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How to tell if you’re making the mistake of speaking to everyone

June 8, 2021 6:00 am

I’m sure you’ve heard this Meredith Hill quote before: “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”

But what does that actually mean? How do you know if you’re making the mistake of speaking to everyone? Why is it a bad idea to try to connect with anyone and everyone? And what should you be doing instead? 

In today’s blog post, I’m going to talk about how many business owners unintentionally end up making this mistake, three indicators to help you identify whether or not this is something you’re doing, and how to fix it. Ready? Let’s go!

Speaking to everyone is typically caused by two things: 

1. Vague and excessive content

When struggling with sales, often the natural, anxious instinct of business owners is to do MORE. To create more content, to “show up” more, to just do more stuff. This usually means that you end up not being intentional or strategic with your content, which leads to confusing and/or absent core messaging. Without clear messaging, your content won’t effectively speak to anyone.

2. Not knowing who you are speaking to

This is the category most people would say they identify with. Not knowing who your target audience is results in you just throwing anything and everything out there.

How to tell if you’re making the mistake of speaking to everyone

What are some key indicators of whether or not this is something you’ve fallen prey to?

1. You’re consistently creating content, but are struggling to present it in a way that helps people move closer to your paid offers.

Consistency is one thing, but if your content isn’t connected or targeted (if, for example, you’re addressing different topics and issues every day of the week), then it will all feel disjointed and scattered. 

Let’s pretend we’re fishing. If you want to catch a specific type of fish, you need to know what type of bait to use. In the business world, instead of just throwing things out there and hoping someone will come to you, you need to be able to identify the messaging that will draw in your audience. Simplify the thinking process for them. You don’t want your ideal clientele to have to do a lot of work to figure out whether or not you’re the best option for them. You want your content to resonate with them.

2. You’re letting external factors, like other people’s opinions and strategies, dictate what you’re putting out there.

Don’t get me wrong, market research is important–it’s a tool I use all the time! However, just because someone has asked for something, doesn’t mean you should do it. Boundaries are important. Collecting feedback from your audience and learning from different educators are good tactics for building your content, but when you start to tackle too many items and use/shift between too many strategies (especially within a short period of time), your audience will be confused. 

Just because you can talk about or do something, doesn’t mean you need to go all out. You need to be intentional–and in some ways, protective–of your content and your message. 

3. Your marketing efforts and investments aren’t translating into sales.

Chances are your ideal clients can’t see you, and you’re making it difficult for them to say “yes!” to YOU.

Okay, enough of what might be going wrong. Let’s talk about what you can do to make it right

  1. Understand your ideal client’s struggles, pains and desires. Know what they want and need. Identify their symptoms–their emotions and behaviours. How are they feeling right now as they consume your content? Interested? Overwhelmed? Scattered?
  1. Work with an end goal in mind. Everything you post needs to speak to your specific audience. Help them understand why you’re the solution and what steps they should take to move on to the next stage with you. 
  1. Set boundaries in regards to what you will do and post about. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. When encountering a new potential content topic, do a gut check – are you really qualified to tackle this? Is this topic going to help your audience move closer to your paid offer? By addressing this topic, are you adding or are you distracting? You want the content you produce to (a) add value and (b) help your audience see why your solution matters.

Do you find yourself speaking to everyone (or in other words, to no one) instead of your target audience? What are you going to do about it?

How to tell if you’re making the mistake of speaking to everyone

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  1. […] Not sure if your copy is speaking directly to your target market? Read: How to tell if you’re making the mistake of speaking to everyone […]

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