March 12th, 2010
“The purpose of marketing is to make selling obsolete” said marketing icon Peter Drucker. If you are seeking to increase attendance to your live events, your goal should be to have prospects seeking you out to sign up, not the other way around. An effective marketing technique which accomplishes this precise goal is the free report.
Write your Free Report as a Sales Letter in Disguise
When the content of your free report is so interesting that the reader cannot put it down, they have likely become so caught up in the content that they didn’t notice that they were being sold to. A master of accomplishing this feat is Richard Schefren, who so clearly accomplishes this in his Internet Business Manifesto. His manifesto effectively works as a sales letter in disguise. How does he accomplish this? He follows the rule of thumb; he establishes need or greed in the eyes of the reader.
Establishing Need in the Eyes of Your Reader
One proven method of selling is to satisfy a consumer’s need. But, how can you accomplish this within a free report? The first step is to help identify the prospect’s need. If you are offering a course in time management, your goal in the report will be to discuss case studies of individuals and professionals who have dramatically improved their lives by implementing time management techniques. By building a clear need in the prospect’s mind for time management techniques, you can offer your solution as the answer they need.
Establishing Greed
The other angle that you can take is to establish greed. When a prospect salivates at the success possibilities outlined in a free report, they often strive to find out how they may be able to accomplish the same results within their own lives. To establish greed, share stories, testimonials and results that can be achieved with your system or by attending your seminars.
You don’t always have to limit your examples to existing clients, or even individuals who have attended your seminars. For example, if your seminar provides valuable time management techniques and you happen to know that Alan Sugar utilizes this exact technique, you can mention legitimately, that “This is just one of the things that Alan Sugar, powerful leader, has used to help him build an 800 million-pound business.”
Consider examples you can draw from to include within your free report to build credibility and to establish greed among your readers. This is especially important when you are just beginning, as you will not have the wealth of stories and examples of which to draw from. But, this fact does not have to limit you. Build a powerful association with your techniques and teachings by including relevant stories into your report.
So, you can utilize your free report to establish need or greed. As you sit down to map out your free report, ask yourself, “What can I include in my report to get people recognizing that they need the ongoing solution that I am going to offer to them?” Or, ask yourself, “What can I be adding into my free report that will get people excited or inspired regarding the possibility of acquiring and mastering the techniques and skills that I will be teaching to them?”
Answer these two questions as you create your report content, and you will be creating a powerful and effective marketing tool.
Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free with invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease. Register at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, sales strategies, sales strategy, Selling, targeted marketing, types of buyers, Value
Posted in Advertising, Business Networking, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Sales Motivation, Small Business Marketing, Success Secrets, target audience | No Comments »
March 7th, 2010
Before ramping up your marketing when sales are disappointing, take a step back and ask yourself, “Do I know what my market really, really wants?” Being able to answer that question is the key to growing your business. By focusing on what people want, rather than on what you hope to sell them, you can begin to see the kind of success you desire.
If you suspect you’re wasting time by marketing something people don’t really want, here are some principles to ponder:
People buy what they want, not what you think they need.
You’re going to get a lot of resistance to your marketing if someone thinks they’re being shoehorned into buying what they don’t want. No matter how loudly you proclaim your product’s benefits, your market won’t respond if they don’t want the product. To continue doing so is a lot like speaking a different language and shouting to be understood.
People need to feel good about what they’ve bought.
One way to zero in on what your market wants is to develop empathy with that group of people. You must connect emotionally with how they feel about purchasing. When you’ve put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you begin to understand how they feel. What are their hopes and dreams? What do they fear? What keeps them awake at night?
If you’ve done a good job of pinpointing a target market, you should be able to learn these things easily. Until you do, you’re wasting time on marketing that won’t work, because you don’t yet know what products they’ll feel good about buying.
People buy products when they feel they’ve been understood.
No matter what logical explanation someone can give for buying a product, underneath it is the belief they’ve been understood. Someone knew enough about who they were to make a product that fits them.
So, how will you know when you’ve learned what your market really, really wants? You’ll know, because that’s when it all becomes easier. There’s no need to push or shove someone into buying, because they want what you’re offering. It will be such a revelation to learn how easy selling your products can be when they’re what your market wants.
Once that happens, you’ll begin to hear from your clients how grateful they are for your products. Everything about how you do business will be transformed, because you’ve taken the time to learn what your market wants. You’ve made the effort to step into their shoes and understand what makes them tick. And that effort pays off in products that really meet the needs of your market.
So, if you’re still struggling to sell your products, or it feels as though you’re pushing people into buying what they don’t want, it’s time to take inventory. Here are five questions to answer before trying again to sell your products:
-
What is most important to the people in my target market?
-
What problems keep them awake at night?
-
What is the desired end result they’re hoping for?
-
Does my product help them solve their problems and reach their goals?
-
Do I need to change my products so that they do?
The process of stepping closer to your target market and understanding that group of people may take time and effort, but it will definitely be worth it. Once you know the people in your market very well, the products you offer them will meet their needs. And that’s what people really, really want.
Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Customer Loyalty, customer loyalty concepts, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, sales strategies, targeted marketing, targeting clients, types of buyers
Posted in Business Networking, Business Plans, Law Of Attraction, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Online Marketing, Sales Motivation, Strategies To Keep Good Customers, target audience | No Comments »
March 2nd, 2010
If you could put a figure on the net results your programmes, coaching services or training would have on a company, when implemented, what would that price be?
How much money can what you are offering save or make your client? This is what larger companies and corporations want to know.
When you are pitching your product or services in a corporate environment, always emphasize and focus on what the net benefit to the company will be. Will your offering increase their overall sales? Reduce expenses and costs? Will it make their staff more efficient and productive, thus saving the company valuable time – and money?
It’s relatively easy to calculate straightway the cost that lost sales have on a company. However, there are other factors by which companies need to measure net results.
Maybe your business specializes in softer skills, such as leadership, management and employee development. To quantify that, you need to zero in on the tangible results the company will receive from your skills. Show corporations how they will be able to conduct more effective meetings because of your trainings; how they will receive more productive feedback because your workshops will teach staff to communicate more clearly.
Highlight the long-term implications that services similar to the ones you offer have on other companies. Gather statistics and give examples of how retention rates in companies improve because of the type of workshops you present and the skills you teach.
Statistics for all sorts of elements come into play here. Lost sales, sick leave, lack of focus, clique problems. You can gather research on many different challenges and problems that big companies face, then use that as a starting point and connect the dots to the cost savings for the company.
You can start gathering your statistics online. Search relevant phrases and you’re sure to find that someone, somewhere did a survey and quantified the results that can be achieved. Obviously, you should quote your source.
Here’s an example to demonstrate …
“This survey from _____showed that 45% of employees who leave an organization reported poor management as the main reason for leaving. When asked to clarify “poor management” it turns out that one of the things identified was poor feedback.”
After you state the facts, you then share the conclusion that poor feedback is costing their organization X amount of dollars.
Though you may deliver your product or service to a different end user than the head management of a company, in the end, your corporate clients will make the decision to go with you based on the impact your services will have on their bottom line.
That’s why when pitching your service or product in a corporate environment you need to spell out the net results that will be achieved. Back it up with the data and statistics that support your offering. Show your prospect how they will benefit – bottom line - and watch the sales flow in!
Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, sales strategies, sales strategy, Selling, targeted marketing, targeting clients
Posted in Advertising, Business & Money, Direct Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Sales Motivation | 2 Comments »
February 23rd, 2010
Are you waiting for that “aha!” moment to finally figure out your special role on the world’s stage? Do you expect that one day your specialty will just hit you like a bolt of lightning?
If you’re waiting for the light bulb to turn on, you may end up sitting in the dark for a very long time. More often than not, identifying your niche and your specialty is more like a silhouette emerging through the fog.
In my own experience, picking a niche always comes about gradually. You’re working on one thing, and then another thing similar to that, and before long, you are being associated with a specific specialty or setting.
You probably don’t even realize it as it happens because the process of creating your niche is steady and progressive – the feeling isn’t at all like your expectations. No fireworks, no clashing symbols.
The whole evolution of my own niche probably took 12 to 18 months. I didn’t just ask myself one day, “I wonder what my niche is?” and the next day decide to be a cold calling expert. And, once I became a cold calling expert, I didn’t stop there.
You need to just keep going and continue defining yourself in your business. Ask yourself, “What is it that people are struggling with that I can help them with?”
I honed in on the area of appointment setting and appointment making. At that time, no one else was really offering courses on that specific topic. That helped me to stand out in the marketplace. Part of the reason that I stuck with that niche was that the market kept me on track.
I’m not where I am today because I decided at a very early age that I wanted to be an appointment setting expert. If there is a demand for what you are doing, the market will tell you whether you should continue in that direction. It just may not be a direction you ever saw yourself heading in.
Keep it simple. Look around you and ask yourself, “What am I seeing that’s coming up as a problem for people time and time again?”
You can look at the needs of existing clients, read trade magazines for your industry or visit online forums to find similar topics that come up again and again.
There will be some that you’re drawn to and others where you don’t have that same attraction. Follow up on the ones that you feel a pull toward and see what happens.
Don’t confuse identifying a niche with “what’s my purpose in life?” That is a much bigger question. You are a magnificent being with so much to do on this earth. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to boil it all down into one sentence.
But, that’s actually exactly what you need to do when you pick a niche. Boil it down. Pick one phrase. “I help ____ to achieve or to solve ____.” Maybe you help moms who want to start their own business, or need another example here.
If you’re approaching your niche as a life purpose question, it’s going to be nearly impossible to answer. Take yourself off the hook and take that pressure off yourself.
Your niche will evolve with your business. Again, learn from my situation. I didn’t stop at being a cold calling or appointment setting expert. Today I’m teaching people how to find new business. The way in which I’m helping people and the types of people I’m helping is completely different from what I started out with.
So, don’t be concerned that what you decide today is irreversible. The market may take you in another direction over the course of time.
Approach finding your niche more pragmatically. Identify the area where you think there could be demand and where you feel you’ve got some expertise and can add some value. You don’t have to have it all perfectly figured out from the outset.
Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, chasing clients, find your niche, finding your niche, Market share, Marketing Strategies, niche, targeted marketing
Posted in Business Networking, Business Plans, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Success Secrets, target audience | 4 Comments »
February 21st, 2010
You’ve chosen your potential joint venture partners. You’ve sent them a compelling email that gives them all the information and creates lots of excitement about your promotion. Now you’re waiting for the positive responses to come in.
But what if they don’t?
There will be people who say no, who aren’t interested in the partnership. There may also be some who don’t respond at all – maybe they didn’t receive the email.
Don’t be discouraged. They aren’t necessarily lost causes.
If someone says no, or doesn’t respond, try to maintain the personal connection you established in the email. Phone them and say what you put in your email.
During the call, outline your idea. If they express interest, get into the details of how the promotion works. And then just ask them, “Are you onboard?”
Don’t assume the answer is negative if you don’t get a response. You’ve got to follow up. This is your business. This is you thinking big and wanting to partner with big players. So you’ve got to act big to do that, and you’ve got to take what you’re doing really seriously.
There are also times when a little creativity might help. For example, you may work in an industry where there aren’t many potential partners, and those you would like to approach are really “big fish” who might be too busy to work with you. Sending an email probably won’t make much of an impression on them. So be creative about how you get their attention.
You could mail them something catchy. I’ve seen people mail things like fake money or fake checks with a note saying, “This is play money but I’m hoping to send you real money soon. All the details are inside.” Wrap it up in a box so it stands out from the other mail and gets noticed.
I don’t recommend sending an actual product without permission. Some people get totally bombarded with products that they haven’t asked for and that take up space in the office. You don’t want to do something that will be a nuisance to them.
Also, some people may want to view your product before they endorse it. But do ask permission. Don’t just send it to them unannounced.
Unfortunately, you are going to get some no’s. Not everyone you contact will say yes. But don’t get discouraged. Just keep going and don’t give up.
Expect that some people will say no. Aim for more partners than you think you’ll need. Update and add to your jv list constantly in order to be sure you’ll have enough joint venture partners on board.
Once you get the ball rolling the excitement will really begin. The promotion and partnership will build momentum. And it will become a self-fulfilling energy that will keep you inspired to continue with future partnerships.
Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: Joint Venture, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Networking, sales strategies, sales strategy, Selling, Success Secrets
Posted in Advertising, Business Networking, Business Plans, Business Success, Internet Business, Joint Venture, Marketing, Website sales | 1 Comment »
February 20th, 2010
If you want to have a successful business that serves clients, sooner or later money has to change hands. And that means sooner or later you’re going to have to say, “This is what I’m offering you and this is the price.”
If you have a problem with that, you’re not alone. I see a lot of people missing this step when they map out their business plan. You shouldn’t misstep here though, because it is an obvious and necessary detail. Without it, you are not going to be putting any money in your bank account.
The only thing that will put money into your bank account is you showing up and saying to that customer, “Here it is. Here is what it costs. Here is how to pay.”
This can be a difficult thing for people to do sometimes. But, really, there is no reason that you should be afraid to ask for the money. Maybe you’re frightened of the possible rejection. Maybe you’re frightened of negotiation and the possibility that you’ll have to say no. Maybe you’re afraid to actually set the price in stone.
If you set up your price before you even begin taking on clients, there isn’t anything to be concerned about.
Approach this detail from its end point. Design your total client-getting system so that it takes you all the way through to collecting the money. In fact, what I really want you to do is start with collecting the money and then work backward – detailing all of the steps that need to happen in order to get to that point.
You simply cannot deliver outstanding results for your clients if you’re worried about money.
So, it’s important that you begin with the end in mind. Be focused on your end point. What type of clients do you ultimately want to attract? From there you can begin to develop lead generation systems that will attract the right type of people. People who will be raising their hands, wanting in on your offerings. They won’t be haggling with you about price because you’ve done your research. You know that your services are valuable to them.
This pricing determination has to start before you generate a single lead. By the time you begin your lead generating, you should know how you are going to convert clients and how much you are going to charge them.
So, in essence, you are making decisions from your destination, not from your starting point. This is something that I’ve learned in my own business. When I’m evaluating anything now, I make my decision based on where I want to be 12 months from now.
Something might look like a huge investment to me today. But I know that I’m growing and stepping into something bigger and that I’m going to be in a completely different place 12 months from now.
I know this because I’ve doubled or tripled my income every year for the past three years. When I view something from that destination, something that might look like a huge investment now is actually quite miniscule.
So, make decisions from your destination. Know how much you will charge for your services. Know how you will bill your clients. Get good at asking for money. It is in your best interest and theirs. You can’t treat your clients as well if you’re constantly worried about money.
Start with the details of collecting the money and you will no longer wonder, “How can I ask for this much money from a client?”
Tags: Market share, Marketing, more sales, pricing, sales strategies, sales strategy, Selling, Success Secrets
Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Success Secrets | 2 Comments »
February 19th, 2010
You can compete with the big name players in your market. You can attract corporate clients to buy your services, whether they involve negotiation skills, presentation skills, sales skills, or dealing with difficult clients and colleagues.
Sometimes, the idea that you’re at a disadvantage to the big companies is more in your own head than it is in your potential buyer’s eyes.
Here’s a simple formula to follow when competing for big business:
Be confident in your ability to deliver your product or service +
Distinguish yourself from the competition =
Clients will jump on your offering rather than you having to compete for their business.
Don’t be intimidated by the larger businesses who offer services similar to yours. Don’t let the heavy hitters in your area give you an inferiority complex.
Your business actually has a massive advantage over these bigger players…
• Many of these larger structures tend to offer fixed programs and fixed courses. There’s usually not a lot a room for customized, pick-and-choose type training. You’re not restricted in a way that a larger company would be. That actually means you can have a lot more flexibility for your client. You’re much more able to be responsive to their needs.
• Big companies tend to send in a very charming and persuasive sales person to close the sale. They go in with all the glitz, pretty brochures, maybe they even take the client out to lunch. Then they outsource to the most inexpensive person they can find to deliver the service, still charging the client a premium rate. Clients soon discover that the person who is actually put in front of them to deliver the training, do the consulting, or whatever the service is, doesn’t have that experience, that credibility or that authority.
Make it obvious, in your marketing material and also in your sales meetings, that the person the client meets going in, is going to be the same person that their end users meet. Without actually saying anything negative about the bigger company vying for their business, you’re planting a seed of doubt. You’re not badmouthing the competition, but you are giving the client something to think about that they may not have before. Where possible, you always want to sell yourself on your strengths as opposed to just going in and knocking the competition.
• When your business card is basically your name, you can sometimes feel, “I haven’t got the weight. I haven’t got this huge impressive organization behind me.” But, you have to start seeing that as a real advantage. Don’t underestimate a client’s ability to appreciate the fact that your business success hinges on your delivering the very best. You’re not just following some automated process. You’re really engaging with them and really getting to understand their business, so you can make recommendations based on your expertise and what you’ve uncovered as their real need. You’re literally staking your reputation on your service.
So, just because you’re not as big or as famous as some of the others, doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage. You’ve got to start to think about, “What do I have that these guys don’t have?”
Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, sales strategies, sales strategy, Selling, Success Secrets, targeted marketing, targeting clients
Posted in Advertising, Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Presenting, Sales Leads, Sales Motivation | No Comments »
February 10th, 2010
Is something stopping you from starting your online business and moving forward to achieve success in your life? Successful online entrepreneurs didn’t let their circumstances prevent them from getting started. No matter where you are starting from, you already have many of the assets and resources you need.
If your reaction is, “I don’t really have any,” I am going to prove to you how wrong you are. You’ll be surprised at how much you bring to the table.
You don’t need to have a huge marketing budget. You don’t need the technical know-how. You don’t need to have a website or a facility for taking payments online yet.
What you do need is an awareness of the resources that you can tap into.
• Life experiences. Your experiences in life count for a lot. Make a list of all the jobs you’ve ever held, and all the work you’ve done for those jobs. All of this adds value to who you are right now.
• Existing prospects. Do you have a list of people that you’ve been in contact with who have expressed an interest in your services? If you don’t, or if it’s a small list, you need to begin to build that up.
• Existing customers. Your list might not have hundreds of customers, and it doesn’t need to. If you have a customer list, of any length, that’s an existing resource that you can use to get you started.
• A network. You have a group of people that know you, that like you, that value you. While they may not be direct customers for your business, there’s a good chance that they will participate and help you.
• Email. Just send an email out to your prospects, past and present customers, old colleagues and other network lists saying something like, “This is a new project that I’m starting. I would really appreciate if you could hook me up with other people that might be interested.”
• Your willingness to ask for help. Yes, this is an asset. Don’t take the path of least assistance. If you’re going to build a successful online business, it’s essential for you to get comfortable with asking for help. You’ve got to be okay with that. It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s actually a sign of strength.
• Existing products or programs. You might already have something that you don’t even recognize the value of. I turned copies of sales proposals I had used years ago to win training contracts, into valuable materials that I could share and sell. That was material that I had been undervaluing.
• Your know-how and experience. Maybe you’re very good at what you’re doing and getting tremendous results, but can’t explain what you do. That’s okay. That can be pulled out of you and turned into training or a product that can give people similar results, without you having to work with them in person. Or you could map out what you know into a process that you can sell to other coaches. There are lots of opportunities to utilize your know-how.
• Support and help. Do you have someone who assists you with admin? Or someone who helps with the technical work? If you don’t, it’s easy enough to get hooked up with that.
These are the some of the resources you likely have ready have access to. You can build a successful online business if you have these. Take inventory and see where the gaps are. The more resources you have to start with, the less time it’s going to take for you to profit. If you’ve got fewer resources, you have less of a margin for error, so deploy them wisely.
Tags: attracting clients, chasing clients, Market share, Marketing Strategies, Networking, Personal Productivity, Success Secrets, targeted marketing
Posted in Business & Money, Business Networking, Business Plans, Business Success, Internet Business, Marketing, Online Marketing, Personal Productivity, Small Business Ideas | 3 Comments »
February 6th, 2010
The conventional wisdom for online businesses has usually involved offering some type of free report on your web page. The advice that expert marketers tend to give is for companies to have a squeeze page. This is where you would offer your free report. When potential customers land on your page, they’ll sign up for that free report. Now they’re on your list, and you have the means to follow up with auto-responders. You can now market and sell to them because they have given you their contact information.
Offering a free report is generally good advice because it gets the people who are truly interested to take the step forward and make themselves known to you. It means that you are marketing to people who have given you permission to market to them. So, on that basis, it is a sound practice.
The trouble is that when everybody does it, it starts to lose its effectiveness. How often have you personally had the experience of browsing online and landing on a site where something is being offered for free? Maybe this would have tempted you four or five years ago, but now you are wiser. And so are your prospects. They will think twice about handing over their email address to you now, because they know these free offers are a marketing approach.
What can you offer instead that would have a higher perceived value and almost compel people to give you their email address?
I am a huge proponent of teleseminars. They offer tremendous value for you and your business for a couple of reasons.
Think about how much great content you can give clients in a one-hour-long teleseminar. And, they can really get to know you, up close and personal.
Even if someone does download that free report on your web site, it may just sit in their inbox or on their computer. They might not ever get around to looking at it. You know how many things we all download and never actually read. It’s like the stack of magazines that sit unread on the end table, but without the actual clutter. Or, they might actually print it out, put it to the side to read later, and, well, later never comes.
But a teleseminar offers actual human connection. People are getting a lot more than just information from you. They are getting to know you.
A teleseminar allows your personality, sense of humor, and everything about you that is the reason for your business, to come across. It shows who you are, and that’s what’s important.
At the end of the day, people buy people. The beauty of the teleseminar is that it gives people a live experience of you.
And because it’s an hour long – certainly not any shorter than that – it’s an opportunity to pack in a lot of content. You can really convey a lot of knowledge and build up an intimacy with your audience in this amount of time.
Here’s another major advantage about teleseminars. They are time-limited.
If you are offering potential clients the opportunity to sign up for a teleseminar next Tuesday via your web page, they know they have to make a decision. If they click away from the opportunity, they miss out for good. So, they are less likely to hesitate than they would be with signing up for a free report. They know they can always come back for that later.
There are many people who get between 30%-40% opt-in rates from the free reports on their squeeze pages. If you get 100 visitors to that page, 30 – 40 of them will give you their email addresses. Many people are very satisfied with that. And that’s fine.
But if you offer a teleseminar instead, your opt-in rate could increase to 70%. Mine did. Just by switching one little piece of the lead generation process, and offering a teleseminar instead of a free report, you can double the number of leads you’re generating with no extra traffic.
Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, targeted marketing, targeting clients, training
Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Personal Productivity, Teleseminars | 2 Comments »
January 26th, 2010
Where do the people in your target market hang out? That’s a question you’ll want to answer in order to grow your business quickly. Online or offline, people with similar buying habits tend to read, join and discuss in the same places. By doing some research, and creating a list of established points of connection, you can affordably reach more people in your target audience.
Where Do Your Target Prospects Flock Together?
The old saying about “birds of a feather” really applies when it comes to people likely to buy your product. They probably read the same publications, hang out on the same websites and belong to the same associations. What’s more, they’re likely hanging out together in significant numbers.
This is where good research pays off. Once you learn where your target prospects congregate, you can find ways to leverage relationships other people have with them.
For example, if they’ve paid to subscribe to a magazine, there’s a relationship established with that publication. Someone else might already be selling their products regularly to the same group of people. Many members of your target audience may also belong to the same trade associations.
The point is, any way you might be able to connect with your audience through an existing connection should be added to your list. Media contacts, possible joint venture partners, associations, and online discussion groups are all valuable assets to be leveraged while growing your list.
If this sounds like a lot of legwork, there’s some good news. Once you begin to find these places where your target audience congregates, a snowball effect will kick in. You’ll talk to one or two people, and then learn of more and more connections. Rather than painstakingly tracking down each place, your new prospects will begin to show them to you.
Find common connections between the people in a specific market. Look for books and publications which give lists of trade magazines or associations.
Ways to Reach Your Market
Remember, the key is to gather information on your list that allows you to reach your market. That means not starting from scratch trying to sell to your audience if there’s another way in.
You might choose to advertise in that magazine your target audience likes to read, or submit some editorials. As you research your list make notes about who accepts advertising, articles or editorials.
A joint venture with a company already selling products to your intended market is another good way to break in. Look online at companies you might once have considered your competitors. If your products complement theirs, a joint venture could benefit you both.
Another possibility is to offer to give talks to the groups you find your market tends to join. Keep notes on who needs guest speakers, how often they meet and whether you can sell from the back of the room.
Again, all this will take some research on your part. Even if someone else could tell you exactly where members of your target audience hang out, they don’t know your product like you do, so do your own homework.
A final tip about reaching your audience: don’t waste your money trying to reach your market through large publications. The expense to advertise in national, regional or even large local publications is enormous, and you’ll be paying for circulation beyond your audience. Target niche magazines and newsletters, instead; your return will be much more profitable.
Devote some time to researching where your target market hangs out and keep your eyes open for opportunities to leverage existing relationships. Expanding your list of marketing prospects will become much easier once you multiply your impact through these avenues.
Tags: attracting clients, buyer behavior, chasing clients, Customer Retention, finding your niche, Market share, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, sales strategies, Success Secrets, targeted marketing, targeting clients
Posted in Advertising, Business Networking, Business Plans, Business Success, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Joint Venture, List building, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Online Marketing, Success Secrets | No Comments »
