In our connected world, the rules have changed. In the Industrial Revolution, the trick to business was mass-producing a product and then selling those products at scale. Now, in the Information Economy, scale is both easier to attain (social media & blogs) but also, in a way, harder to attain (fragmented consumer attention, more options than ever before).
This is where the concept of Minimum Viable Audience comes in. What is the minimum number of people or customers you need in order to have a viable product or business? And the way to succeed today is to be so incredibly value to that minimum viable audience that you become irreplaceable. A necessity. Because guess what? If that small audience is super happy and satisfied with the value you’re bringing them… they’re likely to tell a friend.
The Minimum Viable Audience concept has so many applications. Take Sales, for instance.
Let’s say you are a digital marketing sales rep and you sell Facebook Ads to businesses as a managed service. Who are your prospects? Which type of businesses can benefit from advertising on the world’s largest social network? Answer: nearly every single one of them. So is the best approach to call up every single business one by one to pitch them your service? No. In fact, that’s exactly the wrong approach. Instead, pick the smallest niche you can imagine. “Credit Unions in Dallas that specialize in low home mortgage loan rates.” Sure, there might only be 5, 10, 15 potential businesses that meet that description. But now you can be uber-important to these 15 prospects. Become a credit union home mortgage expert. Know exactly how to run an effective Facebook Ad campaign to generate more home mortgage leads. That’s a phone call those prospects will take. And now instead of spinning your wheels calling 1,000 prospects with a vanilla, watered down pitch about Facebook Ads, you’ve become super important to these 15 people and your chances of creating value for someone (and closing a deal, or three) increase dramatically.
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