I’m fascinated with the choices that are available to us about virtually everything.
When I was growing up there was NBC, CBS, ABC, plus 2 UHF channels, and a really grainy channel that, if the wind was blowing right, we could pick it up from New Hampshire.
I looked at my AT&T U-Verse choices yesterday, and discovered that not only do I have access to over 500 channels, I can now choose among 57 channels that exclusively program in Spanish and 13 in Japanese.
As a kid I loved to visit the Concord Bookshop. They carried a choice of maybe 2000 books. If I wanted an out-of-print book, I was out of luck.
Today, virtually any book ever printed is available through some bookseller via Amazon. And never mind that it used to be that if you wanted a book published you had to get accepted by one of 12 publishers. Now anyone can get published through resources such as Lightning Source. With e-books now having reached the tipping point, and all books accepted on Amazon, the shear volume of books available is almost beyond comprehension.
If I want a time management program for home-based entrepreneurs, I can choose among several.
If I want sales training for nutritional MLM entrepreneurs, there are multiple choices.
If I want to learn how to more effectively interview pharmaceutical reps, there are multiple vendors vying for my business.
In other words…scarcity doesn’t exist anymore.
Except for one thing.
As Seth Godin recently pointed out, the only thing that’s scarce is attention.
When there are numerous choices for virtually any need, how do we get people to choose us?
Two thoughts.
The days of mass marketing are over. Even my former employers in the consumer goods industry (Pepsi & Kraft Foods) largely recognize this, and are increasingly targeting their messages to the young, the old, different ethnic groups, specific types of activities…the segmentation goes on and on.
Micro-niche marketing is everything. Unfortunately this message is often lost of new entrepreneurs and small business owners for the obvious reason. “But, I might miss someone if I niche market.”
The reality is that when your message attempts to appeal to everyone, it appeals to no-one. This is a hard learned lesson for many (myself included).
Second thought. Your message needs to stand out. It needs to fall into the sweet space between boring blather and “sky is falling” hyperbole. This is where mental heavy lifting comes to play.
What’s deceiving is that the end result-the ultimate marketing message-often seems so simple. Perhaps it’s just a few words such as “How to get consistent streams of brand new clients with no cold calling or hard selling.” Yet when you examine this in more detail, you notice that the word “consistent” is crucial, since avoiding feast-or-famine business cycles is a main concern for this particular audience. “Cold calling” also is carefully selected, since that’s the default method by which this niche trolls for new business. Although they may profess otherwise, in reality most everyone hates “smiling & dialing”.
The words “Hard selling” are also carefully selected. This niche views themselves as professionals and experts, and recoils from anything that is overtly salesy.
Thus the simple phrase, “How to get consistent streams of brand new clients with no cold calling or hard selling.”, is actually the result of many hours of thinking about a particular niche; their needs, hopes, wants and desires.
Why is this important?
Because the only thing that’s scarce in this day and age, is getting (and keeping) attention.
Food for thought
Mark
Want some assistance in developing your message? Information is HERE
