← Back to Blog
Somewhere along the way, we decided that the goal of marketing was to get more followers.
More subscribers. More views. More reach. The numbers go up and we feel good. The numbers stay flat and we feel like we’re failing.
Here’s what I want to say about that: follower count is one of the most misleading metrics in small business marketing, and chasing it is burning time and money that you don’t have to spare.
The follower count obsession is a trap
Social media platforms love to make you feel like reach is the point. They show you the number prominently. They celebrate when it goes up. They make “grow your audience” feel like the primary objective.
But think about what that number actually represents: people who clicked a button once. That’s it. Some of them are bots. Some of them followed you years ago and have no idea who you are now. Some of them will never buy anything from you ever.
Having 50,000 followers who scroll past your content, feel nothing, and buy nothing is not a marketing strategy. It’s an ego number.
And ego numbers don’t pay the bills.
Why 500 right people beat 50,000 wrong ones
Let me tell you about two businesses.
Business A has 47,000 Instagram followers. Their engagement rate is around 0.5%. They spend significant time and money producing content. When they launch something new, they might convert a few hundred people if they’re lucky.
Business B has 600 email subscribers. Every single one opted in specifically because of what this business does. Open rates hover around 35%. When they launch something new, they typically sell out within 48 hours.
Business B isn’t smaller. They’re smarter.
The difference is specificity. Business A tried to appeal to everyone and ended up meaning a lot to nobody. Business B got very clear about exactly who they serve, what they care about, and what language resonates with them... and they attracted people who actually fit.
What a “better” audience actually looks like
A better audience has three characteristics. They buy. They refer. And they stay.
They buy because your messaging speaks so directly to their actual situation that saying yes feels obvious. They refer because they feel like they discovered something, and people love to share discoveries. They stay because you keep delivering value that’s specific to them, not watered-down content designed to appeal to the broadest possible demographic.
That kind of audience doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because you made a choice — sometimes an uncomfortable one — to stop trying to appeal to everyone.
The niche-is-not-a-dirty-word argument
I hear small business owners resist this all the time: “If I get too specific, I’ll miss out on customers.”
Can we retire this myth? Please?
Getting specific doesn’t shrink your market. It clarifies your message. And a clear message to the right person converts infinitely better than a vague message to everyone.
Think about it from the customer’s perspective. You’re looking for help with a specific problem. You find one business that says “we work with everyone” and another that says “we specifically work with people exactly like you, dealing with exactly this problem.” Which one are you calling?
The niche isn’t a limitation. It’s a magnet.
(Warning...incoming Gen X pop culture reference) Think about Prince. Not just Purple Rain Prince — though obviously, Purple Rain Prince. Think about the whole career. Prince never tried to be everything to everyone. He was intensely, specifically, unapologetically himself. And because of that specificity, the people who connected with him were devoted. Not casually interested. Devoted.
Meanwhile, the artists trying to appeal to every demographic at once? A lot of them had one big year and then faded.
Your business works the same way. The more clearly you define who you are and who you’re for, the more fiercely the right people will find you, follow you, and stay.
How to attract fewer but better customers through specificity
This doesn’t require a brand overhaul. It requires a few honest questions.
Who is your best customer? Not your most complicated one. Not your most lucrative one. The one who gets the most value from what you do, refers the most people, and feels like the exact right fit. Describe that person in specific detail.
What problem do you solve for them, in their words? Not the official version. What would they say to a friend about what you helped them with? That language is your messaging.
Where do those people actually spend their time? Not where you wish your ideal customer hung out. Where they actually are. That’s where your energy goes.
Then: create content, conversations, and offers that speak directly to that person. Stop hedging. Stop adding qualifiers to make it broader. Let the people who aren’t your ideal customer self-select out. That’s a feature, not a bug.
Your audience will get smaller before it gets better. That’s okay. Smaller and better will outperform bigger and diffuse every single time.
...and just like Prince — who did things his way and built a legacy that outlasted the trend-chasers — the businesses that win long-term are the ones with a clear point of view and the confidence to own it.
Be that business.
Want to dig deeper into what it looks like to market a small business with specificity and intention? The Underestimated: The Small Business Advantage Podcast is exactly where that conversation lives. Subscribe wherever you listen, and find all the resources at shawnasuckow.com.