Are You Missing A Piece To Your Puzzle?

Imagine you just bought a 10,000 piece puzzle. It will be challenging to put together because it’s a really intricate design with many similar colors but not a lot of detail. It’s going to take days, even weeks, to put it together. As you get started, you start with the corners and edges, then work your way to the middle. As time goes on, you’re making progress, but one part of the puzzle isn’t coming together. You get all the way to the end, and you realize a piece of the puzzle is missing. That’s a lot like running your own business. You have all of these pieces that you need to fit together. The edges of the puzzle are things like funding, marketing, a good business plan, and your services. The middle pieces are what make your business work, your staff, your product/service, your campaigns, and all of the other things that make your business run. The corners, however, are the most important. Without those corner pieces, you don’t know where to put the other pieces. Those corner pieces are your niche, data, message, and dialogue. Without those four pieces of your business puzzle, you can’t have a truly successful company. We’re going to break down each of these four pieces and see why they’re so important.

Let’s start with your niche. If you don’t know who your product or service will benefit, you can’t accurately market your product.

When businesses start out, they’ll often just market to everyone, and they think getting the word out to anyone who will listen will make them successful. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Having a niche isn’t something new; many companies only target their niche market as part of their business model. Some of the benefits to having a niche are:

• Less direct competition
• Streamlined operations
• Better relationships with clients
• More focused audience targeting strategy

Defining and targeting a specific niche can take your operations to the next level and help you claim and build your reputation for being an industry leader and expert in your market.

Next, we have data. Once you’ve defined your target niche, you have to make sure your data matches who you target and is correct and up-to-date information. Data can help you narrow down your niche even further. If you’re targeting marketing agencies, maybe you only want to target agencies with over $1 million in revenue, or you only want marketing agencies that are currently hiring. Using programs like Apollo and other data sites can really help you find exactly who you need to reach out to. Data can also help you understand your potential clients. What are their struggles, where can they use some help, is your service or product even something they will value? Good data can give you more talking points and show your lead that you did your research and are genuinely interested in helping them. This helps with personalized outreach. Data is one of the most powerful tools you can use for your outreach. Using it will make your campaigns more effective and generate higher-quality leads.

Now that you know who you’re targeting and have the data, it’s time for your message. The days of blanket messaging are over. Your messaging needs to be personalized and genuine; it should include something specific about the company or the person. However, it doesn’t need to be anything super personal. Maybe the company just finished a round of funding, or they’re in a state or city with a pro sports team that’s doing well; these are all things that can be used to customize the message. This doesn’t mean you can’t use a template. It means you don’t want to send the same message to thousands of different companies and expect a good return. Your message also needs to be clear about what you’re offering.

If you’re running a cold outbound campaign, the recipients don’t know who you are or what you do, so make sure your message tells them what problem you will solve for them. The first message should actually be more about them. Draw in their interest and always close with a good call to action (CTA), so they want to respond to you. Keeping your first message short is also a plus. Make sure you offer value in your message so people don’t think you’re just wasting their time. If they don’t respond right away, that’s ok; just make sure you have follow-up messages that can go out that are still personalized and valuable.

For the final piece of our puzzle, we will look at the dialogue you have once they respond. The discussion you have with your lead is how you will book that call and even land the contract. Remember, everyone’s time is valuable, so you don’t want to waste their time asking questions you can easily find the answer to. Make sure you are still up to date with their company data and keep your dialogue personalized and full of value. You can send over case studies, articles, resources, and even a free trial so they know that you’re there for them. With this dialogue, you can start going into more detail about how you can solve problems for their company, but again don’t try to reinvent the wheel for them. Keep it simple and targeted around the data you’ve collected.

Yes, pieces of this crazy business puzzle can change, but the four corner pieces are what you need to complete it and make it whole. When you really drill down with these four items, it will also help you create high-quality leads through fewer campaigns. If you know exactly who you’ll reach out to, what they need, and how you can solve their problems, you’ll be set to generate business with companies that are more likely to become life-long clients, bring in referrals, and become an advocate for your business. Working smarter, not harder, is something everyone should do, so why not start now? If you need help with your niche, data, message, dialogue, or all of the above, Boundless Media can help. Contact us today to see which of our services can help your business find the missing piece of the puzzle.

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