We’ve been working on a lead magnet for ourselves recently, and in the past few weeks we’ve shared it with close colleagues and friends to get their opinion.
Not surprisingly, we’ve gotten some really great feedback – we have really smart colleagues! – and what we’ve heard has pointed to some broader themes that you may find as helpful as we have.
For the discussion below, you should know that the lead magnet we’re working on is a self-evaluation tool that helps small business owners and marketers understand what steps they might take to improve their marketing results based on what they are doing now and how well it is working. 
Define Who You Want to Reach
Kind of Marketing ABCs, right? Basic enough that it seems silly to need to be reminded of. And yet, we didn’t define in enough detail.
I can rattle off in my sleep that we work with B2B companies in the $2M to $25M range, particularly mission-driven businesses. (B Corps and the like.) You can probably rattle off a similar client profile, and probably with a bit more specificity. (Our focus on mission-driven businesses leaves a lot of industry information undefined.)
Beyond that missing industry information, our beta testers also pointed out another problem and, interestingly, different testers pointed out two different sides of that problem.
Some of our testers wondered whether our use of the term “audience segment” was a mistake, feeling that many in our audience would not necessarily think in those terms or readily be able to define their own audience segments.
Other testers pointed out that in some areas, including some where we were talking about audience segments, our questions lacked enough granularity to be helpful.
So, which is it? Are both sets of testers right?
Probably. We do work with some pretty sophisticated marketers, the kinds of folks who know exactly what an audience segment is and exactly who their audience segments are.
We also work with smaller businesses for whom the term might not be familiar, even if they know that they have different conversations with different kinds of clients.
What that means, is that we may need to create separate versions of the self-evaluation tool for these different audiences.
Setting aside the challenges we’d face in trying to steer prospects toward the correct version of the tool, I can’t understate how critical it is for your marketing to be relevant and useful to your audience.
Whether it’s a lead magnet like we’re working on or a simple social media post, you need to know (as much as is possible) who it’s going to and how it fits with their understanding and perspective on the problem you might help them solve.
The deeper your knowledge of their profiles, the more likely you’ll hit the sweet spot of demonstrating your expertise without talking over your prospect’s head.
Next month, I’ll share some more of the feedback we’ve received, as there are a few other bits of advice we’ve received that are broadly helpful, as well.
Occasional large-scale changes can re-invigorate a marketing plan that’s beginning to falter and can provide a blast of inspiration that ripples out through the rest of your marketing.
By the way, if you’re interested in hearing some of my podcast and radio appearances, you’ll find a few of them listed on the Andigo website.
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
