The 3 Hidden Traps of Marketing to the Wrong Audience

Narrator 0:00
You’re listening to the All systems go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot. Learn how to deploy automated marketing and sale systems in your business the right way. With your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris Davis 0:31
Welcome to the all systems go podcast. I’m your host, Chris L. Davis, the founder and chief automation Officer of automation bridge, where we focus on turning digital marketing professionals and an automation service providers by teaching them Marketing and Sales Automation. If you’d like to become one, or find out more about what that entails, you can visit automationbridge.com/asp. In this episode, what I want to do is talk about the fallacy of marketing to everybody. We’ve all heard it, Hey, who’s your product for everybody, everybody can use this product or people who feel like there’s an easy win or an easy way to Oh, I’ll just create something really quick for this for this audience. And they’ll buy it and I’ll be making 1000s and 1000s of dollars a week, right? And it’s the most common misstep, I see marketers of all walks make. And that is trying to get everybody to buy their product. And while it seems easy and quick, I should say an easy and quick way to profit, it actually produces the opposite. Okay. But before we jump into it, I want to say if you’re new to the podcast, make sure that you listen to this episode in its entirety. After that, and so you know what you’re getting into, make sure you subscribe and share at the time of this recording. The All systems go podcast is free to subscribe to. And you can find the show in all main podcasting apps like Apple podcast, Google podcasts, YouTube, you can subscribe on YouTube. So for those of you who are listeners, and have not subscribed or left a five star rating and review, please do so now. Your five star ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated. You can also if you’re having any issues, leaving a review Arden understanding where to leave the review, you can go to automationbridge.com/review and we’ll take care of posting your review for you. Okay, so enter today’s episode, every marketer makes this mistake at some point. Okay, it’s inevitable that the key is not that oh my gosh, I made this mistake, the key is to stop making the mistake. Okay, and it’s often the differentiator between a good marketer and an aspirational marketer. And aspirational marketer will will continue to try to get everybody will will say yes, oh, it’s, it’s an easy $500 or $1,000, they’ll continue to do that, you know, a lot of service providers like that. Just local service providers. Hey, I’ll do it. I’ll paint your house, Hey, I’ll come by and fix something hates money. Right. But it comes at a cost. And it reminds me of when my dad was teaching me how to play dominoes. And he had a saying that he would always tell me because early, I would just always want to just count encounters get points I would want to score. And he would tell me son all money ain’t good money. And I didn’t understand what it meant at the time. Of course, I’m young, I’m trying to figure it out. But essentially, it meant just because you can count just because you can put points on the board doesn’t mean that you should you’ve got to understand the long game understand what what dominoes your opponent may have in their hand bones, as well, we call them but dominoes for those who aren’t aren’t familiar, right? Learn how to see the trap when it’s set. Sometimes people will put the points on the board, because they know you’re going to take some or they know you’re going to put more and they just keep every time you count, they count and you end up in this count match that you can’t win because they’re always getting the domino and they’re always going first XYZ anyways, I don’t want to go into Domino strategy, but all money ain’t good money. And it stuck with me. So, just like when I’m playing dominoes, I have to see Oh, you’re baiting me. You’re putting fives out. You’re playing that big six, you’re trying to count big. Let me combat that. I see the traps at times. Marketers must also be able to see when the traps are set. And what is the trap? The trap is the temptation to go wide instead of deep now Here’s the thing, here’s the thing. All right.

Chris Davis 5:03
I understand I really do you, I was that person. So you know, I love to speak from experience. I don’t like to give you all theoretical things. I remember when I was a web developer getting started, and I was like, everybody needs a website, everybody. Which is that not true? Everybody does need a website. So I understand the thinking at the time, because it’s just like, Man, this is a skill, and it comes from a place of helping at least for me, it did, I wanted to help so many people. Right. And, and going wide it To be honest, it doesn’t take much focus. And it does give this appearance that you can achieve the end goal quicker. Hey, I know something everybody needs it. Everybody’s my customer, right? We’re going deep requires more focus, discipline, measured, efforts, calculated risks, specialized knowledge, did I say focus already? Yes, focus. For the third time, focus, right is an example of going wide is, you know, selling your your marketing course to anybody that has money. And some people will even lower the price. So it’s a I’m using air quotes, quote unquote, easy buy, oh, I’ll just create a course for like 50 bucks. Everybody buy that? And if I get 100 people buying that course a week, and I just keep going Facebook ads, and this, this and that. It’s how many people? How many times have you said that, or you heard people just really simplify selling to everybody, by reducing the price. Right, it happens all the time where So that’s an example going wide, going deep, is selling the same marketing course, to digital marketers who work for e commerce companies that are generating at least 250k in revenue, who are using clavijo. Very specific, now getting started out, you may not know how to speak to that level of specificity for your avatar, but you need to get there, right? It’s much more descriptive. And quite honestly, it makes marketing easier. Who are we targeting ecommerce users? Which ones clavijo? How much 250,000? It answers all the questions. Now, when you’re writing content, you’re talking about the struggles of e commerce companies making 250,000 and trying to get to a million. That’s a different pain point. Right? Whereas you’re talking to everybody, how can I how can you speak to the pain points of everybody, you have to really niche down and understand one market. And what you’ll realize what you’ll realize is that going deep, is so profitable, once done correctly, you may not even have the desire to go wide. And that’s just the truth. And most people don’t have the fortitude or focus to continue on that deep path and get those deep profits. Right in at the core of the issue. Let’s be honest, people struggle with saying no, or turning people down. That’s, that’s at the heart of the matter. It’s like, instead of seeing a headache and frustration prevent prevented, all they see as money lost. Instead of that terrible client that’s going to email you every day text message you and call you Hey, and want the world, you don’t see that the pain and frustration that comes from that. All you see is man as $800 I can make as $150 I can make this $2,000 I can make, hey, that’s an easy $10,000 No, it’s not. And I’ll say this. My, my spiritual father and mentor also told me this. So my dad told me all money and good money that my spiritual father mentor tells me, Chris, never let money be the reason you do, or don’t do something. Which is another trap that I see people fall into. They see the amount of money and they’re like, oh, I’ll do it. I’m eat that $5,000 Yes, I will be your marketer for $5,000 in become your VA and your web developer and your graphic designer, your customer support over $5,000

Chris Davis 9:26
it’s not true, don’t fall for it. Do not fall for it. And I’m telling you this. As for some of you all this is a revelation for some of you, it’s a confirmation, and others is just a reminder is just a reminder to stay focused. Right? So I’m going to discuss just three of the hidden traps for those who decide to not abide by what I’m telling you here and go and market to the wrong audience in in full transparency. I’m not immune to this, there are all types of opportunities that come across my desk that I have to assess. And sometimes I need my team to hold me to what I said we were and weren’t going to do. Because I can get caught up in that stuff, too. Oh, this looks fine. Oh, that’s easy. No. Is it does it align with the avatar of the product to focus in, in our committed direction? As a company, right? It has to align with all of those things. So let’s, let’s talk about just three, there are tons trust me, there are tons, but these are some that you may not see. But you may be experiencing B is also experiencing some frustration in your business. Right. First and foremost, refunds. refunds are a natural part of business. And depending on the product type, and price refunds are something that you just have to consider right now, in service based industries and service based products. refunds should be much lower. In product based industries, you’re going to have to, you know, account for refunds, right? But let me let me speak specifically to those who use courses as an example. So I want to stick there, because I can’t talk about every industry. So we’ll we’ll talk about productized. information, products, right? So maybe you’re a CPA, maybe you’re a marketer, maybe you’re a web developer, and you have a course that teaches people how to do a particular thing. Right? You market that course to the wrong audience, and the first thing that you’re going to experience, one is a whole bunch of pre sales questions, because they don’t understand, like, wait a minute, does this do that does this do this, right. And no matter how good of a job you do at trying to communicate, if they’re the wrong audience, once they get the product in their hands, they’re not gonna know what to do with it. They have no idea what to do with it. And now, since they don’t know what to do with it, they don’t want it anymore. And it will go to the point where they will admit, they will tell you, hey, look, I jumped into this too quick. I don’t know what I was thinking. Can you give me my money back? Right. And it’s, trust me, depending on how close you are to the refunds is going to make you feel a certain way. And sometimes you’ll want to be like, hey, look, Nobody forced you to buy this product. Right, you can get defensive. Now, my rule of thumb with refunds is I don’t hassle people. Because at the end of the day, the buyer always wins. They can always report to their credit card company, they can always request a chargeback. Right. So it’s just easier to just Here you go. But guess what, when you market to the right audience, you don’t have refunds on that level? You really don’t. My automation service provider program to date has zero refunds, but it’s highly qualified. I’m telling you upfront, hey, look, do not get in this program. If right. Now flip it. I’ve had other courses where I have so more and more open, said hey, look, I’m opening it up to even you people who don’t know digital marketing, and guess what happened? refund requests.

Chris Davis 13:34
So that’s one trap. Right? And let me add to it. refunds can also be in the form of somebody committing saying they wanted to do something and then not following through, right service based business businesses that happens all the time, they say, hey, look, I’m ready to go. You get everything ready, you get the date scheduled, you’re ready to roll? And then you’re like, Oh, I changed my mind. Right? Or maybe you’ve given them a free consultation, and they committed right there on the spot. Yes, this is what I want to do. You get excited you start booking The, the the client project and the revenue planning around it. I changed my mind. Right, which leads us to the next trap. And that’s loss of quality and in loss of quality is the it’s really based on the experience, right? So testimonials are weaker, if at all existed. Community Engagement is poor. You have to understand for my community builders out there and there are a lot of you who are building community, it could be whether it’s a Facebook group, or something on a different platform like mighty networks, circle, tribe, whatever the case may be, right? You’ve got a community of people. And when you target a specific audience, you’re creating a particular culture. Right? People are asking certain questions there. Helping at a certain level of accuracy. Now, you come in when people come in they they are there for that quality, that level of engagement. And now you start bringing in, I’m gonna use the term, bottom feeders, right? People who are not there, they’re not your target market. They’re just getting started, right, or they just don’t understand what everybody else in the group understands. And they come in and what they do is they bring the acumen, the collective acumen lower. And now you’re risking losing people in your community that are really good for you. Because you want it to go get the the the easy yeses, right, you want it to market to the people who weren’t good for you. So now, you’ve exchanged, what’s good for what’s not so good. And people don’t often look at it like that. They really don’t. But that’s what’s happening. You don’t get those testimonials that are transformative that somebody reads and is like, Oh, I got to get into this. Because they’re not your people. Right? And let alone progression and completion. They’re not going to come through and, and finish the course or do everything that you’ve outlined, because they don’t know what to do with it. They’re the wrong people. The right thing to the wrong person is the wrong thing. As easy as I can put it, the right thing to the wrong person is the wrong thing. Okay. And the third trap is high maintenance. Oh, my goodness, this alone should be enough for you to be like, Nope, I’m not market Nope. I’m being specific with my avatar, more support, emails, more complaints, again, more refunds. It’s like, no matter how clear you are, or watch this, no matter how much help you’ve prepared for them. Look, I’ve got a community of people that can help you figure this out. They will stick to their own ignorance and continue to try just continue to hit their head, continue to try to figure it out. And then point the finger at sure stuff. Like it’s not working. So is it me? Or is it you? You don’t want to be in that situation where you you’re marketing to the wrong audience to the point where they have you questioning your own product, your own service, but I see it all the time you listen to the wrong audience, and make decisions based on their input, instead of really going deep. Not to mention, you risk becoming known to the wrong audience. What if What if you you lowered your standard and said yes to somebody you know, you shouldn’t say yes to. And that person went and told all their friends. Oh my god, that they’re amazing. They did all this for 800 bucks. And now on who’s who’s knocking at your door now?

Chris Davis 18:08
Right, all of these terrible leads, because terrible leads usually no other terrible leads, and good leads usually no other good leads, right? This is why when you’re working a job, people always say hey, do you have friends? Because good workers usually no other good workers or affiliates are set up that way? Hey, good customers go find me other customers that look like you birds of a feather flock together, right? And there’s nothing worse than lead generation working really well for the wrong leads. Right like your Legion 100 leads a day, but they’re all garbage leads. And you know what it does? It really throws off your analytics because it Have you looking at the numbers, thinking man, we’re crushing it, our Legion is on point. Right? Not to mention, you know, you’re paying for every contact seat in your CRM. So why would you pay for leads that aren’t going to convert? Why would you waste the energy to market to people? And let me tell you this, it’s another trap that I thought of I know I said three, but I’m just going to give myself freedom as my podcast to just freestyle this. But let me tell you this. Another another trap is easy creation. Especially if it’s a digital product. It’s so easy to quickly create an ebook, of course. Anything right? And that temptation is I just create this real quick. And then you throw a low price tag on it. Right? Or maybe somebody asked you to party like oh, I’ll create this real quick for them. And before you know it, you got a whole bunch of little real quick things and none of it aligns with what you’re trying to do. And all of it may have worked. So how does that work? It worked it produce money. But somehow, I feel more terrible about my business than I did before. But I’m making money. It’s a symptom of the wrong audience, saying yes to you. And you’re not saying no to them. But you can avoid these traps. Okay, you can avoid them. And the main thing is to know your end goal. What are you trying to accomplish in your business? and know your avatar? What are you trying to accomplish? And who are you trying to accomplish that for? Right, your product should feel the gap between those two, this is what product market fit is right? Taking that avatar, where they’re at, and taking them somewhere, your product has to be that bridge. Right And more importantly, say no, to every avatar, an opportunity that doesn’t match your stated goal. And primary avatar, you have to, you will, you will hear a common teaching amongst service bass, coaches, and people who have achieved are amassed millions of dollars, using coaching or courses or anything like that. They’ll tell you keep your funnel singular, one funnel to the million dollars. Well, guess what? That one funnel needs to be targeted on one audience and one product. Right. Now, I don’t want to get into the whole dynamics of business modeling and products and upsells and down sales and how to create a funnel that’s consistent and walks people through if they’re not ready all the way up to your main product down sales, other things has continuity built in and recurring revenue. Can’t do that here. That’s important, but can’t do that. In this episode. What you need to know is what prevents you from falling into these traps? is knowing your end goal, knowing your avatar, aligning your product with both and being willing to say no. If anything, you need to learn how to say no. Stop saying yes to everything. People always have ideas for you. People always have ways that you can come in, help them or come in and be of service. If that doesn’t make them bad. They’re actually doing a good thing. That’s your job to say, Hey, you know what, that doesn’t align with who I serve.

Chris Davis 22:44
can be okay with it. Don’t let somebody leave with money. Oh my gosh, some I knew I just ran a partnership. And the guy made a million, I think you could do the same thing. Look, As tempting as that million is if it’s the wrong audience, it’s not going to work. You need to vet every time somebody comes to you for a partnership or once you wants to put you on their platform. Don’t be so thirsty, and easily say yes, yes. Any any publicity. Right? You need to be strategic? Who’s going to be in that audience? And how can I leverage this platform for my primary Avatar and in go? So guess what, if that’s not there, I’m not saying you don’t do it. There’s many other reasons why you perhaps would go outside of your regular avatar, and, and do a speaking engagement or something like that. Like, I can’t give you a universal rule because marketing is very dynamic. But But what I can tell you to do is make sure you have a strategy. If these people are up market, that may be an opportunity to tap into bigger clients right that you don’t currently have. But be very careful sharing stages with people who are downmarket who can’t afford you who won’t afford you and who will tempt you to create something of lower value just for them. Because it seems easy and now you’ve got mixed database of good leads and poor leads and you’re always trying to serve both. It’s It’s similar to having two wives and I’m speaking from a male’s perspective. One wife is enough. Oh my goodness. All my listeners who have been happily married for over 10 or 15 years know what I’m talking about. The work required for just one. Two is not even appealing to me at all. Nothing about two sounds appealing to me one wife for a for a lifetime. That’s what I’ve got the fortitude for Okay, one, one spouse, everybody. I just I don’t I don’t have it. don’t have the energy. I’m giving all I got to the woman. I’m with Right, but it’s the same marketing is often related to relationships because it is about building relationships, marketing, in essence. So no, you can’t be married to multiple avatars and expect success and peace. Right? And again, there’s a lot to unpack with knowing your avatar, how do I know my avatar? How do I define that? What is my goal? What is product market fit, there’s a lot to unpack. But just for now, the main idea is be okay with the idea that you will be turning people away. You will, and it’s okay to use that language, that’s abrasive and says, Hey, no, this is not for you. And even if it’s quick money, remember, you don’t want the headache that will follow us this podcast as a fast forward button. That person, it seems like easy money, don’t do it. Do not do it. Right. And you also don’t want to work with people you can provide extreme value to this is across the board. Doesn’t matter if your service base or product base, even SAS, even if you’re a SaaS company, right? You don’t want people using your product that aren’t going to get the value out of it. Right, you just don’t want that. If you have an in an email marketing platform, you don’t want people in there that that don’t, that aren’t going to email. They don’t know how to email are aren’t going to do it by the correct standards. You have a graphic design platform. You don’t want people in there creating, like these terrible looking designs. And you know, just using this thing, using it for all the wrong reasons, right? You want somebody who’s who’s who’s got to design I Canva. It makes things so easy to create now, right? Huge competitor to Photoshop for those novice and more beginning to intermediate graphic designers that don’t need that for robustness. Right. But they also need to target people who can design you don’t want somebody in there that’s taken an hour to create a cover for your your your ebook, right? It’s just hours takes them days. You’re not going to get what what would that testimonial sound like? It took me it took me three days, almost 48 hours. But I did it with Canva where somebody else can be like, Oh, it’s so simple and easy. I can produce graphics in minutes.

Chris Davis 27:43
Right? You want people you can provide extreme value to so you can get those transformational testimonials. And guess what? Those people are the ones you want to work with, and sell your product to anyway. Why be in business? If you don’t enjoy who you’re serving? Why even do it? Whether you’re close to them or not. You don’t have to be talking to them. One on one to know like, man, the product we’re producing is really changing lives. This is great. And you’ll see it products that call out specific audiences. Women with long hair who’s who just can’t seem who don’t have time in the morning, specific product. The the man the mechanical working man with rough hands, use this butter scrub. Shield thank you for days, right specific audience. Believe it or not, you’ll scale much quicker. And remember, you definitely don’t want to be adjusting your marketing, from feedback from the wrong audience. Okay, this includes friends, family acquaintances that don’t know much about your business or business in general giving you advice. You don’t want to do that wrong audience. Right. So stay focused, stay focused, my friends. It’s the only way to avoid these traps, and make it to whatever level of success you’re shooting for. Quickly. So answer me this. who needed to hear this? I know for a fact you did because again, this was either revelation, confirmation or reminder. So I know you needed to hear this. But who else? Who else do you know? That keeps fall in for the Oh, I’ll just do this real quick. They it’s like they create something new every week, every month. Oh, this Oh, this person said said that. They wanted to partner so I created this or I’m over here now. Right? share this episode with that service based business that’s just getting started. You’re getting word of mouth clients. It’s good. It’s good for now, but make sure But you don’t start chasing the check and just taking on anybody. Okay? You want to make sure that you’re clear with who you’re for and who you’re not and be okay with saying no. For every knows two sides to a coin right? You’re not with somebody else’s Yes, somebody else’s no is your Yes, we got to keep flipping a coin don’t get greedy and try to keep all the coins. You don’t want the coins you want the bills, you want the bills. Anyway, so if you found today’s episode valuable, make sure you share it and subscribe, leave a five star rating and review. For those of you who are my first time listeners Now is your time to subscribe to the All systems go podcast, and leave your five star rating and review here at automation bridge. We’re dedicated to training digital marketing professionals on how to do Marketing and Sales Automation for small businesses in SaaS companies. This is our commitment. Okay, we call them automation service providers because the market in totality is in need of people who understand the technological landscape, our strategic thinkers and understand how to implement systems for rapid growth. Okay, again, for both small businesses and SaaS companies. Now what we’ve done is we’ve made it easy for you to get access to everything that you need. If you go to All systems go podcast comm you’ll be able to get access to the latest episodes, you can inquire about our amplify my automation package, which is it’s catered to helping you put automated marketing and sales systems in your business over the next six months, you’ll get access to our free Facebook group if that’s what you want to join. You can also request or refer someone to be a guest on the podcast. Let me just say this because I’m getting a lot of emails, don’t email me. Do not email me personally with a guest for the podcast. We have a place for you to go a form for you to fill out. Okay, and any resources or training mentioned on the podcast? One URL gets you everything. Allsystemsgopodcast.com . Right. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. And until next time, I see you online Automate responsibly my friend