If your marketing plan is “everyone who needs what we offer,” you don’t have a plan. You have a pipe-dream.
Sadly you might not realize how often marketing agencies hear that.
Vague targeting burns cash. Bloated audiences kill your close rate. And most agencies still pitch you on impressions like it’s 2011.
Sorry, not sorry.
Little side bar for my agency friends - if this is you, let this be a friendly reminder that you have to grow beyond simply telling people that someone saw their ad.
With technological advances in tracking, what works now is clarity.
We've gone through the gambit on tracking. Early 2000's we had very little, but then cookies started becoming a viable tracking method and now in 2025, cookies are fading away. Now we're back to "Zero Party Data"... but all the same. If you're not tracking well, plainly, you're wasting money.
Back to our key reason for writing today.
You’ve probably heard the acronyms:
TAM — Total Addressable Market
SAM — Serviceable Available Market
SOM — Serviceable Obtainable Market
Founders love to throw those into pitch decks. Problem is, most don’t know what they actually mean or how to use them to drive real, profitable marketing.
If you want to grow without spending like a VC-backed SaaS company, it starts with getting clear on what your real market looks like and how to reach them without paying thirty dollars per click. Especially if you're bootstrapping like we have in the past, most of us don't have tons of funds to spend on testing.
Let's talk through how these apply to your business' marketing.
Let’s define these in real-world terms, not in consultant speak.
TAM is every possible buyer if you were the only company in the world. If you sell storm-resistant windows, TAM might include every homeowner in tornado-prone states.
SAM is the subset of that market you can actually serve based on your geography, licensing, team size, and operational model. If you only install in Oklahoma and don’t handle commercial projects, that knocks out a huge portion.
SOM is who you can realistically acquire based on your brand awareness, sales process, marketing reach, and operational bandwidth over the next 12 to 18 months.
TAM is the sky.
SAM is the field.
SOM is the patch of dirt your team can actually work on today.
And SOM is where your money is, today at least.
Before we dig into tactics, let’s clear out some of the common myths and bad assumptions.
No you don’t. Even Walmart doesn’t serve everyone. Define who is most likely to buy, now. This will enable you to find an exact value per conversion that you can afford and triple down on that as part of your strategy, even working to lower that.
More impressions does not mean more buyers. If you’re talking to 100,000 people who don’t need what you do, you just paid to be ignored.
Plain and simple, market leaders don't copy competitors.
Chasing what your competitors are doing leads to bloated ad spend, me-too content, and directionless campaigns. If you’re a Tulsa-based funeral director, you don’t need one million views. You need ten families per week who trust you, or whatever that number is specifically for you in your growth.
You don’t need expensive research firms or a 90-slide deck. You can build a working SOM using what you already know and a spreadsheet. I come from the world where agencies ask about 200 questions for the corporate clients they really want to keep and spend $10k building a slide deck that almost never matters in the long run. Our clients don't use it, they didn't ask for it, and we charged for it as an onboarding fee as a part of our process. I get it, onboarding processes are important, but you don't need to go make that to identify this info.
The key here is clarity, and most people get messier the more they talk. The more words don't equal more clarity.
That said, sit down with your team, and talk through the data around your sales and marketing numbers. Talk about demographics (who your customer is), psychographics (their habits and characteristics) and define where they go on a daily basis. This deck, should be about 10-15 slides, easy to read for your youngest employee, and instantly actionable.
Unless you’re selling a national e-commerce product, location still matters. Not to mention, it will help you engage for better SEO.
Pull your sales data by zip code. Use USPS tools, census data, or Google’s keyword planner to estimate population, income level, homeownership rates, or weather patterns.
If you sell roofing in Tulsa, prioritize areas with:
That’s your starting ground.
Be honest. Do you want the one-time 500 dollar job or the recurring 5,000 dollar client? Both are options, but require different processes.
In your CRM or spreadsheet, filter your last 50 paying customers. What do they have in common?
Use that to say no to the wrong leads and focus your SOM around the ones that buy fast and stay longer.
When do people need what you do?
Some industries are seasonal like HVAC. Others are milestone-based like weddings or funerals.
Map those cycles. It makes your marketing feel timely instead of random.
If you’re promoting home renovation services, April through July may outperform November through January by three times. Target accordingly.
Once your SOM is mapped, you don’t need to market to everyone. You just need to show up in the right places with the right message to the right people.
Here’s how that breaks down into inbound and outbound strategy.
Inbound marketing only works if you stop trying to go viral and start getting specific. This area of your marketing is more about consistently bringing semi-warmed sales leads to a conversion point. It has to be tested. Just following the lead of a "marketing expert" isn't going to work.
As we get hired, we often bump into groups that have been following the lead of a marketing guru and not seeing results. That's not marketing, that's hoping and praying what worked for the last guy can copy-paste onto you.
For this to work you actually have to test, track conversions, and see names come through the process and attribute dollars to their conversion.
Then you retest. Then you make it automated.
Don’t just build a “Tulsa Web Design” page. Break it down into service-area specific content:
Each city has different buyers. Show up like you know their streets, their pain points, and their priorities.
We have competitors that take very similar page content and just slap a few new photos and city names on that. If you're doing that, please call us. I don't need to see your numbers to know this isn't working. The goal here is to show UNIQUE content to each new viewer. It takes TIME to write that content, and even more time to understand the needs of the customer to really make that content engaging.
Use tools like BrightLocal or PlePer to keep location data sharp. Directory listings are the unsung heros for a lot of companies. Ensure you have those cleaned up, with the right data, and while they won't necessarily drive your strategy, they will act as a foundation for making better traction down the road.
If you run a porta potty rental company, answer:
Google these. See what shows up. Then write something better, faster, and more helpful.
Base your writing on search intent, and actually aim to solve the customers questions. This is the biggest SEO growth hack of 2025. We're back to the basics where you actually have to be helpful, not just copying the same words over and over on the blog you just chat GPT'ed...
Make it clear. Make it punchy. Make it show up when people are searching with urgency.
Oh, and If you're just using AI content, get ready for your content to tank. With Google looking for uniqueness, you copying the same output as the guy down the street removes all potential for competitive advantage. You have to show your personality in your content, even as an enterprise group.
Bad lead magnets:
If you’re running a funeral home, create something like
“10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Cremation Provider in Oklahoma”
Simple. Targeted. High-converting.
But then make sure that content is impactful. Undeniable. Something that only a human could provide with 10 years of experience.
Rule of thumb: if you solve your customers problems, they will hire you - it's just a matter of time.
Do not retarget everyone. Focus only on people who visited your pricing page, service detail pages, or request-a-quote forms.
Skip blog readers or homepage bouncers. Spend your ad budget where it counts.
Use Meta’s URL filters or Google’s audience tools to get laser-specific.
If you want to target more people, ensure that you understand what you are saying to each cusotmer. Don't just blanket the entire audience with your new commerical.
Outbound still works. It just has to be relevant and respectful. We use text messages, emails, push notifications, you name it - but it's thoughtful, and that's why it works.
Do not send another “Hi I help companies like yours” message. No one cares.
Send something like this:
I noticed your new build on 121st Street. Looks like you’re scaling. We’ve helped three similar Tulsa builders save 12 thousand a year on window installs. Thought I’d introduce myself.
Use a real name. Use a real street. Use a real number.
Tools that help: Clay, Apollo, Google Street View, and company job boards.
Record a 60-second Loom with their website or review page on your screen:
Be helpful. Be specific. Be fast.
Your reply rate will quadruple compared to any generic text email.
Yes, direct mail. It works when you know your audience. If we can't get in the door with someone, we direct mail the proposal to them.
Does this sometimes get us cussed at? Yes.
Does it get us a firm yes or no? Yes.
You can also be a less obtuse user of Direct Mail.
Send postcards with clear checklists, simple visuals, or timely offers.
Examples:
Keep it simple. Make it relevant. Put a phone number on it. But also target the audience narrowly. Don't just blanket the DMA.
If you’re serious about performance marketing, build a live dashboard that tracks your SOM.
You can use Google Sheets, Airtable, or HubSpot to track:
Update it monthly. Look for patterns. Shift spend accordingly.
This is how modern operators beat their competition. Not by guessing. By seeing.
You will start to notice a few key changes.
You will also stop wasting time trying to build “brand awareness” in places that will never convert.
You’ll start investing in the exact zip codes, industries, and business stages that match your actual buyer.
Instead of asking, “How do we get more traffic?”
You’ll start asking, “How do we serve the right clients better and faster?”
That shift will double your profit and halve your stress.
Build content and outbound campaigns that speak to real-world problems in your zip code and industry.
Do not waste time or money trying to be everywhere. Own your niche.
Once your SOM is clear, you can cut your ad budget and still grow.
You will stop guessing.
You will stop bleeding cash on bad leads.
You will start closing deals from people who already trust you when they walk in the door.
We help companies in the Midwest, across Oklahoma, and beyond define their true SOM, restructure their marketing to focus on real acquisition paths, and build sales enablement around it.
If you want to stop running bloated campaigns and start driving qualified leads that close fast, reach out. We’ll help you build a focused, cost-efficient marketing engine that works.
So that whole process I just gave you? We're using it. Yes, right now.
We made you a helpful template for trying to sort through some of this in your strategy and even defined some of the items we put in our decks. Download that below and let us know if it helps. It's not going to be a perfect fit for everyone, you will need to custom fit this to your needs, but we hope this outline helps you get started on the journey of making marketing easy, by defining your audience, planning a strategy, and actually making money.
