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Friday’s basically the weekend. So, feel free to slack after you read today’s Inbox Hacking.

The Main Thing today covers targeting your ideal customer. It’s easy to get the targeting wrong due to who is actually making the purchase. “Holding the purse strings” is our example today, as a better targeted campaign ramped up donations for a major non-profit.

After that breakdown, sift through This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up.

Appetizer: Are Google Ads effective? This short video breaks down the numbers.

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The Main Thing

Targeting Your Non-Obvious Ideal Customer

I’m a man. So, I’d never heard of the “Power of the Purse.”

Not until my GF told me about it. 

She said it’s a United Way fundraising campaign that targets women specifically.

Been super-successful too.

Nationwide, millions of dollars have been raised (though totals are only tracked locally - see below example $$$).

• United Way of Southeastern Michigan reports raising over $400,000 since its inception for local grants supporting women’s economic stability.

• United Way of Champaign County raised over $320,000 in its first five years (2015–2019) alone.

• United Way of San Antonio’s 2025 Power of the Purse event raised a record $322,153 in a single year.

There are a few reasons all that money was brought in by targeting women. I’ll list them in a minute.

First, some examples of brands and organizations targeting the decision-maker vs. the end user.

Old-school Customer Targeting

Many cartoons were created to promote toy sales back in the day. Transformers and My Little Pony, for example. Kids would prompt (aka whine to) their parents to pull out their checkbooks to get an action figure after watching cartoons on Saturday morning.

Oh, and Saturday mornings were the perfect time to advertise fun-looking cereals to kiddos too. No accident cereal mascots were all bright and exciting. A tuxedo-wearing spokesman wouldn’t have sold as many boxes of Sugar Smacks as that frog character. 

Then there were life insurance campaigns targeting the emotional decision-maker back in the 1950s and 1960s. 

These ads targeted the wife because she would be the one to bring up the need for a policy. Men were the main breadwinners back then. Even today, women outlive men, so targeting the wife would be smart.

Last old-school one. Prescription drug marketing to doctor’s spouses. 

Drug companies targeted spouses at social events. Companies believed pillow talk would influence the docs’ prescribing habits. Even more than sales calls could. (Modern drug makers also bought lunch for doctor offices’ staff in the 2000s. Maybe still today, IDK.)

Modern Customer Targeting

Looking at B2B software and SaaS sales of today. Slack is a good example of doing an “end around” to target the right people. 

It didn’t go the normal route of hitting up IT directors even though they control purchase decisions. Instead, the Slack marketing team targeted employees who’d be using the messaging software. The aim was to create millions of advocates that would convince their managers to purchase this handy new way to chat.

Next, how about family vehicle marketing? Dads get targeted for ad campaigns focused on safety. Sure, men are way more reckless than women, psychologically. But dads are more careful about their family’s safety. 

Women typically drive “soccer-mom” minivans but the dad is a key part of the decision making because he wants his wife to arrive home safely (and he’d miss a lot of NFL games raising three kids solo, let’s be honest).

Finally, there are millions in the pennies. Youngsters get targeted by video game makers. Games are often free, but upsell digital goodies. Parents get nagged by JR until they give him their credit card to buy that $1 item. Then another. And another. And…

The Bottom Line

There’s more to targeting your ideal customer than meets the eye.

The examples above give you proven guidelines to reach the right person who’s most likely to buy from you. Or the right person to get on your brand’s side in order to convince the decision-maker.

But don’t stop with those examples. There are all kinds of ways to reach the right “customer avatar.” Get creative.

Experiment. 

Why? Because 99 out of 100 “experts” would’ve told Slack their strategy was idiotic. Simply because it wasn’t “the way things are done.”

Now Slack is worth more than Pablo Escobar back in the day.

Switching gears now to This Week’s Marketing Wrap-Up…

Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing genius or business owner. I appreciate you reading and sharing. 

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin.

“Use low-commitment CTAs. Emails are invites; landing pages are parties.” ~Matt Byrd