I was recently online when a peer posted an intriguing question on Facebook. I could tell they were truly interested in what people would say, yet, I was extremely curious as to whether they could see beyond the responses into what it all meant.

The question provided a choice that was interesting, asking a focused A/B situation for entrepreneurs, “Would you take $10,000 cash or an hour alone with [insert your business idol]”.

Within minutes there were 20 fast answers, neither A or B was winning by a noticeable margin.

I watched the responses for 20 minutes before I reached out and inquired whether my peer could see the trends attached to the answers. I received, “It’s so sporadic”.

No, it wasn’t sporadic at all. By diving one layer below the surface, the results were telling an interesting story. Over 90% of the men chose the money, and over 75% of the women chose the free hour with their idol.

We proceeded to have an enlightening chat about my peer’s customer base and the presumed story behind the results. Looking deeper at the audience and the analyzing the level of their entrepreneurship, we broke down the psychology of the answers and determined this particular audience was answering whether they, a) wanted to invest in themselves and business tools, or b) needed motivation, to pursue their vision.

Then came the big question. “How do you market to both?”

Now that we had taken the time to break down the responses, we made the answer much easier. If you are not taking the time to pay attention to what your audience is communicating, then you won’t know how to target your marketing to them. You cannot craft consistent messaging to launch into the market, without knowing the micro-markets that are attracted to your services.

The answer to, “How do you market to both?”, will be different for every organization, service, and product. Overall, the solution requires a broad approach that attracts all markets and then leads each specific market through specific messaging that each potential client will subconsciously follow along and desire more information.

My answer to the original question? I would take the money and invest it into leveraging my work, opening a new market, learning how to reach a new audience, or building a new strategic partnership.

What would you do?

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