People-pleasing in business doesn’t work.
To be clear, I am not talking about showing kindness. That’s a must. I am talking about actively adapting your sales technique to appeal to everyone, rather than a niche audience.
There is no need to go out of your way to ostracise people from your brand, but it is important to really consider who you are advertising to, before you put your money into it. Otherwise you end up chasing leads that will never come off, wasting budgets and time.
In our experience, there are three main reasons why people-pleasing within advertising happens.
1. A catch-all approach
More spend = more sales, right?
Throwing budget into an ad that has not been created with your sales objectives or audience in mind, will mean less viable connections.
You will end up spending money on reaching an audience that has no intention of buying your product or service and whilst you may gain more reach, the chances of this turning into a sale is pretty skinny.
There tends to be an innate fear, particularly within start-ups and businesses that are financially unstable, that restricting audiences will reduce sales. But, actually, that’s not the case. By targeting your ad audience carefully, based on their interests, requirements and buying habits, your return on investment (that’s how many sales you achieved vs how much you spend) will improve, and you will capture more sales for less budget. Kerching.
2. Worrying about offending people
Not everyone has to like your brand. In fact, the only people that need to like it are those who fit the profile of your ideal customer. If you try to create a brand that appeals to everyone, you will end up diluting your offering and ultimately not really connecting with anyone.
3. A lack of understanding or inefficient management
Even if you set up a killer ad campaign, remember it is a living thing. It requires constant care and attention to get the best from it. When approaching paid ads or social ads, your performance should be monitored throughout the duration of the campaign, demographics altered accordingly, and even make adjustments to campaign graphics or landing pages where updates are required based on your findings.
If you are not 100% confident when it comes to setting up ads, it is easy to overlook drilling down into your demographic correctly. If this is you right now, reach out to a local and trusted agency or ads expert that can offer consultancy or ads management. It is worth investing in this, providing you gain sales. A good agency should be able to offer ROI projections too.
So, how do you find your ideal audience?
If you are a local business, it is likely that ‘the masses’ just won’t be interested in what you have to offer, and if they are, your advertising budget likely won’t stretch that far. It is much better to narrow down your audience and target a smaller group.
Begin with considering who your ideal customer is, this can be through market research, competitor analysis or based on your current customer base, then devise your strategy from that point outwards.
By studying your ideal customer, you can create a profile for your target audience, which will help you to create brand collateral that will connect with those falling directly into your parameters. Your brand can then be fine-tuned to suit their needs and your marketing materials will be more appealing to that group, impacting positively on your conversion rates.
Not sure where to start? Our free audit could be just the place. Enquire about one today via our contact form below or call us on 01603 859007.
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