Don’t Make This Common Marketing Targeting Mistake

Don’t Make This Common Marketing Targeting Mistake

So I spoke to a managed service provider a few weeks ago. For those of you that aren't familiar with MSPs, they're IT consultants. They help people implement IT within their businesses. And he had focused on a very specific niche, a specific subsegment of health care. He was targeting specific types of doctors. Let's just say he was targeting podiatrists in this case. He's not, but I'm using different information here because I don't want to call anybody out. But let's say he's targeting podiatrists. This is normally a very good thing, but he's been doing this for two years with no results. What's the problem? That's what I'm going to break down in this episode, because I do not want you to make this same marketing-targeting mistake.

Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult, and it definitely shouldn't be guesswork. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in.

So first off, the thing we need to ask ourselves in this case is, are you even targeting a strong market? There are typically five things that I look at to determine whether a market is a good market to go after.

The Five Key Signs of a Strong Market

First is quantity. Are there enough to go around? Are there enough podiatrists? Certainly there are. There's plenty of them. Typically, when you niche and specialize, you're going narrow. You just want to make sure that the pool is large enough. And in most cases, if there's groups or organizations around that specific specialty or niche, there's enough people. That's a good threshold to look at. But you can also just look at, Hey, how many clients do we actually need to reach our goals? And compare that to the total market. But in most cases, it's pretty rare for somebody to go too narrow. But it can happen. So you do want to make sure, based on how much business you want to do and your particular goals, are there enough people in that niche to go after?

The second thing we need to look at is pain. Do they desperately need what you offer? If they're not feeling the pain, they're not going to act. In this case, again, for IT, I'm a podiatrist, I have a small practice. Yeah, IT is an issue that I need to get it taken care of. I'm dealing with sensitive patient data. If their IT is not dialed in, there is pain there.

Purchasing power is the third one. Can they actually afford what you do? The answer here is yes. Frankly, they have no choice. You have to do this if you want to run a successful practice long term. IT is something that you have to have. But typically I look at it and say, Yeah, it's medical. The demand is high. There's plenty of revenue coming in there. They've got the purchasing power to buy what I do as an MSP.

The fourth thing is, are they easy to target? Can you reliably get in front of decision makers? And this is the sticking point in this specific example. They are incredibly difficult to get in front of. Very tight knit, very insulated. They're practice managers, and the other people around them are protecting them from people People selling them a bunch of stuff. And so they're not active on LinkedIn or other social channels. This particular MSP is having a very difficult time getting in front of this target. And that makes marketing very, very challenging. That's the rub in this specific case.

The fifth thing you want to look is growing. Is the market expanding? Or at the very least, is the market growing with the overall economy? In this case, demand for health care just continues to exist and continue to grow.

Those are the five things that you can look at to determine whether you're targeting a strong market. Quantity, are there enough? Do they have pain? Do they have purchasing power? Are they easy to target? And is it a growing market? Now, if you're missing more than one of these, it doesn't mean that you're doomed, but it does mean you've got a lot of work to do. And to me, some of these are much harder to overcome than others. And being easy to target is a really big one because if they check all the other boxes, but you can't get in front of them with your marketing, it is going to be incredibly challenging.

Don’t Make This Common Marketing Targeting Mistake

So had I talked to this MSP before he chose this niche, I probably would have recommended that he choose another niche unless he already had inroads in that market. He already had contacts making it easier for him to get in front of that market. But so in this particular case, and you could apply these same things elsewhere, how does this particular MSP break through and win in this market?

And some of these things that I'm going to share can translate over if you're running into this case. But I want to share just a few thoughts here of, Hey, I'm having a really hard time. What are some of the things that I might be able to think about doing that might help me break through?

First thing, in this In a particular case with health care, office drop-bys can work well. That's changing in some cases, but in general, the people that I've talked to who are targeting health care, office drop-bys can be very effective. Can be a great way to get in front of the practice manager. You drop something off for them to eat or snack on or some small gift, right? Get some FaceTime with the practice manager and talk to them. Break that wall down so that they open up the door for you. Office drop-bys can work well. The next thing is leveraging client stories and case studies. Very tight knit, very insulated. You got to leverage case studies and testimonials from other people like them. So get at least a few case studies from other podiatrists you've worked with and leverage that in your outreach. That could be one of the things that you drop by when you want to talk to the practice manager.

The next thing that this MSP could think about is target through trusted channels. Find partners like consultants, CPAs, or other businesses that target this same niche and leverage co-marketing or referrals within them. They're going to have high trust with their CPA and other business consultants that are helping them within their business. So go through partners, start to build relationships with partners that are targeting podiatrists specifically as well, and leverage those relationships. You could also make a Create a growth alliance of other partners focused on this specific niche. Hey, we're a group of business owners that focus on selling to and helping podiatrists. And leverage that because all of those, everyone in that group could end up being really strong referral partners. So that's another way to help break through in this market. Join and participate in their associations. They're going to be or their practice managers are going to be there. Sponsor, speak, support in any way you can and show up consistently. Often, it's going to take time, but that could also be another very effective way to start to break through and get in front of them.

Now, the last one is probably something that most people aren't necessarily thinking about. But if you've tried these things, you're trying other things to get through and you just cannot break through, then one of the things you might need to consider is just forget about it. Forget about breaking through and shift your focus. When you chose to focus on a specific industry and specialize in that industry, nobody said that you were laying concrete and it was permanent, and you're not. So you can shift and you have, as a business owner, it's perfectly within your right to shift. And in this case, maybe you should shift. You Because banging your head against a wall for year after year after year, at some point it just doesn't make sense, and we need to shift and go back to, hey, what could be a better market for us to focus on? And if you have to shift, look at those five key signs of a strong market to make sure that they're checking those boxes and then go down a different path. But getting in front of an insulated hard to reach market requires creativity and relationship leverage.

Conclusion

So I hope you have Hope this has helped if you find yourself in this case, or at least you've got some ideas, right? But what this MSP could have done before they niched was answer the five key signs of a strong market. They probably would have chosen a different market. But since they're down this path, it might make sense to focus on some of these additional things that I've touched on for another 3-6 months to see if they can break in. And then if they can't, then they shift. But I hope this helps you because I certainly don't want you to make this same marketing targeting mistake because it is a painful one to try and work through and push through. So hope you found this helpful. I appreciate you. If you want to connect with us, you can do that over at rialtomarketing.com. That's rialtomarketing.com. When we help clients build their marketing engine, we help them escape the marketing maze by building a marketing engine. We focus on nine key aspects of a marketing engine. If you want to know which of the nine are slowing down your growth, you can do that over at revenueroadblockscorecard.com. Takes us some five minutes. There's a ton of value there. So take advantage of that. Until next time. Take care.