\n<\/p>\n
You live in a bubble.<\/p>\n
I live in a bubble too.<\/p>\n
Today I really got a reminder of this\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been planning a marketing experiment for my company.<\/p>\n The short version of this plan is to go after larger clients.<\/p>\n Right now our positioning is focused on the entrepreneur, leader, CEO or expert.<\/p>\n We help this one very busy person get time back by placing two executive assistants from North America to support them.<\/p>\n The new experiment is going to position an offer at a hiring manager or workforce executive in a company.<\/p>\n The client in this case is a larger organization and the person we sell to is solving HR problems for the entire company or a department in the company.<\/p>\n For example, we could roll out 10 assistants to support 20 people in one department.<\/p>\n Or 100 to support 500 people (provided we can scale our hiring and processes).<\/p>\n With this new offer our deliverables remain the same \u2013\u00a0we give people time back<\/strong>. We\u2019d just be doing it for more people at once.<\/p>\n However, in this case the marketing is different. The person we sell to is different.<\/p>\n This is nothing new of course. It\u2019s common for companies to target larger contracts as a way to grow.<\/p>\n The reason I saw the bubble I operate in today is because I did some research.<\/p>\n I wanted to know more about the\u00a0staffing solutions<\/em>\u00a0industry.<\/p>\n Our company operates in this industry (a sub-segment), so I was curious who are the really big players.<\/p>\n My \u2018bubble\u2019 up to this point was made up of the 30 or so companies that we compete against who all offer remote assistants of some kind.<\/p>\n I see these companies advertising for the same keywords we do in Google.<\/p>\n I get targeted by their ads on social media.<\/p>\n I know these companies because they come up on sales calls as options potential clients are considering along with us.<\/p>\n I also know these companies from my own research to see how they present their offers, pricing, points of difference, etc.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve even done a few competitor deep dives, listening to podcast interviews with their founders to see if I can learn a key tactic they used to grow.<\/p>\n The biggest player in this group, based on my research, does around\u00a0$30 Million a year<\/strong>, probably more since I heard this number a few years ago.<\/p>\n I\u2019m almost certain none of these competing companies do over $100 Million a year.<\/p>\n Today I learned about a staffing solutions company that does\u00a0$25 BILLION per year in revenue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I expected to find larger companies when I expanded into the more broad staffing solutions market, but I had no idea the numbers could get this big.<\/p>\n Since then I\u2019ve spent hours discovering more staffing solutions companies, reviewing their service offerings and exploring their websites.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been eye-opening \u2014 and exciting, demonstrating that there is a lot more money being spent than I previously thought.<\/p>\n The thing with bubbles is that you stay in them by default.<\/p>\n You visit the same websites. The social algorithms feed you similar content from the same or similar sources.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all an\u00a0echo chamber<\/strong>\u00a0until you deliberately step out.<\/p>\n What\u2019s especially dangerous about being in a bubble is you follow what you see and set your expectations to match what others do.<\/p>\n You think you have to advertise in the same way a company or person you compete against or follow does.<\/p>\n The problem is you don\u2019t know about what you are not seeing.<\/p>\n Take for example the staffing solutions companies I learned about today.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never been exposed to their marketing before.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t even know they existed.<\/p>\n Their marketing doesn\u2019t target me. They may not even do any advertising using media channels.<\/p>\n Companies can get very big from direct outreach and interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n These methods are not \u2018broadcasted\u2019.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t hear about these companies unless you are directly targeted by them, in which case you are probably working for a large company yourself.<\/p>\n Media doesn\u2019t pay any attention to them because they are in \u2018boring\u2019 industries.<\/p>\n We hear all day about tech companies and tech founders.<\/p>\n We see ads from a segment of mostly mass-market consumables, like food, entertainment, electronics, cars, homeware, fashion and other items we use every day.<\/p>\n Staffing solutions is not mass market.<\/p>\n Yet everyone needs a job. And every company needs to hire staff.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a global need, but it\u2019s not something that is in the public eye.<\/p>\n There are so many companies and industries like this that operate within bubbles you never see.<\/p>\n As an entrepreneur and marketer I find this FASCINATING.<\/p>\n There are billions of dollars in transactions happening and these companies are following different marketing playbooks.<\/p>\n I get excited because it shows how big industries really are and how limited our marketing has been.<\/p>\n There\u2019s always more you can do and more people to reach.<\/p>\n Yet so many give up because the few things they do are not working.<\/p>\n The world is vast and if you have something of value there are more buyers out there.<\/p>\n You just need to keep reaching new people with new messages.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t stop, keep growing!<\/p>\n Yaro<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\nExpanding Your Bubble<\/h2>\n
Bubbles Are Dangerous<\/h2>\n