Marketing messaging is kind of like shopping for a car; it only grabs your attention when you’re looking for something specific.

In today's podcast short, Melissa dives into the hot topic of targeting a specific audience versus keeping your profile broad. She'll share her top tips on market research and why it's crucial to know where your audience spends their time online.

Tune in for practical advice you don’t want to miss!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• target audience
• organic marketing
• B2B marketing
• business expansion
• niche audience
• know your audience
• market research
• blue ocean
• split test
• innovation in entrepreneurship
• social media
• keywords
• LinkedIn™

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Hey, hey, hey, I hope you guys enjoy these what I'm calling podcast shorts for my burnout to all out community. This is just a little peek behind the curtain of the coaching that goes on inside of my programs. We're bringing to you some of the best nuggets and coaching I'm giving, within hot seats of all of our different programs, whether it's our LinkedIn Method Academy, our Mini Mastermind, Business Basics, all the way up to our higher level Mastermind. If you're hearing some of these questions, and you're like, man, I wish I could get my burning question answered by Melissa. Hey, guess what? You could be featured on my podcast. If you've got a question that you want answered and you submit it to my team and we pick it, we will bring you here to the podcast for our podcast shorts and, do a hot seat with you. Where can you submit your questions? Send them to team burnout to all out.co. We'll make sure we drop that in the show notes for our podcast shorts.

And I hope that you guys find as much value in the shorts as our clients do inside the program. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the Burnout to All Out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in. Let's see. Lydia is next.

Hi there. Hi. Hi. Hey. So nice to see you and meet you. I've been to your what was it? A workshop or something? I think that was back in the fall. Yeah. I signed up for the program.

I wanna tell you the the timing for me wasn't that great because I am in tax and accounting. And so when the tax season hit, it all postponed the start for me. So I'm a late starter.

Well, we're glad you're here.

Yes. I'm glad to be here. I want to ask you a couple of questions, Melissa. So first one is, I had no LinkedIn presence at all prior to this program. So I'm starting an account from scratch. It's for my specific business. So it's not listing any of my past jobs or anything like this. This is for the the business that I'm running right now, which is, tax strategy and accounting.

And I have a target audience at the moment. So the first question is, majority of my clients right now are coming from my personal Facebook profile. So I've done a lot of organic marketing on my personal Facebook prior to joining the LinkedIn program. So on the Facebook side, my profile is not so targeted towards one audience. So it does show the name of the company, but it doesn't say that it's targeting a specific group business owners. It's a b to b offer. So question, do you think my LinkedIn profile should be targeting a specific audience or not? Because, potentially, I may expand it like you did at the beginning where you were first targeting just 1, and then you went into other segments of the market. Should I keep it general like my Facebook profile right now, or should I target 1 audience first and then change it later if I want to expand? I just don't want it to be a bait and switch situation later.

So I just don't want it to affect reputation or anything like this. But, yeah, what's your take on this?

So when you say bait and switch later, do you mean if you went with 1 target audience and then broadened, would you feel like you're bait and switching?

Would the audience feel that?

They're not gonna feel that at all, and those are the demons we put in our own heads. People are really selfish. They're only really focused on the value they get out of what they see in the feed. And so they're not number 1, they're just not gonna notice. Number 2, it's actually the natural progression of a business that's growing to expand. And so if anything, they'll just see that you're a expanding, profitable, thriving company that's broadening who they're working with. So, I mean, gosh, there's a million things I could say about this. Let's start with you have a niche audience on Facebook, you said?

Yes. It's the roofing and construction companies.

Okay.

The ones we serve.

Okay. So this is really important because the other thing is knowing who's on LinkedIn and who you're marketing to. We just had this conversation with my marketing team the other day. We're zooming out from LinkedIn and zooming out, like, full portfolio of social assets at this point in our company. There's different users on different platforms for different reasons. We find that our slightly younger entrepreneur demographic tends to be over on Instagram. The more mature audience that's more like 45 plus is on Facebook and LinkedIn. And not to say that the younger folks aren't on LinkedIn, there's actually a lot of great data showing that they they are, but knowing in general where your aggregate audience is on different pages, like, for instance, if you're in a direct sales company and your content is speaking directly to stay at home moms, like, you're gonna it's a losing battle over on LinkedIn because they're not there.

So you would wanna be marketing to stay at home moms that kind of content on Facebook. Then over on LinkedIn, you would be marketing to working professionals looking to diversify their income and create a plan b. Like, the whole marketing strategy would be completely different, even though the end product is the same. Does that make sense?

Yes.

And I think about that even with, like, teachers. Teachers who are really happy and love their careers are not on LinkedIn. They're on Pinterest, and they're researching all the projects for their job versus teachers who are ready to get out are really active on LinkedIn, and they're looking for their exit strategy. So your content speaking to them would be different. So when you say, like, roofing and construction, I think part of it is goes back to market research before, like, making a decision about your marketing strategy on LinkedIn. I would do a little bit of research and look at the key decision makers who invest in your services in the mark in the roofing industry and construction, are they active on LinkedIn? I'm sure certain sizes of businesses they do and certain ones don't. So are you working with small business owners, larger companies? So I would be doing a little bit of research to see what the target market because you gotta have the best message and no one hears it if they're not active, right, on the platform. So do your research on those guys and girls.

Go look at key titles of, like, decision makers that you currently work with in the tax strategy and accounting space in the roofing and construction. Go look at those keyword titles in the LinkedIn search function and see what shows up and see how active those people are. And if you're seeing that there's a pretty large aggregate group that's pretty active, then you may wanna draw, like, niching down with what's already working, it may work well for you over on LinkedIn. Why recreate the wheel? But if you go over there, I would do a AB test. Like, I would do research on construction and roofing, and see what shows up in the search field, and then compare that to maybe some other niche audiences that you're thinking about with small business. And see when you research that, how many show up and how relatively active they are. I would think that there's gonna be more working professionals of higher net worth that need tax strategy coaching that you're gonna find on LinkedIn, then you are construction and roofing. That's just my gut.

I could be totally wrong. But I think about a conversation I literally just had with one of my good friends the other day. Her name's Erica. She has worked in corporate America for 20 years now and had a really high profile career, probably making between 3 400 k a year. And she and I got into talking. I hired a tax strategist last year, and we've been doing all kinds of really cool stuff. And it's blowing my mind how much money we left, like, how much we were paying the federal government before knowing. This is not tax evasion.

This is, like, behaving the way the federal government wants you to get tax breaks. And it's like investing $50,000 in a 5 zero one c, I think that's what it's called, in order to get, like, a $90,000 tax break and saving $40,000. Like, people don't teach you that stuff unless you hire people to teach you that stuff. And so my girlfriend and I were talking about it. And I'm like, you make so much money every year, the money you make is like the highest taxed money in the United States. Your post work paycheck money is so heavily taxed. Anyway, I won't go into a rabbit hole other than to say she had no idea that there was any tax strategy beyond what her accountant every year has told her for the past 15 years. And I started talking with her about things and her mind was blown, and she's like, how did you know this? And I'm like, because I hired somebody.

Well, how did you know who to hire? Well, I've educated myself. I've surrounded myself with people who've given me that network. And so that's where I go to the blue ocean opportunity for you on LinkedIn is, like, educating all of these high net worth and a 100 k plus minimum folks with income who've never even thought about tax strategy beyond what their accountant's telling them today. And they don't know the difference between an accountant and a tax strategist. I didn't 2 years ago. And so I see a huge opportunity for you to become a thought leader on the platform to drive business with the working professional versus where I see is construction and roofing is more of a Facebook user kind of community, and the working professional and the entrepreneur that's more of a professional role than the kind of the blue collar being over on LinkedIn. That is my gut, but do your market research. Go to LinkedIn, do the research on key titles in construction and roofing, and compare that.

Because you might have a really fun opportunity for a a totally blue

ocean. And then if I check and I see, okay, my target audience is not active, you recommend to have a separate target audience for LinkedIn?

And it doesn't mean you won't attract people in the construction roofing space. I mean, your marketing around tax strategy and small business is gonna be the same, relatively. But you're gonna be growing your network with a different audience. And you don't have to be completely either or. Here's the other thing you can do. This is a great split test. Grow your network with each. Spend 3 days a week growing your network in the construction and roofing, and spend the other 2 to 3 days a week growing it in a niche audience of higher level network professionals.

You have to, like, equally grow them and then split the content you're putting out. You have to, like, equally grow them and then split the content you're putting out. So half the week speak to the blue collar small business and their challenges and opportunity for tax savings. And then the other half the week, educate and speak to the working professional, white collar, and the amount of money they're leaving on the table each year. I've got my friend reading Tax Free Wealth, the accountant for Robert Kiyosaki, and it's blowing your mind. Blowing your mind.

But what happens if the audience sees a message that's not directed at them?

It doesn't matter. How many of you have gone car shopping before? And how many of you, before you went to look for a car, didn't notice cars at all. And maybe this is house. Maybe if you haven't looked for a car, you've looked for a house before. And then the day you decide to go car shopping, and the day you decide on the make and model of the car you want, then what happens? You see it everywhere. It was always there. You just weren't looking for it. It's the same thing with marketing and content on social media.

People only stop their scroll when they care and it's relevant to them. So if I am a higher net worth professional white collar and you're speaking to the blue collar small business owner in the roofing industry, I'm just gonna scroll right past it. I don't even see it. But then when you start talking to me about the amount, forget how this guy talks about it in the book I read, but what blew my mind when he really started break down how expensive my husband's income is, meaning, like, how costly it is, how heavily taxed it is versus the pretax income I make in my business, and being strategic even in how we're spending our money here, there, and where and what we're investing in. I never realized how heavily taxed W2 money is, not to mention his bonuses. Right now, like he just got a bonus and I swear they took 40% of it. It makes me wanna vomit. So it's how do you get into their head and educate them and stop their scroll? Like, for instance, my husband would stop if the scroll was like, so you just got a $250,000 cash out for stock, and you had to pay 40% of it out, or you just got a $100,000 bonus from corporate, but they're keeping 40% of it.

And then there's, like, education around that. And if that hasn't been your target audience, you may have to do some of your own research around that so that you're bringing that value. And that's where it looks like tax free wealth are really helpful, but it's calling out what they're challenged with or what they don't even know. They're caught like, having that consciously incompetent, meaning they know that they don't know, and then you're gonna have the unconsciously incompetent. That That was me up until 2 years ago. I didn't even know that I didn't know what I was giving away every single year.

Yep. That sounds good. Alright. And then one other thing I wanted to ask you is, so for a totally new profile, I should focus on first, like you said, maybe split test which audience to focus on. But then grow the audience is the priority then.

Mhmm.

And is there a way to bring your audience from another platform over to join you on LinkedIn?

Yeah. Okay. So you can. However, Natalie from Boss Babe, I don't know if any of you guys follow her, but I got to listen to her live at a live event with my mastermind I'm in a couple months ago. And she spoke to this. She talked about whether you're trying to drive people from any platform to a podcast. People are very habitual. When they're in on LinkedIn, when they're in on Instagram, like, that's where they wanna be right now.

And what she talked about and this is coming from someone who has over over a1000000 on her email list and followers on her Instagram account. So she has, like, really good data on this. She said it's really hard to move people off the platform. And so, yes, you can move people from Instagram over to LinkedIn, from Facebook over to LinkedIn, but you have to know that people are already on that platform and active on it because that's where they like to hang out. So for instance, I'll be doing a LinkedIn live in maybe a week. I'm gonna do a workshop on LinkedIn. And, of course, we're going to promote it on Instagram and Facebook and tell people where to come find me over on LinkedIn. But the large majority of people who are gonna show up are gonna be the people who saw the promotion on LinkedIn, because they're active users of LinkedIn, and that's their chosen platform.

So I wouldn't consider it a major strategy. Maybe what I'm hearing is that you probably have a large network or large group on Facebook that you wanna move over to LinkedIn. So you can certainly put it out there. Just know that there's people are on a certain platform and active on it because that's, like, their preferred go to social platform. It's hard to move an audience who's chosen to be there. Does that make sense?

Yeah. And another question I had is this, LinkedIn, traditionally, well, it's for definitely, I think, maybe not the youngest people. I'm not targeting the youngest people either. And I think, traditionally, it's associated with recruiting. It's like a re recruitment platform more or less. So would you say that helps because people are looking to hire somebody already, including experts, specialists, and people like that? They're not recipes or like your friend's photos from the latest getaway or something. If they're looking for someone to hire

Yes. It's the b to b platform. That is, like, 100% why you should be there because that's the number one most trustworthy platform when people are googling tax strategist. Like, does your profile show up? That's a great reason to go for Top Voice. We had a real estate agent who's getting a lot of traffic from Top Voice and keywords that she's putting in articles that are making her show up over on Google, and she's out competing all the other real estate agents because she's showing up top on Google, which is wild. So yeah.

So I think maybe from the hiring perspective, that might help. What I'm trying to say is the users that are not so active on LinkedIn, but they have platforms, may be showing up there when they're looking to hire someone. Yes. So they may not be hanging out there as much as they are, say, on Facebook, but they may purposefully be there when they're looking to hire somebody. Is that true, would you say?

Yeah. A 100% true. And I would say there's people who and I know this isn't exactly what you're asking, but it's a huge marketing strategy that we teach for LinkedIn, is knowing that people go to that platform to network, to look for their next opportunity, to put in their resume for opportunities. They may be going in to look for something else, but your content lands in their feed when they're in there because they're in there. And now you're in a blue ocean because you have more visibility to them with less competition than you do on the other platforms. And some of you guys have probably heard my example, like my husband. He doesn't have an Instagram account. He also like, the only reason he created a Facebook account this year was it was the only way he has access to this new community that we're building an Airbnb in.

It's like, there's a group. The only way they communicate. So he's gone, like, nearly, whatever, 20 years without Facebook, and now he has the account. But my point is, he's never in there, ever, except for when he needs or wants something and you go straight to that group. However, when you come to LinkedIn, he's someone who hires, and he's got a team of people who hire in his day job. And if you go to his profile, you would think he hasn't been on there in, like, 2 years. There's no likes. There's no comments, but he's in there every day because of his job and the interviews.

He's constantly interviewing new talent. He's constantly looking at people's profiles. You would never know it. That's the debate we have all the time. Right? Because I'm always telling you guys, look for active users on LinkedIn because the active users are going that they're active and they're gonna engage with your content. So it's really great to load your network with people who are actively you can see that they're engaging. Know your audience. My husband is senior vice president of a company where he just he has to be on LinkedIn, but he does not like, those senior senior senior level people, you're not gonna see them engaging on the platform because they just they don't have time and it's not a priority.

Work and then they go for the kill,

Exactly. So know your audience. If your target audience is super, like, senior level executives, know that they're on the platform. There's no way they're not. But they may not be posting or engaging in anything. But by the innate nature of their career, they have to be on there, like, on a weekly basis. Does that make sense?

So, yeah, I think I probably for the Sabey testing that you mentioned, I should just maybe even look simply if they have accounts.

Mhmm.

Because if they're using the platform for anything practical in their company, then they would at least have accounts. Whether those are active or not is an separate story, but whether they have accounts, because I don't know if blue collar companies. I think we had that discussion before I started. And at the time, you told me that you have people in the construction industry or working with construction industry that use LinkedIn successfully.

Yes. And that's where I said earlier. It's not that they're not there. I just think you should do some AB testing because you asked, should I look at a different audience? I would just look at the opportunity in this niche versus that niche and weigh how much time you're spending in each. I'm just saying the pool of construction versus working professionals is gonna be vastly different on the platform.

And can I have one last question, Melissa? It will be about content. So for Facebook, for this audience, I've been mostly using short form. I have some long form content, but not a lot. Majority is short form. So would you say that could also work on LinkedIn, or does it have to be long form?

It doesn't have to be long form, and I would suggest only every occasional post is long form because most people aren't gonna read it all.

And then would you say anything works better like video or content with specific photos or graphics or anything like this? Because since I'm trying to grow and activate the audience right off the bat, it's a new account. Would you say there is a more efficient or effective to use?

So we have if you haven't gotten there yet, we have a module on content mapping that walks you through creating dimensionality in the content that you put out. What I always say is do commit to what you're gonna be willing to be consistent at. So sure, you can be super dimensional and do like a poll each week, and a video each week, and a long form, and a short form, and a carousel, and an article. But is that sustainable? I would start with committing what you, number 1, feel your most natural self. Some of you prefer long form writing, like Isabelle was we were talking about how she being an introvert and being in the industry she's in, like, long form feels really good to her. And she's gonna shine in that space because she feels comfortable in it. So let's start there. Let's not say, Isabelle, you need to be on video 5 days a week because that's what the algorithms say.

Not as much into writing as I am just talking off the cuff. My energy and my tone translate on video, and I prefer to do that versus writing. So you're gonna see more video of me. So get started with what you can commit to consistently, then layer on. So get started with what you can do consistently, and then we're gonna say to Isabelle, okay, great. Now you've got your newsletters going. Let's get uncomfortable and show up on screen every other week. Does that make sense?

Yep. That makes sense. Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode. And I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704-318-2285. That is text the word update to 704-318-2285. Can't wait to see you guys.

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