Don't Try to Boil The Ocean
We often picture the internet as a glass booth in a 70's game show, where dollar bills are blown up in the air & contestants determine their own prize money by how many bills they managed to grab. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by stating what a sane mind will do, because internet marketers are in it for the money.
In most marketing methodologies (which we get bored by), the first stage is often to identify your Target Market or Unique Selling Point (USP); technically that isn't wrong. You need to know who you're selling to.
So what's wrong?
The issue is that our target market isn't usually that targeted; we would just downsize a 100-pax party platter to a 40-pax one, when we only have 4 guests. We tend to make our blog post as generic as possible in hope that it'll cover more grounds & speak to more people. More people = More money right?
That is like boiling an ocean.
You're simply wasting your time & resources (e.g. advertising). Your message is likely to get lost & won't leave a distinct mark in your niche. When people search for a particular topic, they don't want to read a post written by a jack of all trades: they want depth; they want someone who has been there & done that.
You could be boiling (aggressively doing content marketing & paid advertising) for months, but the ocean will not be heated by the slightest bit.
So you don't see results, but is that because your marketing methods aren't effective? Maybe, but your results might be suffering simply because you're boiling at the wrong place.
E.g. You've decided that weight loss is your niche. That's an ocean.
How do I drill down further?
- Gender: Female
- Age Group: 25-40
- Occupation: Works in an office
That is a pot of water still large enough for you.
There is a reason why specialists earn more than general practitioners. When you drill down, it positions you as an authority figure of that pot of water because your contents are no longer vague and spread thin. It is more focused & pertinent.
Once you've chosen the pot to boil, every single word will serve that purpose. It took me 8 months to learn this hard truth. And no, you don't have to limit your potential by deciding to tighten your scope - that's the point, the seemingly huge potential attached to huge niches is an illusion, you'll never realize even a small fraction of that. It's much more sensible to stick to a more tightly defined niche and focus your attention there.
Not only will this net you better overall results, but you'll also become more prominent in the specific field that you've chosen to get involved in, which can develop its own benefits further down the road.
Isn't it ironic that the attempt to cast a bigger net would result in the loss of more fishes?
Just my 2 cents.
Alvin
Blog - Marketing With Alvin
In most marketing methodologies (which we get bored by), the first stage is often to identify your Target Market or Unique Selling Point (USP); technically that isn't wrong. You need to know who you're selling to.
So what's wrong?
The issue is that our target market isn't usually that targeted; we would just downsize a 100-pax party platter to a 40-pax one, when we only have 4 guests. We tend to make our blog post as generic as possible in hope that it'll cover more grounds & speak to more people. More people = More money right?
That is like boiling an ocean.
You're simply wasting your time & resources (e.g. advertising). Your message is likely to get lost & won't leave a distinct mark in your niche. When people search for a particular topic, they don't want to read a post written by a jack of all trades: they want depth; they want someone who has been there & done that.
You could be boiling (aggressively doing content marketing & paid advertising) for months, but the ocean will not be heated by the slightest bit.
So you don't see results, but is that because your marketing methods aren't effective? Maybe, but your results might be suffering simply because you're boiling at the wrong place.
E.g. You've decided that weight loss is your niche. That's an ocean.
How do I drill down further?
- Gender: Female
- Age Group: 25-40
- Occupation: Works in an office
That is a pot of water still large enough for you.
There is a reason why specialists earn more than general practitioners. When you drill down, it positions you as an authority figure of that pot of water because your contents are no longer vague and spread thin. It is more focused & pertinent.
Once you've chosen the pot to boil, every single word will serve that purpose. It took me 8 months to learn this hard truth. And no, you don't have to limit your potential by deciding to tighten your scope - that's the point, the seemingly huge potential attached to huge niches is an illusion, you'll never realize even a small fraction of that. It's much more sensible to stick to a more tightly defined niche and focus your attention there.
Not only will this net you better overall results, but you'll also become more prominent in the specific field that you've chosen to get involved in, which can develop its own benefits further down the road.
Isn't it ironic that the attempt to cast a bigger net would result in the loss of more fishes?
Just my 2 cents.
Alvin
Blog - Marketing With Alvin