The 3-7% Rule: Marketing Fundamentals

David Carroll breaks down a stat that every business owner needs to hear: only 3-7% of your ideal customers are actively searching for what you sell right now. The other 93-97% probably don't even know your business exists.

💡 Why This Matters

Most business owners focus all their energy on the 3-7% who are already looking. That's the easy part. The real job — the one most people ignore — is making the other 93-97% aware you exist before they're ready to buy.

## The Responsibility Nobody Talks About

When you get your tax ID and open your doors, you take on a responsibility most founders overlook: making people in your local area or market aware that you exist and that you solve their problems.

David puts it bluntly — he asks the businesses he consults: "What are you doing as a business owner every day to make sure more people know about the problems you solve?"

Most don't have a good answer.

Shotgun Marketing Is Dead

Ten years ago, you could get away with a shotgun approach. Whether it was Facebook Ads, guerrilla marketing, or direct mail, people just weren't as distracted. That era is over.

The shift is from broadcasting to everyone toward understanding exactly who your ideal target customer is for your specific business. Generic messaging gets scrolled past. Specific messaging gets attention.

Priming the Pump

Business owners need to think of Marketing as a daily discipline, not a campaign you run once. David calls it "priming the pump" — consistently putting in the work so that when someone in your market is ready to buy, your name is the one they think of.

This isn't about running one ad or posting once a week. It's about showing up every day and educating your market about:

Who you are
What problems you solve
How you can help them

The Two Fundamentals

David boils marketing down to two things:

Truly understanding who your customer is — Not a vague demographic, but a specific person with specific problems. The better you understand them, the better your messaging connects.
Holding yourself accountable every day — Making sure you're educating people in your local area or market about the problems you solve and the services you offer. Every single day.

The goal is simple: make sure everyone in that 93-97% at least knows who you are as a business and what you can do to help them — so that when they're ready, you're the obvious choice.