Last week we started our discussion on “Message to Market Match” and I introduced you to Dan Kennedy’s famous marketing triangle.  We briefly touch on the Media portion (see image below).  There will be more to come on Media in the coming days.  To review where we’ve been see my blog post below. 

Today we’ll move on to the markets, or the ‘who’ in your business that you choose.  Remember, we’re using Dan’s Marketing Triangle as a basis for our conversation.

The “Markets” side of the triangle refers to who you select and choose as your clientele, with a big emphasis on SELECT and CHOOSE.  Believe it or not, you, through your marketing, advertising and other messages, select your own clients.  To say it simply, if you have bad clients you have no one to blame but yourself.

There’s never been a worse time for an, “Anybody is my client” mentality.  I can’t tell you how many times I’m consulting with clients and I ask the simply question, “Who is your client?” and they either say, “I don’t know…”or, “Everybody in Milwaukee.”  (Assuming they’re in Milwaukee.)

Quite frankly, it’s too costly to attract ‘everybody’ with one broad brushstroke.  It’s a huge mistake to have too big a targeted market with too few resources.  Leave that to big, dumb corporations.

So I’ll leave you today with a brief, concise definition of how you should target your ideal market:

A good market is identifiable, affordably reached group with shared interests, needs, fears, desires which you believe are well matched to your knowledge, product service and expertise. 

Later this week we’ll tackle the ‘Message’ side of the marketing triangle.  I’ll see you then!