Doing a little bit of everything can actually signal that we don’t get return clients.
How so?
Well, one of the most common pieces of advice you’ll see on YouTube when traveling to another country as a tourist is:
Never eat at a restaurant that offers many different types of cuisine.
There are, of course, rare exceptions, but for the most part the advice is sound. Most of the time, when a restaurant offers a little bit of everything, and even features pictures of the food on their laminated menu, they’re targeting naive tourists.
Visitors who don’t know any better, will never be here again, and who want something “safe”.
But we know that the “safe” meal is probably going to be overpriced and underwhelming. That’s not a problem for the restaurant, though, because those guests are never coming back.
Instead, the common advice is to pick a restaurant where the menu is focused, is written in the local language, and doesn’t feature pictures.
That tells you that locals may actually want to eat here, too, meaning the restaurant has to be good enough to attract people back.
I think about this every time I see a consultant, advisor, or service business’s “What We Do” page.
When it’s long and full of bullet points featuring every different type of service, I think, “I bet they don’t have a lot of return clients.”
When it’s focused on just one or two core things, in a clear language, I think, “I bet their clients keep coming back.”
A business that does a bit of everything will often only attract “tourists” to the sector. People or businesses that are bouncing in and out and don’t really know any better.
Which means the cost to acquire clients goes up and up and up over time as the firm needs to reach further and further out to attract new clients. So the What We Do page just expands and expands.
But a business that gets clients to come back can actually do less and less over time as their best clients recommend them more and more.
You end up with “locals” to the category, not just “tourists”.
So if your website says you do a little bit of everything, it might seem like you’re going to be able to attract more clients as a result.
But what you may actually be doing is signalling that your clients don’t come back (even if they actually do!).
Because if they did, you’d be able to do less, right?
Kelford Inc. are content marketers for expert advisors. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract your ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.