Keeping it real. Real life. Reality television.

You might have your own little reality show going on inside your company, but is Ms. Jones watching? You can bet she’s too tied up in the melodrama playing out in her own life to get caught up in yours. How do you become relevant to her?

97 out of 100 Ms. Joneses are NOT in the market for your product at any given time. What product is that? Yours. If it’s not food, only 3% of the marketplace is in the market at any given time. Whew. That just considerably shrunk the size of your trading area, didn’t it? And that’s not even considering your competitors and your actual market share.

If you’re lucky, you will be advertising the exact same product Ms. Jones wants at the exact same price she needs in the exact same paper she reads at the exact same time she needs it. Cool! She’ll check out all the other people selling the exact same product she wants at the exact same price she needs in the exact same paper she reads at the exact same time she needs it. Let’s cross our fingers and hope your ad looked the best!

But what if you’ve been reinforcing your relevance all along? What if you’ve been carefully weaving a story starring Ms. Jones? Have you told her that you know her, that you care about her, that you’ve designed your company around her, that you have what she craves, that you’ll soothe all her fears?

Are you relevant when Ms. Jones wakes up and says, “I’m one of the three today! Where will I go shopping?”