Why are we talking about obscurity? And why is it failing your business? And what inspired this?
Yesterday I was in the barbers and Mumford & Sons comes on the radio
“… But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really f**ked it up this time
Didn’t I, my dear?…”
99% of our readers will be singing “Little Lion Man” right now
And a random bloke next to me says “What the f**k is this? Some Country and Western shit?”
It wasn’t what he said that took be aback. I’m sure there are many people out there that don’t like Mumford & Sons. It was the way he said it. It was a tone in his voice and a phrasing that hinted he’d never ever heard that song before
I looked him up and down and made some assumptions based on his appearance and whilst there isn’t a look for a Mumford & Sons fan as such (in the same there would be for punk or emo or grime) I figured he wasn’t their typical fan. But I couldn’t believe someone hasn’t heard that song before – a song that has gone platinum in the UK, was all over the radio and has been streamed 250 million + times on Spotify
15 minutes later I walked out and thought – wow, if someone hasn’t heard of one of the most well known songs of the past 10 years, then what does it say about your business? How obscure is your business? How few people know that your business exists and why obscurity is the biggest failure for most businesses
OBSCURITY IS FAILING YOUR BUSINESS
When you think about why most businesses fail
Whether that be a business on the high street, a businesses in offices or a business that works from home one of the biggest failings is most people (or not enough people) know that they exist
I really want you to think about that It doesn’t matter if you’re a business on the high street. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a business on busiest road in your town. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a business in Altrincham on George Street or Stamford New Road or Moss Lane. If you’re in Sale and you’re on Station Road or in Manchester on Market Street. It doesn’t matter where your location is. If not enough people know your business exists you are not going to have a business for a long period of time
OVERCOMING OBSCURITY – THE MASS MARKET AND YOUR TRIBE
There’s 2 different markets that you really want to aim towards
Obscurity simply means not enough people know you exist, so you have to think about the mass market. Let’s think for a while that is everyone knows you exist. That isn’t a problem. They can be what the referrers or the people that spread the word to your tribe. For instance quite often on my personal Facebook, I will get tagged into posts by friends when a new brand is launching a vegan product or vegan menu – the people tagging me aren’t vegan or the tribe the business is aiming for, but because the mass market knows they tag in their family and friends – the actual potential customers of the product
Get as many people knowing that your business exists
If you follow us on Social Media you’ll know that is one of our main goals. Letting as many people know we exist and that’s why we’re omnipresent on every single social media channel going. Between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogging and Instagram we have over 30,000 followers and I still don’t think that’s enough. I still think we have the potential, even if we just wanted to be known by people in our home town, by double that amount of people
After you think about the mass market, you need to think about who is your message aimed towards. Your message has got to be aimed towards your tribe. And by your tribe I mean the people who are your customers and are going to spend money with you. For us it’s important that everyone knows us in the Altrincham area and every single person in the South Manchester area – but our actual customers are business owners. My tribe are the ones that tune into our Instagram Live broadcasts every day and read every single blog we do. The messages we out on a regular basis are compelling messages to make them think about business success, marketing and so.
CONSISTENCY
Most of you will not go viral on social media
You are not going to have one post that reaches 3 million people and you’re then set up for life
You have to focus on delivering compelling messages consistently, frequently and interesting enough. Depending on which article you’ll read you hear stats on people buying from you on the 7th, 12th, 15th touch point.
So before you go – repeat this
Stop Being Obscure
Get people knowing you exist
And deliver a compelling message
If there’s a person who was sat next to me in the barbers who hasn’t heard of one of Mumford & Sons biggest songs in the world – there are definitely people who aren’t aware of your business. These are customers that could be spending money with you ever single day and they simply don’t know you exist
The power of marketing converts those strangers to customers and allows you to live your dream life. The life you’ve always wanted to live
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services Or Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk 
