The Importance of Customizing Your Message

I was reminded again of the importance of customizing your message in a meeting I had yesterday with one of my clients. With this particular client, a personal trainer and soon-to-be-professional athlete, we were putting a series of videos to promote her association with a new health club in Chicago.

Before we started, we watched a number of videos created by other local trainers. In each case, the person spoke in general terms about his or her credentials and areas of expertise. After we yawned our way through about four of these, the opportunity was clear. We needed to communicate in a way that would truly speak to potential clients.

Rather than take the generic approach opted for by the other trainers, we identified the four types of clients she most enjoyed helping:

- Out of shape/Never worked out
- Recovering from an injury
- Getting back in shape after having a baby
- Training for competition (fitness, marathon, etc.)

In each case, I challenged her to come up with a success story we could share in the video. What makes video such a great medium for storytelling is its ability to convey passion, enthusiasm, and all the nonverbals that get lost in written bios. As an added benefit, with each take, she was reminded of additional details that brought the stories to life. It was inspiring and magical to watch.

By taking the time to customize her message, she has given herself the opportunity to reach a more targeted group of potential clients who will be able to see themselves in the before/after stories she shared.

No doubt, there are people reading this who are thinking:

"Wait a minute. I don't think it's a good idea to target such narrow groups because you are eliminating huge groups of potential clients. For example, what about the people who just want to get in better shape and lose a few pounds? Isn't that a bigger group than any of the four mentioned above?"

Even if that group is larger, there are at least two compelling reasons not to go after it. First, the fitness marketplace is already cluttered with messages targeting people who want to lose a few pounds. Second, working with people who want to lose a few pounds doesn't energize my client as much as working with the specific groups we identified.

If you take the time to customize your message, you owe it to yourself to make sure you are most energized by the opportunity you are pursuing. As I've said many times, work either energizes people or it drains them. There isn't a middle ground--unless you are the kind of person who would be content putting sticks in caramel apples (in which case you probably aren't reading this anyway.) So, before you customize your message, be sure the customers or employers you are targeting are the ones with whom you most want to work.