But My Market Doesn’t Like it When I XXXXX!

This is something that came up recently when I was interviewed for a recent Mom Masterminds interview on Email Marketing. And although it’s a very common complaint I hear from online business owners when it comes to email, I think it applies to online business as whole.

Here are the complaints I hear:

“I always get a ton of unsubscribes when I try to sell something.”

“My readers won’t buy expensive products.”

“My target market doesn’t have a lot of money to spend.”

“I get angry emails when I promote products.”

Now, most people looking at this situation would immediately say - It looks like you chose the wrong target market. If your market doesn’t have the money or isn’t willing to spend it, perhaps you made a mistake in planning your business.

But you know what? I think it goes way deeper than that.

The fact is, we are responsible for who we ATTRACT to our marketing. If we harbor these fears of selling, suffer some degree of scarcity mindedness, we absolutely attract the type of person who doesn’t like to be sold to and is offended when you suggest they might open their wallet to buy something.

In the Mom Masterminds interview, I used my own target market as an example. That market being the market of marketing to other marketers (that’s a mouthful!).

You’ll see some people working in this market that have all those complaints I listed above. They say their market doesn’t have money and aren’t willing to invest in their businesses.

HUH?

Then how is it that we can look at all the big shot gurus and they’re selling $2000+ products left and right?

People in this market ARE spending money and spending lots of it. Problem is, when we project our own self-limiting ideas out to our readers, those are the type of readers we’ll attract. No, you don’t have to go out and sell $2000 products, but you need to stop feeling apologetic for recommending good products that can help people. Being apologetic is no way to build a business.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a life coach, a scrapbook instructor, a baby website owner or a bookkeeper. This applies to you. How you communicate effects how your market reacts.

So, if you’re stuck in the my market doesn’t like it rut, get out of it!

You can start by changing the way you communicate.

Stop trying to find your readers free solutions to everything (yes, provide them with good free content…but recommend paid products where appropriate).

Start promoting more and don’t be shy about it.

But What if You Offend People with This Change?

I say GOOD! Some of your readers will come around and join you in your newfound abundant thinking. Others will get annoyed, drop off and find other places to complain. You’ll also start attracting the RIGHT type of people who are going to make it possible for you to build your business.

I’ve Been There

When I share this with you, I speak from experience. I started with the same approach to my marketing. I was the owner of InternetBasedMoms.com and my target market was the WAHM (and the WAHM still makes up a large chunk of my market even though I’ve moved on from the IBMoms website).

I decided that all work at home moms were on a limited budget and because they had children they were responsible for, they couldn’t afford to invest in their businesses. So, I marketed to them this way. I legitimized their excuses for not taking their businesses seriously and made it okay for them not to invest in their businesses either.

Then one day, a light bulb came on and I realized that I wasn’t doing myself or my market any favors. So, I changed. I changed the way I communicated with my market. I showed them how important it was to think big with their businesses and to invest wisely.

In the process, some moms left me and they continued doing what they always did. At the same time, some of the moms who were stuck in the same trap as me, came along with me for the ride of BIG THINKING. I also started to attract new big thinking moms to my readership.

What do you think? Is there anything about the way you communicate with your readers that could be limiting your success?