Learn to let go and see your profits double.  A Japanese food import company, Aji-suki Co., started out with a broad marketing plan.

By deciding to cut out some of their customers they managed to bring in more real customers in a matter of months.

Less Really is More

The moral is, don’t scatter your marketing energies into the winds and hope for the best.  The only thing you should be concerned about is building up your client base with the right customers not just focusing on every single person who takes a look at your page.  The wider you spread your net, the less you’ll catch.

Focus on Your Ideal Customer

Accept the fact that not everyone is a “fit” for your organization and that you can’t please everybody at the same time.  Instead, try to truly satisfy those customers who will benefit most from what you have to offer.

By focusing on your ideal customers more you can be assured of several facts:

  1. Your company will make more money by targeting customers who are more likely to buy your products or services.
  2. Customers who actually take the time to check out your site will be more interested because your content is based on what they are interested in.
  3. Since you’re focusing all your energies on potential customers, they are the ones who will spread the word about your company. They’re more satisfied because you’re focusing on them.

Focusing on customers sounds great, right?  Focusing on a niche is a fantastic way to build a regular customer base.

However, the trade-off is that your offers may not appeal to the majority of customers.    In the end this is a favorable exchange for everyone – you focus your energies on a smaller group and they reward you with better business.

Combine Focus with A/B Testing

Aside from the mental shift where you need to be prepared to write off potential customers in exchange for profitable customers, there are other steps you can take to move towards a more focused customer base.

A/B testing is a great way to get start learning what your customers really respond to.

By offering customers slightly different versions of a sales page and tracking what customers respond to, you can get surprising results.  Oftentimes A/B Testing will give you different data than you would have expected based on your own feelings and experience.

A Case Study

Aji-suki Co. decided to take the plunge and focus their marketing on their ideal customers.

They stopped making ads that appealed to the mass market – “most” people- and started focusing more on their target customers: restaurant owners and food market managers.

By going straight for the customers that they really wanted, they were focusing on acquiring the “healthy customers” that all business should be looking for.

Once Aji-suki had changed their old habits, the next step was to put yet more focus on their new customer base.

A/B Testing revealed the best combination of strategies to maximize the effect of their new marketing strategies.  With their new-found knowledge of their real customer base’s preferences, they were able to not only improve their marketing plans, but also put together product packages that were more appealing than what they had previously offered to their standard consumer customers.

Target Your Perfect Buyer

So instead of pushing out ads, emails, and brochures aimed at anyone and everyone,  try to target a particular kind of buyer. The kind of buyer that will be most valuable for your business.  Put your energies into winning that kind of customer, and your business will have a solid foundation from which to expand in the future.