Speak Directly to Your Ideal Customer

I see a lot of creative business owners fall into this trap with their content:

They speak in generalities or post pics that can apply to any business/use case, trying to make sure their content appeals to the widest audience possible.

It sounds logical, right?

You want your business to grow, you want more customers/clients, so you try to reach a wider net of people.

BUT, this will actually do the complete opposite.

Let me share with you why focusing in on a specific audience can actually get you MORE sales...

Stop making your customers do all the work

If you speak in general terms, you're putting the burden on your audience to figure out how your offering applies to their circumstances/needs.

They have to do the mental work of listening to or reading your content, then imagining how to might apply to their situation.

Let's look at an example—say you post an illustration or piece of digital art just as a JPEG on your Instagram.

Maybe your caption is something like "Here's a new piece I did, I think it'd look great on a mug or t-shirt or could be a print in your home! What would you use it for?"

What's wrong with this post?

1. It's not at all value-focused (aka "buyer-centric"). Note how many times the word "I" is thrown into the caption. This post is completely focused on you, not your buyer. Which means it's highly unlikely your ideal customer is going to even notice it in the first place.
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2. You're asking your audience to do your job! If you have a strong definition of the niche you serve and the messaging you want to put out there for your business, you should be educating them on how your products serve them, not the other way around.
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3. You're making your audience do too much work. In addition to asking them how they'd use this art, you're also putting the burden on them to imagine what that would look like because you've only shared a digital image rather than a mockup.

Create content tailored to your ideal customer

Now, think about if instead, you posted a picture of your artwork digitally mocked up on a t-shirt.

And in your caption, you talk about how this would make the perfect shirt for millennial women nostalgic for their childhood of the 90s (or whatever the design would be perfect for).

When do you that:

1. That ideal customer with the t-shirt store is going to INSTANTLY know this post is for them, and pay attention to it when they scroll past
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2. They can pause, easily imagine it in their lineup, and understand the type of clientele that would be interested in this as a product
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3. You probably have a new follower, if not someone in your DMs or visiting your website for more info

Are you really missing out on anything?

So yes, someone who wants mugs for their shop would gloss right over your t-shirt post.

But you wouldn’t have gotten either one of those people if you just posted that generic JPEG.

Bottom line: When you try to reach everyone, you miss out on more opportunities because you’re not being specific to ANYONE.

When you’re specific and focused in on one use case, you’re much more likely to grab their attention.

It’ll make it easier for them to understand what you do and how you fulfill their needs.

It’ll make them much more likely to engage with you, start a conversation, or buy from you.

How to move forward

This is why I think it's so critical to have a strong definition of your niche and who you're serving as a foundational first step in putting together a marketing strategy that will grow your creative business.

It all goes back to the idea that marketing is education. You need to educate your audience on what you offer, and how that can solve problems or fulfill needs specific to their circumstances.

If you're not operating from this perspective, it means hundreds of potential customers and clients are scrolling right past your posts because it's not obvious that those posts can help them.

But, if you're willing to leverage your marketing as an educational tool, your unique creative gifts will be seen and actually serve the people whose lives can improve from it—which is the whole point of your business, right?

If this sounds like something your business could use, join me in my coaching program, The Content Strategy Glow Up, where you'll leave with a strong understanding of the audience you best serve and the educational content you need to post to start attracting more of them.