The online marketing community is often abuzz with excitement whenever we discuss the latest trends within our industry. We all want to be on the cutting edge of technology/innovation and no one wants to feel as if they’re lagging behind. Unfortunately the reality is there are hard resource constraints we all face, whether it be time or money. Simply put, no one has time to do it all. The real obstacle we all face is how do we prioritize any online marketing activity in a world that constantly demands more? How do we develop a consistent and integrated framework/workflow process in an increasingly complex ecosystem?
Understand Your Target Market
To be successful, you need to focus on your target market by identifying their unique attributes. Many businesses create a customer avatar or persona to dig deep into both their demographic and psychographic features. Failing to define a specific target customer is a very common reason why some businesses fail to thrive. They focus on the product or niche they find interesting and then start to market to it. You are waging a losing battle if you start this way.
There are many ways to learn about your market. Here are some simple ways to get started:
- Look at your current customer base if you have one. What are their key demographics? Send a survey to learn more about what they need.
- There are companies that focus solely on target market research. If you have the money, invest in this.
- If this is a new venture, take a look at people who are in your target niche. Find out where they are online and start to join those groups or forums or social media sites.
Give them what they want
Once you have a clear understanding on your target group, the next step is simple-find out what they want and create products or services they need. Once you know your market well, it’s easy to find areas where there is a performance or quality gap that you can fill.
Deliver the Goods
Once you find that hungry group of people who are desperate for your product or service, your next challenge is to decide how to put that solution in front of them with a compelling offer. Depending on your business model, this involves face-to-face or physical contact or you may have transactions online via your website.
Before you can make your offer, you need to think about the cost of your product or service. You can evaluate your competitor pricing, evaluating production and delivery costs with the right profit margin. You can also consider the psychological value that your goods provide to your target market. I found a great article on how to price your services which proposes that you consider a three pronged approach.