The Question of the Day Is…

A couple days ago, Seth Godin’s blog featured a thought provoking entry titled “Not a Trick Question“.

His question was this “Is it better to make stuff aimed at people who usually buy your product, or aimed at people who rarely do?”

I often find myself asking a variation of this question when it comes to marketing our clients. Although it’s vitally important to identify a target you do well with, I often challenge clients to think along the lines of how to reach untapped markets.

It can be as simple as asking, “How can I modify my marketing plan, even if only slightly, to appeal to a different or more broad demographic?” Sometimes it involves an actual change to the product or service, but often it requires only a tweak in messaging to open up new opportunities.

So, which do you pick – the familiar or the untapped? Since Seth was referring to a product, he pointed out you have to pick one or the other. But, when it comes to marketing, you can easily choose to target your messaging to more than one demographic and test to determine effectiveness.