Quotable Podcast Episode

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How to Reach One Million People

What does it take to actually reach millions of people with your message? What makes your brand message really resonate with your audience and allow it to take off and truly have an even larger impact? As the owner of a PR agency, I work closely with our clients to ensure that their brand message is one that connects and creates impact. So how do you reach millions of people in an impactful way? Listen in to find out why talking to only one person is actually the key for meaningful marketing to millions.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

  • Why speaking to one person matters for your brand
  • How to create a strong personal connection through your marketing strategy
  • How reaching one person leads to a larger engaged audience

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How to reach 1 million people

How do you really resonate with people? How do you create material and market to people in a way that actually can not only reach, but also have an impact on millions of people in a meaningful way? I think the sacred is to Start with one.

What do I mean by that? One of the things that I see a lot when it comes to marketing, PR pitches, really any marketing materials and any kind of outreach is that people draft stuff as if they’re talking into an abyss– people draft stuff as if they are talking to the masses, because they often are, they are thinking the materials that they’re creating are going to and are speaking to, all these people because, they want them to reach as many people as possible, but what that does is it makes it sound and feel like it’s actually for no one. This is extremely important when it comes to PR and media pitches and something we talk about internally at my agency a lot, but also important to everything else in the marketing world. When I see it with media pitches it’s that the pitch makes sense, sounds good as far as a pitch goes but it doesn’t necessarily sound like you’re speaking to a person it sounds very Official or general in a way, even if it is specific in terms of the topic and the story and the details in the pitch, it doesn’t feel like it’s written for a person, even if it technically ends up being tweaked to be for a pitch for a certain writer at a certain outlet. It’s just a thing that when you’re talking to a person you say things differently- you often are a little bit more casual And you often will bring in certain ways of speaking, or certain ways of communicating that you don’t necessarily bring in when you’re talking to the masses or when you’re just putting something out there that’s more like an official statement or official quote unquote marketing material, or something like that– those are the things that make it feel more real, that make it actually resonate with someone. When something is FOR you, it resonates so much stronger.

So lets back up for a minute to dive into why it matters. Why speaking to one person matters.

It matters for at least two main reasons, one being kind of what I was already saying about how it really is so important to not only make someone feel like you’re speaking directly to them, but it just makes everything you’re saying, seem more realistic feel more real, and really hit home in a different way. We all kind of know that saying about how when you’re talking to everybody you’re talking to nobody, that’s because it just doesn’t mean much to anyone when it’s something that works for everyone. When you have one person in mind, You will talk about things in a different way, you will explain things in a way that’s more authentic to you and the person that you’re speaking to, you will also come across more confident and it will have a much bigger impact with the person you’re talking to.

Too often brands just don’t have that personal element because they’re creating for everyone and they’re not actually talking to a human when you’re creating for everyong you’re not actually talking to a human you’re just not, it’s not the way we work. And when a human is absorbing some thing that’s not created for a human they can tell, so that’s what we want to shift and that’s what you can shift with a super easy change in mindset of actually creating for a specific person and talking to one person, make sure you’re actually creating for a human, that specific human, and if something resonates with them, it will resonate with other people because we’re not completely unique. There are things that people in different demographics all like and we all resonate with, and so even when you’re speaking to one person somebody else always likes it.. you know it’s like when you make some thing for a friend and another friend is like oh my God I love it so much will you make that for me too like I’m thinking of for example, like if somebody starts a craft project or makes a pair of earrings you know for a friend or makes a painting you know as a hobby in their downtime they paint a picture for someone, someone’s always like oh my gosh I love that can I have one of those too can you make that for me too. That’s the kind of thing I’m thinking about and that’s the kind of thing we want– and do you know why they loved it so much, it’s because it was so perfect for the person you made it for and this other person also sees themselves in that., and that is why this is powerful.

Secondly, I feel that it encourages you to actually do more and do it better,when it comes to marketing, or at least have more fun with it and want to do it more- so what I mean is like you will actually write more emails if it you know you won’t dread it as much you won’t like dread, putting together your marketing materials, the way that you sometimes might –I know a lot of you sometimes do, just in general because it feels like a lot. It’s a lot of work and you don’t love it. It feels daunting, it takes time , you know it just feels like a lot and it is! but when you feel like you’re writing a letter to a friend or you feel like you’re sending a text to a friend it doesn’t feel that same way right, so part of it is made in mindset, but part of it is that it’s actually easier to communicate with a friend or someone that you know or that you have that kind of a relationship with. I think that you’ll find you actually sit down to write your marketing communications better with more excitement with more enjoyment when you’re doing it this way, and that can make things so much easier for you, and I love that, and it also will make it resonate so much more with your audience and that’s obviously what we all want. That’s gonna make it actually go farther and have better results so that’s the whole idea. when you talk to everybody it just doesn’t come out as well.

So how do you actually do this in your marketing – You keep one actual person in mind and write to them.

I know that it can be tricky and this is why it’s so important to have a target audience and know who your person is, and to actually create your materials for a target person, like actually have a specific, real, person in mind. I know it feels kind of crazy like how can I do all this for only one person, but even when you’re writing your social media captions or your email to your email list or any kind of communication or correspondence or written material– and I know it’s really hard to feel like you’re doing it all for one person when it really is a wider marketing plan that is going on and we know realistically that it is going to go to a lot of people, and you want it to make sense for everyone.

But focus here, and Get so much more specific than feels normal– don’t be afraid to do that. I’m talking more than just a target avatar, or whatever.
– and I think that what trips people up is this sense of this target avatar, and it’s like yeah OK so it’s this person she’s this age, she’s a mom, this is her job, this is her income. This is all her demographics , and I guess that’s fine but even thats very abstract. As specific as you get with the demographics, it still feels abstract in your mind you’re not really knowing who you’re talking to because it’s not an actual person you’re picturing in your mind, and so I encourage you to find an actual person. Who’s your actual best client or your actual perfect customer like favorite customer–and speak to her and not in this abstract way of like, here’s you know what should resonate with my ideal target avatar I think even using the word avatar makes it just so much less personal and makes it less real and if we just keep in mind an actual person.

I’m assuming you know of some that you love or somebody that is not yet a customer or client but you know would be the one you wanna work with you know who’s your dream customer or client you can create material to her create material target directly to her.

I think a lot of times we feel like we’re alienating people who are not that if we get too specific, but in reality, it helps more than it hurts so if you can get more specific, it’s really better to do so.

Here’s what you’ll see from it. People who feel like they really resonate with your content or your marketing or your pitch emails and really realize that it’s specifically for them. and what that means is that people will realize number one that you get them, but also number two you’re looking for a response. I think that when people can tell or even sense that some thing is going to everyone they don’t feel obligated to respond. We’re all busy and we don’t necessarily feel the need to respond to every marketing email that comes in. It’s easy to scroll through Instagram and not comment on a post even if you enjoy it. everyone has a lot going on, and it’s easy to ignore stuff or just view some thing and then move on but what we all really want with our marketing and our outreach is for people to respond and that doesn’t necessarily mean to actually reply to the email and like write an email back, it could be to respond in some emotional way. It could be to email back or it could be to respond in any other way that makes sense depending on the kind of material. itcould be to like the post on Instagram, it could be to come to your event. It could be to send you a message. You know if it’s a media pitch it is to respond. We want them to actually reply to the email and say I’m gonna write a story but also to have a good emotional response like yeah this is important and I wanna be a part of it andthats what makes them want to write a story on it.

that’s what we’re really looking for and what we want is that response- and when one person will have that response chances are that more will and what I mean by connect with one person to connect with 1 million it’s because that’s where we have to start and it quite literally starts with one person anytime you’re gonna reach more than that. Anytime you’re gonna have a big impact you have to have a really big impact on at least one person, that first person and if you’re having an impact on that person chances are you’ll have impact on more people but if you’re writing things to everyone And don’t have that strong of an impact on one person it’s really not gonna resonate with more people either. so that’s where I think it’s a little bit counterintuitive is that people think that if I’m writing this thing with one person in mind it’s gonna resonate with only them and not more people but in reality there are 1 million people similar to that one person there just are– we’re not as unique- you are very unique, but nobody is that unique in that It’s only going to resonate with that one person. If it’s resonating with them there are 1 million other people who fall into a similar category and will also love it so any time something has a really big impact it’s because it really speaks to someone. and when it really speaks to somebody it’s going to really also speak to other people.
so starting with that one person can be really hard to get used to . That is really what you need to do in order to have a bigger impact in order to go beyond that in order to reach 1 million people and that’s where I see people or brands really having an issue is that they wanna go straight to 1 million people, they want their material to resonate with 1 million people and so they write things and create things that are for 1 million people, as if it’s for 1 million people, as if it’s for as many people as possible, they wanna reach as many people as possible and that’s just what doesn’t work it just doesn’t. because people can tell and people know they’re one of a million people that this brand is trying to reach or that this company is trying to reach and even if we scale it down if 1 million to you is hard to even like wrap your mind around and you’re like well I don’t even have more than 300 people on my email list you know think about it that way if you’re writing your email to 300 people , I don’t care how targeted your email list is if you’re trying to write anything with 300 people in mind it’s not going to be as personal as if you were writing the email to the one perfect person on your email list who really want to speak to, so write it to that person right with that person in mind
And that’s gonna have a much stronger impact than if you’re writing to all 300 so that’s the power of a reaching one person bring that human personal element back into it not coming in with your talking points and your official messaging and your sales scripts, coming in with that idea of Talking to one person and what will make this communication with them, strong, valuable, personable and impactful and when you bring that human element into it, it’s just a whole different thing. It just feels different. It reads different sounds different it resonates differently and that’s what makes people respond to things that’s what elicits a response from people.

So if this resonated with you, I hope you will give it a try. I know it might feel a little bit different than what you usually do but I encourage you to try it next time you’re doing some thing next time you’re writing a pitch email to media write it to one specific person even if it is going to be a template that you’re going to use for others- next time you put together a social media post , next time you put together an email for your email list or even write a blog post. Just try to just write it as if it’s for one person- next time you’re outlining a podcast episode record it as if it’s for one person say it as if it’s for one person , I think you’ll find that you’ll get a good response and once you do that one time you might be convinced or encouraged to do it again and do it more and to actually bring this method into your marketing because again I know it can be scary to feel like you’re going to alienate everyone else if you’re only speaking to one person but I think when you see that it’s actually the opposite and that you’re resonating with more of your exact perfect person you’ll be convinced to do it more and that’s what I want for you.And all honesty it’s going to make everything more enjoyable for all of us like we’re all going to enjoy everyone else marketing more because it’s going to feel better and it’s going to feel more personal and that’s gonna be nice on the receiving end too!

Ok So if you enjoyed this, let me know– if you have any questions let me know– please leave a comment on Instagram post for this episode. Please share it if you think that you know if anyone else who could use this kind of mindset shift or information or encouragement and as always, please leave some stars on this episode for the Podcast at least, or a review, I know Most of you who listen have not ever left a review because we do not have nearly as many reviews as listens so please go do that if you’ve ever listened to an episode before or if this was your first episode ever, all you need to do is leave five stars and/or leave a quick little ‘great podcast’ blurb. and I really really appreciate it because that helps build the podcast and get it in front of more people which is the whole idea, so thank you so much for listening and for being a part of this community and for always striving to be the best business owner you can be, because I love that for us.

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