Stop Trying to Reach More People. Start Reaching the Right People.
14 July 2026 · Insights
Bigger is apparently always better. But is it?
If a restaurant has ten empty tables tonight, it does not need to reach 50,000 people. It needs to reach a relatively small number of people who live nearby, enjoy eating there, and might be persuaded to make a booking.
If a golf club has six empty tee times tomorrow afternoon, it does not need a viral social media post. It needs golfers who can actually play tomorrow afternoon.
And if an events venue announces a new act or adds another date, reaching thousands of people with no interest in attending achieves very little.
Sometimes the problem is not the size of the audience. It is reaching the right people at the right time, which is where targeted SMS marketing can offer businesses a very different approach.
For years, businesses have been encouraged to grow their audiences. Build bigger mailing lists. Attract more followers. Increase website traffic. Collect more contacts. There is nothing wrong with any of that. A growing audience can be extremely valuable.
But size alone tells you very little.
That is where relevance starts to matter.
The golf club with spare tee times does not need to introduce itself to thousands of strangers. It needs to reach golfers who already know the course and might be tempted by some unexpected availability.
The opportunity is already there.
The challenge is reaching the people most likely to respond. This is also why building a genuinely useful customer database matters.
Knowing only the person who made the booking, paid the bill or bought the tickets limits what a business can do next. The larger its reachable audience becomes, the more opportunities it has to communicate directly with people who already know and trust the business.
Even then, sending every message to everyone isn’t the answer. Relevance still matters.
A family offer may be highly relevant to one group of customers and completely irrelevant to another. Midweek availability may appeal to people with flexible schedules but be of little interest to someone who only visits at weekends. An event announcement will naturally generate more interest amongst people who have attended similar events before.
Good communication is not simply about volume. It is about relevance.
That does not mean businesses need complicated marketing systems, endless data analysis, or sophisticated campaigns built months in advance. Often, it simply means thinking about who is most likely to be interested before pressing send.
And that small change in thinking can make a significant difference. Because people are surrounded by marketing every day. Messages, adverts, emails, notifications and promotions are constantly competing for attention.
The more relevant something feels, the more reason there is to notice it.
This is where a genuine customer database becomes valuable. Instead of putting a message in front of the largest possible audience and hoping the right people happen to see it, businesses can communicate with customers who already have a reason to listen.
Importantly, this does not replace social media, email, advertising, or any other form of marketing. Those channels continue to play an important role in attracting new customers and building awareness.
But not every business problem requires a bigger audience. Sometimes the audience you need is already there.
You simply need the ability to reach them. A business with empty capacity, unexpected availability, a relevant offer, or an important announcement does not always need thousands more followers. It needs customers who know the business, recognise its name, and have a reason to act.
That is a very different way of thinking about reach.
And perhaps a more valuable one.
Because ultimately, the success of a marketing message should not be measured by how many people could have seen it. Marketing isn’t measured by how many people see your message. It’s measured by how many of the right people act on it.