On taking the next step and the importance of target market research

On taking the next step and the importance of target market research

Read time: 5 minutes 😱

read on rasmus.beehiiv.com

What's up, friends and strangers?

Today at a glance:

• facing your fears

• understanding your target audience

How to face your fears when considering starting something new  

Have you ever held back from starting a business because you thought you'd fail? Or didn't try out that big brain marketing campaign, project, or experiment since you thought it would be too hard or that it would fail? 

Probably not the latter, likely just me! But I am almost certain you've had business ideas that you never followed up on¹.

Try to remind yourself of when you last thought of a new project, habit, or business idea. Did you not get to it because you forgot? Or because deep down there may have been doubts? 

There's a high chance that it is due to fear, uncertainty, or deceitful expectations. It's the fear that prevents you from taking that step.

Matt Mochary stated (in Lenny's Podcast) that he has placed hundreds of bets with CEOs and has never once lost a bet. Bets are always related to his client's businesses, of which Matt often has no industry knowledge. 

Matt is an executive coach who has coached CEOs from Notion, OpenAI, Coinbase, and Reddit, and other fancy names. 👒

He states that his bets are almost always the opposite of what CEOs fear is going to happen. He always bets against feared outcomes. 

Fear in our brains often prevents us from doing the things that are difficult, yet necessary. The type of fear that we perceive to be a danger to our egos. Not fear of running through a busy traffic intersection, lol. 

So the next time you encounter fears when considering experimenting or starting that new thing, ask a person who isn't in fear (not being impacted by the result of your decision). Get their opinion and then go after what you've been pulling the brakes with. 💪

Here's the link (YouTube) to the part where Matt Mochary discussed fear in Lenny's Podcast. 

that ¹ tiny marketing tip of the week 

"But I am almost certain you've had business ideas that you never followed up on."

Why do I think so? You, the reader, are amongst the first 100 subscribers to this newsletter. You're either a family member, friend, colleague, acquaintance, or a truly early bird to have subscribed to this.

And since you're here and still reading it, I can strongly suggest that you are a curious and like-minded person, just like me.

The newsletter has either sparked your interest due to it being about marketing or you're reading out of curiosity to learn and grow. Either way, both are signs that make me think you've got aspirations and ambitions.

Name me an ambitious person who hasn't had any business ideas!

 🎩 that ¹ tiny weekly marketing tip is to always be mindful of your target audience and who you are marketing to or interacting with in any way possible. Having a strong understanding of your target audience (TA) makes writing content they like substantially easier. And it also attracts them. 

Use it to your advantage:

• use phrases, slang, or abbreviations your TA commonly uses in your ad copy

• write better headlines

• launch better campaigns

• write better copy

Keep a living document of your Target Audience and consistently keep it up to date. Use it as a guiding light in your daily marketing activities to make your content better resonate with them. Because the target audience of your business is your only best source of revenue and growth.

Unless you haven't yet defined your target audience. In this case, I highly recommend you first read this helpful step-by-step guide on defining your Target Audience:

👇👇👇👇👇 

Was I correct in my guess that you have had ideas or plans that you never moved forward with? (the vote is completely anonymous)

 👍   |   👎

💡 This simple poll is also an example of how you can engage with, get better insights about your TA, and craft even more compelling content. Or invalidate but still learn about your audience. Example: if you voted no. 

Recommendation Zone

An excellent slide deck by Andrew Chen, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). You can find a slick overview of growth marketing and practical examples of some of its daily activities. And on top of that, you can see what kinds of consumer startups he's looking for in at a16z: 

• Link to his pitch deck with notes here. That's 70 pages worth of reading but it's WELL worth it.

Jamming Zone

I took another step toward improving my short-form copywriting skills on a daily basis and started a new Twitter account. I'll be putting together a case study in a month or two, I am trying to better understand in practice how to build an audience on Twitter fast.

https://twitter.com/rasmusrikken

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Feedback is appreciated! Just reply to this e-mail or DM me on telegram: t.me/hapukoor. 🙌