Your Narrowcasting Future
The country's highest ever recorded wind speeds for the outcrop just off North West Europe. Pummelling hurricane-esque gusts courtesy of Storm Eunice. The middle of three-in-a-row big wintry storms during a hectic weather week. With its seldom suffered 'sting jet' effect magnifying impact.
Yet this unusual winds event became big around the world not for the 122mph anemometer reading at The Needles off the Isle Of Wight, but a wholly different type of freakish phenomenon.
Big Jet TV.
Set up by son-of-a-pilot planespotter so avid he quit his job to livestream from the end of airport runways.
With enthusiastic and uniquely hobbyist running commentary, his filming of the incredible landing manoeuvres at Heathrow on the Friday amassed an astonishing 5½million viewers.
Social media erupted. The general consensus, an enraptured 'easily the best thing on TV at the moment'.
The sky literally no longer any limit for the man behind it all.
With plaudits glowing, I couldn't help but notice how a living is made from this endeavour. Enough to fund quite the tech-filled van. Compete with roof platform for prime camera position. And now a helper too.
All that must be paid for somehow.
In echoes of the dotcom-era refrain, 'but how's it gonna make money?' the answer is subs.
Subscribers pay £4 a month and get access to two live shows a week.
As with any such service, membership numbers are private.
Yet in August 2020 there were reports of their being 4,000 paying customers.
Surely a number set for take-off that past weekend.
Even at that rate, £16,000 a month revenue can pay for a pretty slick operation.
Think of those numbers though.
The big ticket global streamers are nearby. The monthly Netflix plans in the country currently are £6 or £10, depending on the number of screens you use. Disney+ charge £8. Amazon's offering, bundled with other services, is also £8. That includes music, so taking the giant in that space, Spotify, with added podcasts, is another tenner a month.
The tax every UK television owner must pay amounts to £13.25.
All this before we get to the myriad of subscription platforms for individuals with a passion to find their niche audiences for a few groats each month.
Which is the flight path of this success. The democratisation of setting up a web page with a purpose, on a routing that currently allows the niche to be owned.
And being the recognised go-to in such a focused field is indeed a way to rewards.
Take my blogging here. The longest continually posting Enterprise, Solution, Commercial B2B salesperson on the web, anywhere. As I blog here today, over 3½ thousand posts. In my seventeenth year and counting.
You might consider that a tidy niche.
Yet I'd disagree.
I always kept it deliberately broad. (Due to the nature of my clients, both in my SaaS endeavour and since.)
But I feel nowadays that the tighter, more refined and granular the niche, the better.
For instance, you could argue that many sub-topics on which I blog would be ripe for this treatment. An updated Tumblr-styling feed full of slide makeovers perhaps. Imagine a podcast series on just my 'sport & selling' posts. Or maybe a sole focus on how to recruit (or be hired as) winning salespeople.
That's before we get to any and all elements of Sales video calling.
How many salesteams do you know that cast their net wide and far? Compare those to the ones that laser-in on as small a target prospect profile as possible. The difference between the two is vast. Those happy to go after any and every deal far outweigh the number sufficiently brutal with their qualification. No prizes for guessing which are more successful long-term.
Let's fly beyond the marketing slant of blunderbuss versus sniper rifle.
You can be a broadcaster. Trying to be all things to all buyers.
Or you can be a narrowcaster. Who is your perfect client? Go jet-chase them and them alone.