Like many kids, I grew up thinking I should always do my best to make everyone like me. It therefore came as something of a shock to realize that approach backfires with marketing. (This isn’t always a good approach in personal life, either, but that’s another story.)
Why doesn’t this work? Here are three reasons why trying to make everyone like your business backfires.
#1: You’ll Be Bland
You may have seen or heard people who try not to offend anyone. This typically involves them dancing around subjects without ever saying anything too detailed because they’re afraid it will upset another person.
Unfortunately, the end result is that they also don’t say anything particularly interesting. Their message is so vague and general that it could apply to everyone – and it’s therefore not specifically relevant to anyone.
The same is true of your marketing. If you write something so generic that it can apply to almost everyone, you’ll miss pointing out benefits that apply to the smaller group you’re trying to reach.
#2: You’ll Disappoint People
Whatever product or service you’re offering is specific to the needs of a subset of people. Nothing you can sell will appeal to all people, or at least not in the same way.
If you try to attract multiple groups of people with the same message, you won’t get more customers.
Instead, you’ll disappoint people.
Imagine if you were selling a subscription meal kit service that focused on whole foods and using sustainable, organic ingredients. If you tried to attract people who eat a lot of prepared and fast food, and who think organic foods are a scam, you’ll have to either be misleading or extremely vague.
Either way, anyone who signed up under those false pretenses would understandably feel betrayed once they learned the full details of your service.
They wouldn’t trust you anymore, and they’d almost certainly tell everyone else you’re not trustworthy. In these days of Yelp reviews and other social proof, that’s a huge concern.
#3: Your People Won’t Find You
Finally, if you use a watered-down message trying to appeal to everyone, you won’t attract your ideal prospects.
People these days are interested in being part of a tribe, being with the ones who share their specific interests, values, and beliefs. Your customers want to know that you understand and share those values.
If your work helps the environment, odds are you’re looking for people with a value of sustainability. But not everyone is interested in that goal.
If you aren’t clear about where you stand for fear of offending the second group, the ones you’re looking for won’t be able to find you. Or if they do, they won’t always stay because they can’t tell that you’re in alignment with them.
Specific Messages for Different Groups
This doesn’t mean you can’t appeal to different groups, but it does mean you need to change the way you market.
Consider solar energy. Some people might be interested because they’re concerned about climate change. Others are more worried about rising energy costs. Still others want to go off-grid to establish energy independence.
These people are all interested in using solar power, but your marketing needs to reflect the different reasons. Don’t send a message about climate change to someone focused on energy independence, and vice versa.
On the other hand, if you market in a way that appeals to the specific groups, you’re much more likely to attract people who’ll become repeat customers and advocates.
Have you ever had experience with making a message too generic, or being on the receiving end of a message that was too general? What was the response?
Whoever your audience is, I hope you can find the best way of appealing to them specifically, so they can find you and benefit from your product or service.
Good example about marketing solar power. I’ve heard a lot of examples of people or businesses using it while not believing in climate change. They just want to save money and/or become self-reliant on electricity. And there’s that famous example of a coal museum in Kentucky, I think it was, that is using solar panels while promoting the coal industry. Fascinating!
It really is interesting to see the different interests and how to appeal to them.