Tamsen Webster explains the Universal Paradox of Communication: narrower, more focused messaging reaches farther. She uses a bell curve of audiences and a knife-against-glass analogy to show why targeting people who share your values spreads your message wider.
Some call it the universal paradox of communication. I put it this way: the narrower your focus, the broader your reach. Sounds pretty counterintuitive, doesn't it? But it's true. I'm Tamsen Webster of TamsenWebster.com, and that's what we're talking about this week on Find the Red Thread. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Imagine the last time you bought something that was one size fits all. And even when they say one size fits most, I mean, the range is somewhere between like cavernous and achingly tight and just in the middle of something like this'll do. But did that one size fits all thing ever feel like it was yours, like it was made for you? Could you identify it blindfolded? I'm guessing not. Now imagine instead that you had something that was tailored to fit you perfectly, like a jacket or a pair of pants. Done well, that should fit like a glove. You should be able to know in an instant that it was yours, that it belonged to you. Messages work the same way, and we want that sense of belonging all the time, and that's part of why we do marketing and branding and communication in the first place. We want people to feel like the idea belongs to them, that the brand belongs to them, and we want them to feel like they belong to us. All of that's necessary, and yet, what do we do? We send out one-size-fits-most messages. Now, this is really counterintuitive for a lot of people because we feel like if we're trying to reach a whole bunch of people, shouldn't we broaden the message? Shouldn't we put out a message that's for everybody? But I'm going to argue that everybody is not your market. In fact, your market is going to look a heck of a lot like a bell curve. In one corner are the people who are going to be rabid fans of yours, always and forever, and you have to really screw it up in order for them to not want to be part of you anymore. At the other end are the people who would never be part of you in the first place. They just don't share your values. They don't need what you've got. They just never going to be there. And in the middle, you have the people that can go one way or the other depending on how well you talk to them. Now, the reason why this Universal Paradox of Communication actually works though is the same thing that's happening when you're in a wedding reception and everybody's talking and chattering and you're hearing all this sound and noise, then all of a sudden you hear someone clink a knife against a glass, and that you can hear. And why can you hear it? Because the sound is so focused that it carries. And that's what we need to be doing with our messaging too. When sound is focused, it carries. When a message is focused, it carries. The narrower your focus, the broader the reach. Now, it doesn't mean that you're gonna make individual messages for individual people, but this is where the power of your audience's mindset comes in. Because if you can think through, well, for this idea or this product or this service or our brand, it really serves people who want a certain thing and that they're struggling with something about getting that thing. Like, those are the people that we need. And the people to make sure that they're not in that bad category over in the, like, bad end of the bell curve, we need to make sure that they share values with us. So for instance, I have a client that is a medical device manufacturer. And when we were talking about what their customers want, one of the things that they said the value was that they shared was credibility. And I asked for other people trying to pursue the same goal, was credibility always important? They're like, "Yeah, no, there's plenty of people out there for which credibility isn't important. But for us, the brand, it is." And when I pointed out that right now that they were marketing to everybody, And assuming that credibility would be a message that would appeal to everybody, it was like a light went off. And they said, "Oh, huh, we're never gonna convert to people who don't believe in credibility." No, you're not. So you can either decide to do something else, message something else for them, or realize that the more you focus your message on the people who do share your values, the more successful your messaging is gonna be. And here's the thing. One of my best examples of this is Simon Sinek's Start with Why, talk, but the title of that talk is How Great Leaders Inspire Action. Now most people by now have heard of this idea of Start with Why, and it's gotten adoption in so many different places. In fact, when I went back to a Weight Watchers meeting recently, that's a whole part of the program is talking about what's your why. But the talk originally was written for leaders. But the reason why that idea spread, why that idea carried, because The message was so focused to begin with. So, when you're trying to figure out how do I make sure that my message spreads, the first thing you need to do is make sure that it's focused on the people most likely to hear it. And those 3 simple questions again that you should ask yourself about your audience is: What do they want? What are they actively pursuing right now that they know that they want? Second, what do they value in that pursuit that we, the brand, that I also value? And third, what's the struggle that results? What is the struggle that's getting in the way or complicating what they value and what they want? Those sound like simple questions and they are, but they aren't going to be that easy to answer. And what you're going to find is that one answer can kind of float around in between. But if you do the work to figure out what is the right pattern of those answers for you, for your brand, for your idea, then you're gonna have a crystal clear perspective on exactly what your audience needs to hear, and your message will carry just like that crystal glass in a noisy room. I'm Tamsen Webster of TamsenWebster.com. Thanks so much for watching and listening to this week's episode of Find the Red Thread. Do remember to like and comment if that so inspires you. Otherwise, I will see you next week.
