1 Change to Make to Your Marketing in 2024

Two years ago, I wrote a blog article about where people miss the mark when defining their target market. The idea was that when I talk to business owners about their marketing efforts, they always tell me they can sell to “anyone” and “everyone.” I don’t want to spoil it for you in case you would like to go read it, but for most companies, it’s financially impossible to market to “anyone” and “everyone.”

In the previous article, I told you how to narrow your target market using Demographics, Geographic area, and Psychographics to define why they want to buy. In this article, I want to tell B2B companies that the most important change to their marketing this year will be to Redefine and Refine their target market to create “The List.” Don’t worry, I’ll give examples and more explanation. I should mention though that this really is for B2B businesses. I am not saying B2C cannot put this into practice; it will just take a bit more work.

Here are the steps to redefining and refining, with some examples of how we’ve handled this ourselves here at Five Towers:

1) Take a second pass at DEMO, GEO, and Psychographic Info.
Our objective here is to narrow down these categories. For us, we started with a smaller geographic area. Logistically, we can work with anyone anywhere, but the businesses we love to work with are located in Warren, Washington, and Saratoga Counties.
We also narrowed down our demographics— specifically with regard to industry types. We love to support blue collar businesses, manufacturers, and professional services (attorneys, CPA’s, financial services, etc). What we found is that narrowing down our Geo and Demo also changed our Psychographics. Our target market does not want to worry about the hottest creative trends or staying up to date on best practices in a fast moving environment. In many cases, our Target Market has a Marketing Coordinator who needs the resources of a large team but does not have the budget for in-house employees.

2) Reach out to current clients that fit this refined targeting data and interview them to help refine Psychographic Data. This is also a great way to ask for a Google review or testimonial. You are looking to get their reason for loving the work you do and why they continue to work with you.
This will help with #1 above and also help you refine your messaging. If you do this for 5-7 clients, you will have some great data and can look for the overlap. If all of your clients say “it takes a ton of weight off their shoulders to be able to count on you and your team,” you should probably include similar messaging in your marketing efforts.

3) Compile “The List.” This step is one of the most important for truly becoming efficient and effective with your marketing efforts. If you followed the steps above, then, like us, you are probably able to start doing Google searches or scouring websites (such as your local Chamber of Commerce) for companies that match your newly refined Target Market. The more complete the contact info, the better. Company name, physical address, website, contact name, phone number, etc. When you start to look at a modern multi-pronged approach to your marketing, you will need all of it.
I’d also like to mention that “The List” is something from one of my favorite business books, Traction by Gino Wickman. It is a must read for any business owner looking to grow and scale their business. It discusses EOS, which is an amazing system, and we are lucky enough to have an EOS Implementer right in Glens Falls. If you do not know Wendy Waldron, you should. Check out the article she wrote in this edition – Great Business Owners Are Like … Octopuses?

4) Design Your Marketing Strategy Around The List. Having The List and designing your marketing around it makes everything simple. It removes complicated schemes and allows you to be as efficient as possible.

5) Execute, Execute, Execute. All the planning in the world is not worth a dime if you do not execute and follow through on your plans. Too often I see people spend tons of time making plans, getting ready, and then not executing. Or worse, they start to execute and then continually alter the plan, stop and start, or stall. These same people will end up scratching their heads, wondering why the results aren’t coming in.

The overall success of your marketing efforts may not rely solely on how specific your target is — but it certainly starts there. With a redefined and refined Target Market, you know who to look for at networking meetings. You know how to communicate to referral partners to whom you would like to be connected. You know what kind of content to create and what messaging will strike a chord with the right audience. You know the right targets to put on that mailing list and which to leave off.

To be fair, I am not sure there is a single downside to a redefined and refined Target Market.