In 60 Seconds
- •Heavy Buyers: Buy often, know you well, love you. (Small group).
- •Light Buyers: Buy rarely (once every few years), barely know you. (Massive group).
- •The Pareto Flip: We think 20% of customers give 80% of revenue. In reality, for growth, the 'long tail' of light buyers generates the volume needed to scale.
- •Marketing Error: Most marketing targets Heavy Buyers (Loyalty programs, niche jargon). This preaches to the choir.
- •Growth Hack: To grow, you must market to people who *don't* care about you yet. You need to nudge the Light Buyers.
Who is your most important customer? Is it "Super Fan Steve" who calls you every month? Or is it "Busy Brenda" who calls you once every five years?
Intuitively, we love Steve. But mathematically, Brenda pays the bills.
The Distribution of Buying
In almost every category (from toothpaste to HVAC), the customer base follows a Negative Binomial Distribution (NBD).
- A few people buy a lot.
- A HUGE number of people buy a little.
If you are a plumber, you have 50 "Frequent Flyers" (Property Managers). But you have 5,000 "Once-a-Decade" homeowners.
You cannot double the business by asking the Property Managers to break more toilets. You double the business by reaching more of the 5,000 homeowners.
Why We Ignore Light Buyers
Light Buyers are hard to target.
- They don't follow you on Facebook.
- They don't open your newsletter.
- They don't know your brand name.
Because they are "quiet," we ignore them. We focus on the loud Super Fans.
How to Win Light Buyers
- Broad Reach: You have to cast a wide net (SEO, LSA, Social Ads to cold audiences).
- Simplicity: Don't use inside jargon. They don't know what a "SEER Rating" is. They know "My house is hot."
- Physical Availability: Be easy to find. If they Google you and can't find a button, they leave. They have zero patience because they have zero loyalty.
[!TIP] The Test Look at your website homepage. Is it written for an expert (Heavy Buyer)? Or is it written for a confused stranger (Light Buyer)? Dumb it down. Clear it up. Win the masses.
Read Next in This Hub:
- Category Entry Points - Triggers for Light Buyers.
- 95-5 Rule - Timing the Light Buyers.
Related System:
- Local Visibility Systems - Reach the Light Buyers.