The Context
We live in a world where targeting is a hundred billion dollar a year business. Brands select a pool of ideal buyers within their business's serviceable market, and deploy their marketing efforts and resources accordingly. But then again, what the hell do they know? Their ideal customer might be someone they’ve never even heard of before. Avon started as a door to door book company, but what their female customers really loved were the little perfume samples that accompanied the books. That’s why the brand pivoted. And that decision enabled them to become the world leader in direct selling personal care products. Happens all the time. Companies start out selling something very different from their current lines of merchandise. Not because they target customers, but because they allowed customer to target them.
The Tool
Bullseyeing
BULLSEYEING — Reversing the target marketing process where customers aim at you
This tool is a counterintuitive approach prolific creators and companies take. They invert the strategy and become the bullseye, instead of the arrow. They convert their brand into a big, beautiful, juicy target. Which approach are you taking? Are you still exhausting all of your resources aiming, or positioning yourself to be aimed at? It’s helpful to think of it as an algebra formula. The volume of daily output, multiplied by originality of brand voice, divided by time, raised to the power of consistency, equals new opportunities that find you through the attraction of working. It’s reverse target marketing, and it can only be created through incremental creative action. For example, if a prospective or existing client reaches out and asks you, hey, can you guys do that? Your answer, in the majority of situations is, needs to be, of course we can do that. For several reasons. One, because every potential buyer is looking for reasons not to buy. Prolific creators position themselves as the antidote to that. They don’t give customers any of those reasons. Whatever that customer needs, the answer, at least initially, will be, yes we can do that. Two, it’s how you unlock new revenue opportunities for your work. When you open yourself to a wide variety of client improvements, there is an unlimited pool of economic opportunities. If you’re willing to try anything and open to experimenting regardless of complexity, that makes it easier for the customer to hit your target with their arrow.
The Rest
Your challenge is to figure out the linchpin activity that activates the value attraction process. The incremental creative action to take on a daily basis that makes you a bigger target. It’s going to be different for each brand, but the principle is the same. Become the bullseye, and it’s only a matter of time before the customer’s arrow hits you. Are you aiming, or positioning yourself to be aimed at?
The Benefits
Overcome buyer objections that make rejecting you easy
Show yourself that you are capable of being useful in new ways
Unlock new revenue opportunities and profit centers for your creative work
Increase long term career fulfillment for your team members