What happens when you attract the wrong customers?
When you discount to win work, you send a signal about who you are and what you charge. The customers you win then refer others who expect the same cheap price, and a pattern builds where more and more of your enquiries come from people who cannot or will not pay for quality work.
That cycle is not a referral problem. It is a targeting problem. The bait you put on the hook determines the fish you catch.
How do you define your ideal target customer?
Start with who actually has the money and the authority to say yes. For a residential trade business, that often means looking at age and life stage. People who are 35 and above have typically built a career, have disposable income, and can make a smart investment when you explain the value of a better solution.
You also need to identify who makes the decision. In a residential setting, that is frequently the woman of the household. In a property management context, the decision-maker is often a property manager. Knowing this shapes not just who you talk to, but how you talk to them.
Why does your marketing style need to match your target demographic?
Once you know who you are trying to reach, you can create content that speaks directly to them and means nothing to the wrong audience. Greg's business, Response Electricians, targets women aged 35 and above, so their marketing leans on music and nostalgia from that generation, including parodies of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC songs. Someone in that age group recognises the reference immediately, and it builds instant trust by putting a smile on their face. A 25-year-old has no idea what the song is, and that is fine.
The goal is to hook the right people and repel everyone else. The people you repel do not share your values, so losing them costs you nothing.
What comes after the hook?
Entertainment and humour are the top of the funnel. They get attention and pull the right people in. Once someone is engaged, the next step is showing them your professional work, your reviews, your values and your quality of workmanship.
That second layer of content does two jobs at once. It builds trust with new prospects who found you through the hook, and it reminds your existing customers who you are and what you stand for. Without that reminder, relationships become purely transactional, and a competitor who presents your values afresh can win a customer you have served for years.
How does targeted marketing reduce the time you waste on bad leads?
When your marketing is built around a specific customer, the people who contact you are largely pre-sold. They already trust you, they already like you, and they already understand your pricing position. That means shorter phone calls, higher conversion rates and less time spent quoting for work you will never win.
Greg also notes that when he used a marketing agency without a clearly defined target audience, he generated a high volume of poor-quality leads. The cost per lead looked good on paper, but the leads were not converting into real work. The fix was not the agency. It was getting clear on the objective and the audience first, then briefing the agency around that strategy.
How does targeted marketing help with retention and referrals?
Good marketing keeps you front of mind with existing customers. When you consistently show your values, your team and your work, customers remember who you are even between jobs. That makes them more likely to refer you to people who are similar to themselves, which means more enquiries from the right demographic.
The alternative is silence between jobs. Silence lets a competitor walk in, present the same values you hold, and win the customer because you have not stayed in the conversation. Consistent, targeted marketing makes that much harder to happen.
