subject: When Advertising: It's Better To Speak To One Rather Than Many [print this page] When Advertising: It's Better To Speak To One Rather Than Many
I was watching TV the other night and a commercial came on for a local dentist. Nothing fancy, it showed the dentist speaking to the viewers. "Are you tired of loose dentures?" he asked. Then he continued: "I can turn those loose dentures into a permanent bridge in just one day".
You might be thinking, okay, what is so remarkable about that TV commercial? If you saw it, you probably wouldn't have remembered it. Well, I think it was terrific, the perfect example of how speaking to one person instead of many can result in an ad that really delivers results.
He spoke to a "Target Profile" instead of a "Target Audience". What is the difference? Let's define both starting with the Target Audience. The Target Audience includes everyone within the range of the television commercial who cares about good oral hygiene. That's a lot of people. Including those of different age or economic groups. It would also include folks with different dental problems and even those with healthy teeth. A commercial that appeals to all of them will have to be pretty broad based and not specific.
Now let's evaluate the commercial I saw that focused on a Target Profile. The dentist was speaking to someone who wears dentures, someone who has problems with his dentures, someone who is probably older, someone who probably can't afford a more expensive solution like dental implants and someone who is ready to switch to a new dentist. It's almost as though the TV spot was written for one patient instead of everybody. It was. That's the way to create an effect advertisement.
In reality there are probably lots of others who share the specific problem outlined in the commercial. Maybe 10% of the total number watching the commercial.How about the other 90%? The other 90% of the viewers won't be interested. The good news is that the total audience is this case was probably about 175,000 viewers (a popular show on a cable channel), so 10% means 17,500 prospects. The dentist only needs a small percentage of that "Target Profile" to generate more business than he can handle.
Let's review. The dentist could have produced a generic ad, containing a laundry list of services that would have spoken to his entire target audience. In doing so he would have come across looking like hundreds of other dentists in the area. Instead, he made his practice unique by targeting a specific client profile and creating a TV spot that was very compelling to that profile.
The same approach can be used with direct mail or any other media you may be considering. What is your niche? Define it and then "Speak to One Instead of Many".
