Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of Stump Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we're talking about not everyone is your customer. And that's okay. So this came about because I was randomly thinking in the kitchen one day while I was eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that Reeses could probably never sell to people who have peanut allergies.
Melanie
You're probably looking at my face. I won't you.
Esther
Yeah, I was. I love Reese's Peanut butter cups, and she doesn't. But it just came to me that they would have to open a brand new factory. They would have to do so many things, jump through so many hoops, and everybody associates Reese's with peanuts. So if you even had a peanut allergy, you would probably avoid them at all costs anyway.
Melanie
Well, for me, it's a death in a cup.
Esther
Oh, yes. So it's okay, though. Do you feel slighted by Reeses that they don't have an option for the.
Melanie
Slightes t I don't miss them. I don't look for them. I don't feel neglected by them. I more than happily have my custard cream, thank you very much.
Esther
No, I do like a custard cream, too.
Melanie
Okay.
Esther
But we're getting away from the topic. So not everyone has to be your customer. Yeah, right. You cannot appeal to everyone. What's the famous expression? You can't be everyone's cup of tea or you'd be a mug. Right. So, meaning that if you try to appeal across the board to absolutely everybody, you are diluting your message, you are not reaching anybody, and nobody really will know what to do.
Melanie
And you'd also be known as a mug.
Esther
Yes. Which nobody really wants.
Melanie
But it's really difficult for people to sort of refine that, certainly when they're first starting out, because they want to appeal to as many people as possible. I mean, you and I, we both speak to startups. We support, mentor and train startups as well as scale ups, and they're worried about not reaching enough people in order to keep the momentum going. So how can we encourage people to look for the right type of people when they're trying to look for everyone?
Esther
So you're looking for quality over quantity. You really want those few people that will buy from you, that will be loyal customers, that will return, that will promote you, that will let other people know that have their same needs and pinpoints that you are there. So having a smaller audience means that you can be more targeted. So when you're in a smaller group and you have a smaller audience, then you can be more specific in meeting their Pinpoints. If you're trying to reach 3 million people with your video on, say, TikTok, then how many of those are likely to buy from you, maybe three people.
Melanie
A bit more might be it's down to the relationship, down to the calls to action, down to the time of day. But I think trying to hit too many avatars. I mean, you and I, we've done this exercise before, haven't we? Yes, I've got four avatars. I dread to think how many you've got.
Esther
You've got a lot of avatars. We do, but because we have different streams, different avenues. Yeah.
Melanie
You have different countries and different revenue streams. So me trying to catch capture the four customer dolls all by myself, well, maybe with a bit of help from a couple of VA's, it's actually quite hard. But trying to capture everyone, it's impossible. Would be it's impossible. Exhausting. Yeah.
Esther
Because even like, if you think of we're service based, so there are more people potentially that would need our service. But do you want to work with them?
Melanie
That's true.
Esther
Right. So part of your narrowing down could be what sector you want to work with. Right.
Melanie
Like our good friend EMA, she's recently refined her business to funeral businesses who want help with social media marketing. Great idea. Fit social media, great concept. And she's now honed it to be just that kind of sector.
Esther
Yeah, it is doable.
Melanie
Yeah, totally.
Esther
Melanie and I have also talked on numerous occasions on the podcast about how that could possibly bore us. Because working with the same sector day in, day out can get a bit repetitive. But if that's something that you want to or if you have a product like we had Nivan recently, skincare products for women. She's not targeting men. She's not targeting, like, young kids. She knows her audience, she knows who she's targeting. It's not for every skin type. It's not for everybody. And that's okay.
Melanie
And we've kind of honed down. Okay. I don't do pinterest.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
At all. There are certain areas I have strong knowledge in, some areas I have good knowledge in, and the areas I don't know at all. Like Pinterest, I would send people off somewhere else.
Esther
Yeah. And we don't do TikTok.
Melanie
Although we haven't refined in quite the same way as Neve and as EMA, it's not because we can't, it's because we don't want to. It's a personal choice. Some people, the areas that Neve and EMA have both refined into are so deep and vast by themselves that you need to put in that time and that effort in order to make it effective.
Esther
Yes, definitely.
Melanie
Whereas being generalists, your company isn't a generalist, but you are a generalist because IPA does websites, don't they?
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
But as a generalist, we keep these areas up because we want to, because we've got a passion and innate interest. And in some ways, I think we're holding ourselves back by staying as journalists. Yeah.
Esther
And I think part of it could be fear. It holds people back. It's like, oh, but if I specialise just on facebook. Lots of people are saying that Facebook is dying. It's not, guys. It's not.
Melanie
It's really not.
Esther
It's really not. It's modifying, it's changing. But if we had the time to specialise and niche down just into Facebook, then we would know all the new changes that are coming up before they happen.
Melanie
And honestly, I agree with you, Esther. I think it's fear. I think it's fear that we're going to miss out if we just pick the one or the two. The downside to not specialising those, it means we have to remember a huge amount of a lot of different things. It's very difficult to keep up.
Esther
It is. But I think, too, sometimes the fear comes in that you will then be known as that person. You will then be known. We had Fay Sri and John. She is the pinterest person.
Melanie
Oh, she is, totally.
Esther
But if she were to turn around and go, actually, now I want to specialise in TikTok, would we still associate her with Pinterest and go, oh, nobody.
Melanie
Used to send me for a good while.
Esther
Yeah, but people can be pigeonholed. And we've talked about this before as well.
Melanie
We have, yeah.
Esther
They can be put into a box and you shall forever be known as the person who does that platform. Or you should forever be known as the person who makes the jewellery. So if you want to go into making candles, too bad. No, you have to make jewellery.
Melanie
Because I know you as I can, because I've seen that you can. But it takes time. But then it took time to be known as that person. He made jewellery in the first place.
Esther
Yes. And it's totally okay to change your interests and to change your business model as you grow and adapt and realise actually, I don't actually like doing that part. I don't like Twitter, I don't like Instagram. That's fine. Nothing is holding you back except for yourself.
Melanie
Exactly. I mean, when I first started, I targeted startups, and I think that was down to the lack of confidence. But now I've created a whole avatar for corporates because I want to attract and meet more corporates. And it's started working, thankfully. Yay. We have so much control over who we can target, who we're reaching, who engages with us. And although you may feel like you're going to be potentially excluding people, although my larger market would be 35 to 50 year old women, I still get men. I still get men, and women younger than 35 contact me. It's just my larger market would be 35 to 50 year olds. And because I speak to them and I engage with them, they speak to their children, they speak to their mothers and fathers and, you know, and friends who are younger or older. And I still get business that way. Yeah.
Esther
And guys, just remember, haters are going to hate if your product or service is not specifically aimed at them. They may find a way to nitpick and complain that you do not, but.
Melanie
There is somebody out there that's looking after them.
Esther
Exactly. And going back to the example at the start, just because Melanie would die if she ate Reese's peanut butter cups doesn't mean that Reese's have to stop existing. And it's a large majority of the population now that have peanut allergies.
Melanie
Yes, it is.
Esther
So Reese's aren't going to lose any sleep. I'm sorry, Melanie. Over. People like you who have these allergies, they know who their target market is. They aren't trying to reach everybody. And even people who don't have enough allergies don't always like it. Okay? So just remember, be authentic. Be yourself. Don't be a mug. And on that, we will end.
Melanie
That was your micro.
Esther
Didn't see the mic drop. We'll be back next week, guys. Until then, bye bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys.