Shifting from Who to When
If you want your marketing to convert, stop asking, “Who is our target market?” and start asking, “When does our service become impossible to ignore?”
When we look at businesses that grow consistently, they aren’t necessarily the smartest or the ones with the biggest marketing budgets.
They’re usually the clearest.
They understand the trigger moments in their market better than anyone else.
I saw this recently with an independent gym owner.
Like many gyms, their marketing was aimed at a broad audience. Men and women aged 30 to 55 who wanted to lose weight, get fitter or improve their health.
Nothing wrong with that on paper.
The problem was that every other gym in the area was saying exactly the same thing.
So I asked a different question.
“What actually causes someone to join?”
It wasn’t January.
It wasn’t because they suddenly decided fitness sounded like a good idea.
It was because something had happened.
A holiday had been booked.
A wedding invitation had arrived.
A doctor had advised them to lose weight.
Their children had started commenting that they were always tired.
A photograph made them realise they no longer recognised themselves.
The problem had existed for months, sometimes years.
The trigger happened that day.
Once we started talking to those moments instead of a demographic, everything changed.
The marketing became more relatable.
The enquiries became better qualified.
The conversations became easier because people already recognised themselves in the message.
Same business.
Same coaching.
Same prices.
Completely different conversation.
That’s why I rarely start with demographics.
I’m far more interested in the moment someone decides they can’t carry on as they are.
Because that’s when people buy.
Not when they have a problem.
When they decide the problem can no longer be ignored.