How to stop a target market train wreck

How to stop a target market train wreck.

I had a great conversation with a woman who joined the Write Your Website lab yesterday, and it brought something up that’s worth knowing.

There is a simple way to avoid spending a lot of time and energy on a “target market train wreck” – that is, talking to people without money, strong motivation to act, or self-esteem.

So she and I were talking about what she was working on.

To put this in context: she’s doing everything right. She’s getting new leads onto her list. She’s following up with a warm up sequence of emails to build a relationship with them.

And she’s even inviting them into initial sessions by email.

Clearly, this is a woman who has her act together.

But trouble is, she’s not getting the right people into those sessions.

They don’t have any money. And they don’t have a lot of urgency around solving the problem.

I’ll tell you what I told her. It’s all in how you talk about the problem. And what assumptions you are making about the people you are talking to.

For instance, what if you assume that your ideal client has a lot of urgency?

What if you assume that she pays for quality – even if it costs more?

What if you assume that the problem has gotten so unworkable for her, that she’ll do whatever it takes to solve it?

She got it. And she’ll go back and tweak her copy with this insight into who she’s talking to.

When you can do this in conversation, it moves pretty quick. You just need to make a distinction in your own mind about who makes a great client for you… and who doesn’t.

This is why I’m a big fan of talking with other business owners who are writing their own copy, too.

Because people who know how to write their own copy have a pretty good sense about whether a message has urgency.

Also, there are things about your business that you may not be able to see – or articulate clearly. Simply. Powerfully.

So being able to talk that out with someone else is really helpful. They aren’t as close to it as you.

It also saves you from spending a lot of time writing something that is connecting with the wrong people.

The next time you try writing something out for your business, try talking it out first. Preferably with someone who’s at least as good at writing copy or marketing as you – or better.

Walk them through what you’re thinking of writing. And ask them for specific feedback.

Does this speak to an urgent problem? If you were my ideal client, would you respond? Does any of this sound unbelievable, confusing, or boring?

And if you are looking for sharp people who are up for these sorts of conversations… there are plenty of ‘em in our production labs.

Learn the copywriting basics and get your website written! Check out my 5 week Write Your Website lab: https://stellaorange.com/write-your-website. Starts next week.

Mighty thanks to Jerry flickr photostream for the conductor.