Many companies sell to more than one type of customer: individuals and businesses, first-time buyers and returning ones, the owner and the person who handles purchasing. When you try to please everyone at once, you end up with a sentence that fits any company and says nothing to anyone. The solution is not to silence some to speak to others. It is to put things in order.
1. List the audiences and rank them
Write down the types of customer you have today and rank them by three criteria: how much they are worth to the company, how often they buy and how easy it is to reach them. The first on the list is the audience that leads: the home page, the profile and the main materials speak to them first.
2. Find out what each one wants to solve
Each audience has a different reason to look for you. A residents' association wants no trouble; an office wants to save time; an individual wants trust. Talk to a few customers of each type and note the words they use, without translating them into your own vocabulary. Those words go into the message.
3. Write the parent message
It is the part that is true for everyone: what the company does, how it does it and why it does it that way. It should fit in two sentences and be the same everywhere. If you do not know where to start, go first through how to write your value proposition in one sentence.
4. Adapt only the opening
For each audience, change three things: the first sentence (their problem), the example (a situation they recognise) and the proof (a similar case). The rest, the promise and the tone, stays the same. That way, someone who meets your company by two different paths understands that it is the same company.
5. Decide where each audience enters
- The home page speaks to the main audience.
- Dedicated pages receive the others, with a tailored opening.
- Ads and posts pick one audience at a time.
- The sales conversation first asks who you are, and only then speaks.
A frequent mistake
It is trying to make the parent message neutral, so as not to offend anyone. A good parent message takes a position: it says what the company does well and, therefore, who it serves best. Some customers will realise the company is not for them, and that is healthy: it saves time on both sides. Review the message every six months, or whenever a new audience comes in.
If, once everything is ranked, you realise the audiences have little in common and the company is almost splitting in two, it may be time to review the positioning. The signs are in how to know if your brand needs repositioning. Our Brand Strategy work starts precisely by choosing who leads and what is said.
An invented example
Imagine a cleaning company serving residents' associations and offices. The parent message could be: "We clean to agreed schedules, with one person responsible for the contract." For the residents' association, the opening talks about complaints from residents and clear accounts. For the office, it talks about spaces ready before the team arrives. The promise is the same, the entry point changes. If the company had to choose who leads, it would pick the audience that buys most often and is easiest to reach.
In short
- One message for everyone ends up saying nothing to anyone.
- Rank the audiences and choose one to lead.
- The parent message is the same everywhere; only the opening changes.
- Each channel speaks to one audience at a time.
Quick questions
How many audiences can I have?
As many as you can serve well. In practice, one that leads and two or three supporting ones is already a lot for a small company. Beyond that, the message gets diluted.
Can I have one website per audience?
Only if you have the team to maintain them all. One website with a dedicated page for each audience, sharing the same parent message, is usually enough.
What if one audience pays more but is very small?
It may be the one that leads direct sales and not the one that leads general communication. Decide by what the company wants to be, not only by today's invoice.
Want to rank your audiences and the message for each?
The exploratory call is a 30-minute conversation, at no cost. We rank your audiences and choose the message for each. You keep the written summary.
Book an exploratory call