I was talking to a business owner last week with regard to how they marketed their business & asked them who their target customer was.

"Everyone" they replied.

"Ok, yes", I said, "but who do you get most business from? Is it those people who you target your marketing with?"

There was a bit of a silence...

I agree that in many businesses anyone & everyone COULD be a customer, but by spending your marketing resources on marketing to EVERYONE (who have very different pain points, requirements, platform presence, and are at very different stages in the 'sales funnel') your marketing will be diluted and might not even hit anyone.

If, however, you can identify the type of customer that is most likely to buy from you & you market your products or services with their pain points in mind, the language they use, the places where they look for solutions etc. then you are more likely to make a sale with them as they are much further down the funnel and have a greater propensity to buy, than someone where perhaps you are only just appearing on their radar.

Your marketing should work hard to ensure that the space between you 'spending' your resource and getting money in your 'till' should be as short as possible. But that can only happen if you are targeting those who are most open to your marketing proposition, whether that be the absolute solution to their needs, the perfect statement, or the offer they are looking for.

By all means, create marketing campaigns to appeal to everyone, however, you will find a much better rate of investment return if you market more conscientiously to those who are ready to buy than a plethora of people who might only be lukewarm or don't realise that they need your product or service as yet (despite how much you know they do!).

If you want your marketing to do its job, whether that be building brand presence, heightening brand reputation, bringing in sales, more enquiries, or whatever, make sure you're not setting it up to fail straight away by letting it be a 'jack of all trades and master of none'.

Master those customers who need you, and they will reward you in return with the results your business is aiming for.