Let me tell you something that might sound counterintuitive: if your audience is too big, it’s a problem.
Most MSPs think that more contacts, more reach and more eyeballs automatically means more money. But that’s just not how marketing works. What matters is not the size of your list – it’s the specificity of it. If you’re not matching your message to the right market, your results will fall flat, your cost of marketing will skyrocket and you’ll frustrate the hell out of yourself in the process.
Let me give you an example. If I created a generic time management course, I could maybe charge $30 for it. But if I reposition that same course for entrepreneurs scaling a business, I can now charge $100. And if I get even more specific and say it’s for MSPs scaling from $1M to $5M, I could charge $1,000 – and people would buy it. Why? Because it’s targeted. The message matches the market. It’s more relevant, more compelling and therefore more valuable.
The Real Cost Of A Bloated List
There are two main problems with having a list that’s too broad:
- It’s expensive to communicate properly. When you’re just starting out, you can’t afford to send fancy mailers to tens of thousands of people. And when your list is unfocused, your marketing gets watered down. You can’t send FedEx packages to everyone, so you settle for email. And when you talk to everyone, your message ends up meaning nothing to the people you actually want.
- You alienate your best clients. Trying to appeal to the masses forces you to generalize your message, which turns off the high-value 20% you’re really after. It’s Pareto’s Principle: 80% of your results come from 20% of your audience – but most of you are wasting time trying to entertain the other 80%.
You have to know exactly who your ideal customer is. Define it. Drill down on it. Then focus only on that person. Seth Godin calls it the “smallest viable audience,” and he’s dead right. Small is scalable when your message is laser-targeted and repeated consistently.
You Don’t Need Millions – You Need The Right Few
Let’s look at some numbers.
In the U.S., there are about 34.8 million businesses. But only 17% of those have at least one employee on payroll. That means over 80% are solopreneurs driving Uber or knitting cat sweaters on Etsy – not who you’re trying to reach.
Now let’s break that down further. Out of the ~6 million businesses with a payroll:
- 49% have 1 to 4 employees
- 27% have 5 to 19 employees
That’s it. That’s your pool. If number of employees is one of your qualifiers for a high-value client, then you’re looking at a very small slice of the business world. And that’s a good thing. You don’t need a million companies. You need a few thousand right ones that you can talk to over and over again with a message that hits home.
Case Study: How We Grew TMT With A Hyper-Focused List
Over the last three years, we’ve been tracking our list growth and conversions very closely here at Technology Marketing Toolkit.
We have a clean, verified list of about 39,500 MSPs in North America. We intentionally cancel appointments with MSPs making under $250K a year. Why? Because they churn, they don’t pay, and they’re not worth the cost of acquisition. We can’t monetize them.
Instead, we focus on the ones we can serve best and profit from the most. And here’s what that hyper-focus has earned us:
- 14–15% of our list activates as a marketing-qualified lead
- 6.6% book appointments
- 3.9% actually sit for the appointments
- 1.5% buy
Now, most people would kill just to get 1.5% of their list to book a call. We get that many sales. Why? Because we are meticulous about building, maintaining and marketing to our list. We don’t send random messages to random people. We build relationships. We show up consistently, online and offline, adding value.
And that’s exactly what you should be doing.
Your List Is Your Business
Look, most of you are completely ignoring and neglecting your list. You’re sending out generic emails that nobody reads. You’re not mailing, you’re not calling and you’re not building any kind of relationship. And then you wonder why you’re not closing more deals or growing.
The power is not just in the list – it’s in the relationship with the list.
If you start treating your list like your #1 asset and communicating with it like it matters – consistently, strategically and with value – you’ll have a thriving, stable business.
