A question female entrepreneurs tend to ask is, “What might I be doing wrong if I'm not getting enough clients, even though I'm always putting myself out their on social media?
There are several reasons why this could be happening. One fundamental reason that you are struggling is because your marketing is too general. Your marketing messages are inspirational. Your marketing messages address general life problems. These types of messages don't catch the attention of the specific client that you want to work with. People who will raise their hand to work with you will see your social media post, newsletter, or video and feel as though you are talking directly to them.
The key is to select a very specific target market.
Now, whenever I mention target market, people say it feels restrictive for them to let people go and shut one door and then open another. But before you write me off, let me explain what a target market is and why it’s so important.
I like to describe a target market as a group of people plus a “wake up in the morning” problem that you are able solve for them. A “wake up in the morning” problem is a problem that you think about every day. It hangs over your head, or it is a miserable reality check that hits you while you’re brushing your teeth in the morning. Following this model, examples of a target market could be:
- “women in their 50s who are struggling to release weight”
- ”professional men who are struggling to achieve work-life balance”.
So how do you select a target market and why should you? Well, it isn’t about who’s coming to you now. It's fine if you are a new entrepreneur and want to accept clients from many different target markets. I get it. You need the cash flow right now. You are selecting a target market so that you can be very specific in:
- what you’re creating for people,
- the results that you’re going to create for them, and
- your marketing
Once you’ve set your target market, write every newsletter and shoot every video for that person in your target market. For example, your next newsletter could be to "Cheryl". Cheryl is a woman in her fifties who has spent three years struggling to lose 15 pounds because every nutritionist she has worked with focused on younger women and didn’t know how to address the age-related concerns that were affecting her.
If you want your marketing to stand out and break through the noise of other content, make sure that you know who your marketing is speaking to. Find your most lucrative target market and tailor your programs, pricing, and marketing channels to align with it.