Taking a Stand

There’s this idea in online marketing that you’re supposed to pick a side.

Polarity. It’s been a buzzword forever, and maybe rightfully so.

You see it on X. You see it on Facebook. People taking sides, getting loud, carving out their niche.

That’s the playbook, right? Find your people, know their pain points, become part of the tribe. Makes sense. The longer you’re in a market, the more you understand it and the more visible you become.

But there’s another argument. Niching down can box you in, cutting off potential customers who might have been a good fit. Go too broad, though, and you risk attracting clients you don’t click with. Both sides make sense.

If you niche, you need to be really good and really loud. Ten perfect fish in the pool, but maybe they aren’t biting today. If you go broad, you’ve got a hundred fish, but plenty of them are mud-sucking bottom dwellers. Do you want to eat that?

It’s a dilemma.

There’s also a third option, the one I’ve run with for 30 years: doesn’t matter, sell to anyone.

Not because I’m scared to niche. Not because I can’t go broad. Mostly because I don’t want to be lumped in with people taking loud stands over things that have no bearing on client work. Does your latest hot take on Facebook really matter, or are you just flapping your gums?

I’ve worked with Republicans and Democrats, every color, nationality, sexuality, and shape of human. Some were great, some were awful. Being an asshole isn’t tied to labels. It’s math. A certain percentage of people are assholes, no matter the group. Niching down doesn’t change that ratio.

Think about your life. How many people are truly close to you? A few. The rest you know, but you’re not clones. I’ve got friends who wear Crocs. What the hell is that? Point is, compatibility has nothing to do with labels. Same in business.

If you go full red-state or blue-state, you’re cutting off a chunk of potential clients over a single dividing line. You may gain some alignment, but you’ll lose just as many good people. It’s a numbers game.

So choose your dividing lines carefully. Express them even more carefully. Unless you are an actual zealot, coming across like one won’t help. It will cost you sales from the gray area, which is about 95 percent of the market.

I see it all the time online. Folks think they’re niching down by ranting about guns, gender, or the latest political sideshow. In reality they’re just running off potential allies, clients, and opportunities because they let an agenda dictate their brand.

Don’t do that. There’s no need.

This isn’t about watering down your message. Be bold, be clear, be loud if that’s what your audience wants. Just understand that every hard line cuts off a chunk of people. And the smaller group you’re left with? Same percentage of assholes.

If you’re fine with that, carry on. If not, consider staying agnostic on anything that doesn’t directly touch your business, your audience, or your brand.

Guess who I voted for. Guess where I stand on gender politics. Guess which baseball team I root for. You’ll get them all wrong, because you won’t find those answers online.

Why?

Because it doesn’t matter. It matters to me, but it doesn’t matter to my audience. And I’m not going to let a marketing decision tell the world who I am.

I’m more complicated than that. So are you.