Why targeting everyone for your product is a bad idea!

When you as a business try to target everyone, you end up targeting no one.

Startups/Small businesses don’t have deep pockets like BIG BRANDS. So, you need to be laser sharp on who you market to.

Let’s assume you run a travel agency and if I were to ask you, who is your target audience? You would probably say,”everyone” because everyone loves to travel and go on a holiday. Many of us fear to limit our target audience because we don’t want to miss out on the potential business. But that’s a huge mistake.

So how do you narrow your target audience?

The answer is simple- find your niche! You must have heard this term (niche) zillion times.

Here’s an example to make you understand in simple terms. 

I’m LUV ARORA. Let’s assume, I’m a digital marketer selling digital services. 

Now, digital marketing is a very big industry that can be categorised into SEO, Email Marketing, Content Writing, Videos, Social Media Management, Facebook Ads, Search Ads, so on and so forth.

Let’s say, I’m most skilled at Facebook ads. So I have found my category within the industry.

Now, Luv Arora is a DIGITAL MARKETER who specializes in FACEBOOK ADs. I have narrowed my target audience to people who are specifically looking to run Facebook Ads. This can be further narrowed down to a sub-category.

Being a startupper myself, let’s say I specialize in helping startups because they have low marketing budgets.

The final output would look something like this

LUV ARORA is a DIGITAL MARKETER who specializes in FACEBOOK ADS for STARTUPS

The above statement gives a highly targeted niche and I will have all my marketing activities around this.

If you were a startup looking for a digital marketer to run Facebook Ads, and you came across my ad (LUV ARORA- The Facebook ads Expert for Startups) vs a generalist ad (selling all the digital services). What would you do? Ofcourse, you would choose to interact with my ad.

Framework to create a NICHE

I call it the ICS (Industry-Category-Subcategory) FRAMEWORK to find a niche. I created this framework while I started with ad campaigns for my business, ExperienceSaga. The frame can be used for any industry.

Let’s see some more examples

1. If you are a travel agent,

ABC is a TRAVEL COMPANY which specializes in SINGAPORE TRIPS for FAMILIES

Or

ABC is a TRAVEL COMPANY which specializes in BALI TRIPS for ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

1. If you are a GYM owner,

ABC is a GYM which specializes in WEIGHT LOSS TRAINING for WOMEN

Or

ABC is a GYM which specializes in STAMINA TRAINING for WOMEN

Essentially you are doing nothing new. You still offer everything. It’s just that you have changed your positioning.

All your marketing communications should revolve around a niche and you will become a leader within your category without competing with big brands. Once you have dominated in 1 niche, you can create more niches using the ICS Framework and start working on them.

Now over to you,

Do you want to be a BIG FISH in a SMALL POND or a SMALL FISH in a BIG POND?