MASS MARKETING DOESN’T WORK. DO THIS INSTEAD:
Sep 15, 2024
Quick question: who’s your ideal customer?
A lot of business owners answer that question with some variation of:
“Anyone with a pulse and the money to pay me.”
Two problems with that:
- It doesn’t narrow things down at all.
- It only works if you have an unlimited marketing budget.
If we’re trying to reach everyone that fits that description then a couple hundred million dollars are a nice start for our marketing campaign.
But what if you’re working with a marketing budget that’s less than the GDP of a small African country?
Well, this article is for you!
WHY “CARPET BOMB MARKETING” DOESN’T WORK
We all grew up watching mass marketing. Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Apple. These companies are so omnipresent it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without them.
And when we start our own business, we think we can copy them. Just throw our name everywhere, and hope the magic happens.
Except it doesn’t.
Because when you try to talk to everyone, you end up talking to no one.
Mass marketing is like spraying a hose into the ocean and hoping to hit a fish. Expensive, time-consuming, and leaves you empty-handed.
Carpet bombing your slogan or your logo doesn’t work unless you’re a billion dollar business. It’s also not the way that any of these big brands started out.⠀
They crafted an RSO. A Rock Solid Offer. An offer that directly spoke to their ideal clients. The people they identified as perfect customers for their product or service.
Apple—tech enthusiasts who were tired of clunky, complicated machines.
McDonald’s—families looking for a cheap, quick meal for kids.
Coca-Cola—soda drinkers who were tired of drinking the same old root beer.
An RSO speaks directly to your ideal customer’s deepest desires… and gives them a very specific reason to choose you over everyone else.
Effective marketing hinges on that exact concept. But are you able to get your RSO in front of the right people?
DYNAMITE MARKETING WITH YOUR RSO
I saw a documentary recently about a thing called ‘blast fishing’ or ‘dynamite fishing’.
Some people (I believe it was in Tanzania) figured out that fishing was a whole lot easier if you just chucked a stick of dynamite into the water.
Boom. Fish get dazed or killed, and they just float to the surface. All you’ve got to do is scoop them up.
An RSO works like that.
Not only will your ideal clients be magnetically attracted to your message, you’ll also attract the people that are thinking about it, playing with the idea, considering it.
When your offer is solid, they can’t ignore it.
They’ll feel a little tug in their gut. That “Oh no, I might miss out” feeling.
So you’ll scoop up ALL the fish.
How do you put together an RSO? Let’s talk about that in the next post.
Talk soon,
Max
P.S. If you want to know how I would implement an RSO in your business, feel free to get in touch. Fill out the form HERE and one of my team members will be in touch to see if we’re a good match.
WRITTEN BY
Max Masters
Founder & head of growth at Maxingrowth®. Dedicated entrepreneur and marketing specialist based in Columbus. Currently on a mission to make growing a local business easier, quicker, less stressful & more fun - for the thousands of folks who run them every day.
