Tailoring your message to different audiences

Most memberships serve more than one kind of person. A membership for new managers might attract people freshly promoted from within, people who have just switched companies, and human resources teams looking for training for their staff. They all want roughly the same thing, but they arrive with different worries, different words for their problem and different reasons to hesitate. Speak to all of them at once and your message tends to become vague enough to fit everyone and persuade no one.

Tailoring means keeping one membership and one core promise, but explaining it differently to each group, in the places where each group meets you. It is one of the most practical ways to improve your marketing without creating anything new to sell.

Identify the groups that matter

Start with the people who already join. Look at your member list, your sign-up answers and your support emails, and look for clusters. Useful ways to group people include:

• Situation: Just starting, stuck, returning after a break, or preparing for a change.
• Role: Doing the thing themselves, or buying it for someone else.
• Goal: Earning, qualifying, enjoying, or fixing one specific problem.
• Level: Beginner, improver or experienced.

Choose two to four groups that are large enough to matter and different enough to need their own message. More than four is usually too many to maintain.

Build a simple message map

A message map is a one-page grid. For each group, write down five things: their main problem in their own words, the outcome they want, the part of your membership that matters most to them, the proof they will find convincing, and their biggest doubt.

Here is a worked example for a hypothetical membership for first-time managers, run by a former operations director named Chidi. It offers short weekly lessons, a library of scripts for difficult conversations and monthly group coaching calls.

Newly promoted from within

• Problem: “I'm now managing people who were my friends last month.”
• Outcome: Being respected without losing the friendships.
• Most relevant feature: Scripts for awkward conversations.
• Convincing proof: A story from a member in the same position.
• Biggest doubt: “Will I have time for this?”

Human resources teams buying for staff

• Problem: New managers keep making the same avoidable mistakes.
• Outcome: Fewer escalations and steadier teams under new managers.
• Most relevant feature: Structured lessons they can assign and track.
• Convincing proof: How other organizations fit it into their existing training.
• Biggest doubt: “Will our managers actually use it?”

The membership is identical. The emphasis is completely different.

Keep the core promise the same

Tailoring is not reinventing. Every version of your message should still express the same one-sentence promise, in the same voice. If one audience hears that your membership is relaxed and gentle while another hears that it is intensive and demanding, somebody will be disappointed after joining. Change the angle, the examples and the order of benefits. Do not change what the membership is or how it feels.

Before and after: one email, two audiences

Here is Chidi's original, one-size-fits-all invitation:

Our membership gives new managers the tools, training and support they need to lead with confidence. Join today and start building your leadership skills.

And here are two tailored versions of the opening:

For people promoted from within: Managing people who were your peers last month is one of the hardest transitions at work. This week's lesson is a ten-minute script for your first one-to-one with a former teammate, including what to say if they seem resentful.

For HR teams: If your new managers keep bringing you the same problems in their first six months, the membership gives them a structured program of short lessons you can assign, with progress you can see.

Each version is more specific, and each would feel slightly off to the other audience. That is a sign it is working.

Put tailored messages where each group arrives

You do not need a separate website for each group. A few well-placed changes go a long way:

• Sales page: Add a “who this is for” section with a short paragraph per group, so everyone recognizes themselves.
• Landing pages: Create a dedicated page for each group you actively promote to, such as one for HR teams linked from a trade newsletter.
• Email: Ask one question at sign-up, or use a quiz that sorts prospects, then send each group the examples and stories that fit.
• Content: Write some free articles for each group, so each has a way in.
• Ads and social posts: Speak to one group per ad or post, never all of them at once.

Check that it is working

Tailoring should show up in your numbers. Track sign-ups by group where you can, and compare how tailored pages and emails convert against your general ones. Ask new members which group they belong to and what made them join. If one group is growing and another is not, the message map tells you where to look: perhaps you are offering the wrong proof, or you have not answered that group's biggest doubt.

Tailor your message this month

1. Review your members and identify two to four distinct groups.
2. Fill in a message map for each: problem, outcome, key feature, proof and doubt.
3. Check that every version still matches your core promise and voice.
4. Add a “who this is for” section to your sales page.
5. Add one question to your sign-up form so you can segment your emails.
6. Rewrite your next promotional email in a version for each group, and compare the results.