the latter. “Speak to the target, but let others listen,” is the old Leo Burnett quote. But remember—always remember—that you’ve only got so much space. And so much time. That prospect is in instant-gratification mode when they’re up in the sales funnel, still trying to quickly learn about your business and the realm in which it competes. So you’ve got to nail that message, and place it above-the-fold where it’s most prominent. But what if (of course you’re thinking of this already) Target Audience A and Target Audience B are basically equal in value? And what do you do if the messaging to each isn’t subtly different, but rather significantly different? Divide and conquer We actually wrote an entire blog on this subject, and we’ll recommend it here. The gist is that you can basically create a bifurcated website, which presents the visitor with two different “doors” to enter once they arrive. So they self-select, and enter through the “door” that’s right for them. It works. But you should only use that approach when it’s appropriate. (Don’t worry: that blog includes examples.) For most other situations, you’ll want to “target the target,” and be as laser-focused as you can. This leads to another common question of target-audience ranking (or, as some of our consulting clients would phrase it, “value-delivery-based market segmentation”). In the world of consultancies, there are, broadly, two types of audiences: the do-it-myself’s and the do-it-for-me’s. Those monikers are pretty obvious, but let’s make it extra clear: The do-it-myself’s (or DIYs) are often looking for the control and satisfaction of doing something on their own (albeit with professional help and/or tools), and almost always are looking to save money in the process. The do-it-for-me’s, by contrast, value time and lack of aggravation so much that they’re willing to spend—a premium, no less—in order to get it. Your business may well serve both. So you need to determine which camp you prefer to serve (i.e., which is more lucrative and smoother), and reflect that weighting in your marketing and messaging, accordingly. Questions—and distinctions—like these sometimes seem so subtle as to not be worth mentioning, let alone dedicating time and effort toward. But nothing could be further from the truth. The better you define, and target, your audience, the more they’ll thank you for addressing their unique challenges... and reward you with business in the process. Need help with target-audience segmentation? Contact us. We work on projects like these all the time.
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