I was listening to an interesting podcast this morning, and the interviewee stated something which challenged me:

“I don’t target getting new people to read my information.  I target my BEST customers, and the rest are drawn because of the value they see.”

This is perhaps different than the traditional wisdom, but let’s think about it for a moment.

If you’re targeting your marketing towards non-customers, then you’ll focus on the basic introductory stuff.  “Here’s what we do, and why you should be interested.”  That’s fine, but it’s not really delivering any value.  It’s just beating people over the head with the same message: “Notice me!  Notice me!”

Imagine, instead, that you focus on giving value.  If you’re a small gym, then you might show people how to maintain their health at home and in the gym.  At the end of your event, you can have the little statement, “here’s more about who we are.”  But the primary thing is that you’re primarily helping people, which attracts people who are interested in that kind of help.

I know a commercial printer here in town, and their newsletter gives some useful tips and techniques, combined with a little humor.  They don’t actually talk that much about the products and services they offer, other than the implication that “if you’re interested in this kind of stuff, we can certainly help you with it.”  But because the newsletter is useful in itself, maybe I’ll save it for the next time I’m playing around with PhotoShop.

There certainly is a time and place for giving your elevator pitch, in spoken or written form.  But it honestly doesn’t do that much to grow your business unless you hit on a formula which strikes people as immediately cool and intriguing.  If you’re offering a $100 Cheesesteak, go for it.

But you’ll develop more deep customer relationships if you generously give value, and attract the people who like your expertise.

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