Using a targeted marketing approach is the art of advertising only to those groups of people who are most willing to buy your product.
Your target market are the people who are actually looking for your product.
They are the folks who need what you have.
Here are 5 easy steps to reaching your online target market!
- Identify Your Buyers.
In order to plan an effective marketing strategy, you need to know who your buyers are.
Who are the people who are interested in your product? The more targeted your product creation and marketing approach is, the more effective your campaign will be.
For example, if you are selling information about how to get a mortgage, your target market are many different kinds of people from all over the world.
You would have to create a variety of promotional materials for all the different kinds of mortgages that exist.
This would be a very hard and time consuming task.
But if your product focused specifically on rehabilitation mortgages, it would be safe to assume your target market would be narrowed down to investors and people wanting to fix up their primary residences.
The more targeted your efforts are, the easier it will be to reach the people who want to buy your product. - Get to work on your advertising materials.
Your promotional material is the backbone of your marketing efforts.
It is the ad copy that intends to speak directly to your potential buyers.
You want your message to be clear and appealing.
Your goal is to convince them your product was designed to make their lives easier and they absolutely cannot live with it.
Focus on your product's benefits more so than it's features.
Features are nice, but your buyers are way more interested in what your product can do for them, as opposed to what your product looks like.
For example, if you sell online courses about making money from home, your buyers want to know how your course can help them achieve financial freedom (benefit).
The fact that your course comes in a pretty blue binder (feature) is nice, but it's not going to make the sale. - Build Your Website.
Since this is an online business you are building, a website is essential.
Your customers will be those people browsing the web to find more information about your product.
Remember to create your site so it speaks directly to those browsers.
Remember who your buyers are, and write your content specifically for them.
Try to answer all their questions, address all their concerns, and overcome any buying objections they may have.
Be sure to use the right keywords on your website so the search engines will list your site in the top results when browsers type in a relevant query.
For example, if you sell red widgets, make sure the keyword phrase 'red widgets' is in your site's meta tags (title, keywords, and description tags), and also make use of this keyword phrase throughout your content.
You can use free tools like Google's External Keyword Tool to find out what people are searching for the most.
Just type in Google External Keyword Tool into your search engine of choice and you will find this very valuable tool! - Start a blog.
All websites benefit greatly from adding a blog.
People love blogs! Blogs are very popular, as they provide a way for people to connect with one another.
As a business owner, having a blog will give you a significant advantage over sites that don't have one.
It will give you a way to personally connect with your potential customers and build your trust with them.
There are some great free blogging tools such as WordPress and Blogger where you can open up an account and start blogging right away! Check out some business blogs to find out what other business owners are blogging about. - Implement Your Marketing Campaign.
Now that you have your product created, your target market identified, your promotional material written, and your website and blog live, it is time to start actively promoting your product.
Some very popular marketing strategies on the web consist of opt in email marketing, social networking campaigns, social bookmarking, article marketing and press releases, etc.
The possibilities are endless.
No matter which advertising road you decide to take, always keep one thing in mind...
always, always, always, tailor your message so it speaks directly to your target market! Good luck to you and your online success!