You may have programs that target different groups that don’t necessarily “go together.”
Language is tribal.
And by that, I mean that there are insiders, and there are outsiders.
I was talking to a messenger who’s coming to the Writing Intensive this week in Montana. We were talking about her website, and who she wanted to talk to on her homepage.
Hint:: You need to pick a group of people you want to talk to on your homepage.
Hint hint:: You need to stop talking to “everyone” on your homepage.
Hint hint hint:: Might as well pick a group of people who have money and motivating to change their current situation.
Lately, I’ve been running my writing labs based on inquiry. That is, asking questions that get people thinking about what they really want. So they are clear. And then that clarity gets fused into everything that they write, because it’s just who they are.
So the inquiry was: Can you write a homepage that connects with savvy professional women in their 40s and 50s… and with college sorority girls?
I share this with you because while the specifics may not apply to your business, you might be trying to lump a couple groups together in your writing and message.
And I want you to be aware that sometimes it can work, and sometimes it confuses people.
The traditional marketing line is to just have one target market.
But the problem is, you may have programs that target different groups that don’t necessarily “go together.”
It doesn’t mean it’s impossible to serve both groups – but it does mean you have to be mindful.
Or it’s not going to work.
In the case of the homepage above, I can tell you right now that speaking the language of savvy, successful professional women while simultaneously speaking the language of college women is a fool’s errand.
Those are two different tribes.
And while this naturopath offers science-based weight loss to women looking to lose 5-20 pounds, the LANGUAGE that these groups use is likely to be very different.
Because even though it’s the same problem, it occurs differently in the lives of those two groups.
If I’m in college, I’ve probably gained extra weight because I party, drink, and am fed by an all-you-can-eat buffet cafeteria.
If I’m a professional woman with kiddos, I’ve probably gained extra weight because my life is crazy busy, I’m crap with self care, and I wear my over-full schedule like a status symbol.
(Oh, snap. I didn’t mean for this to be an editorial on modern life.)
The first goal of your homepage is to show your ideal client that you “get” her. And in addition to using the words that she actually uses to describe her problem, it’s also about your tone of voice (are you Funny? Irreverent? Serious as cancer?)
Plus, it’s about showing that you “get” how the problem is occurring in her day-to-day life.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t fudge a bit, and still make a meaningful connection with certain groups on your homepage. For example, I’ve seen plenty of my students target “entrepreneurs and corporate women”… and be successful at calling in BOTH groups.
But like I tell my students, that comes at a cost.
You trade in your right to use language that is super-specific to each tribe.
Entrepreneurs who want to lose weight have a different conversation running through their heads that C-suite execs. Usually.
Which doesn’t mean don’t write to both groups – it just means pay attention to who you REALLY love working with. You may find that in 8-12 months, you love working with entrepreneurs the most.
That’s a pivot. As entrepreneurs, we’re making them constantly. And adjusting our messages accordingly.
You just take what you are learning out in the world, what you are discovering within yourself, what you are hearing from your most favorite clients…. And drilling down to more and more specifics in your writing and message.
In the case of the naturopath and her homepage, she ended up deciding to focus on savvy professional women. She’d build a separate website for the college woman niche (that’s linked to a book project collaboration and membership site).
This one decision will make her message so much clearer. And as a result, it will be a whole lot easier for her to “call in” the more sophisticated clients she loves working with… without them having to wade through – or get confused by – copy about dorms, cafeteria meal plans, and hot pots.
Mighty thanks to Jeffrey Keeton flickr photostream for the sorority girls.
