Q: How exactly do I know what target visitor I’m looking for? How do I contact them and target my advertising to them?

A: This is one of the biggest challenges for online business owners and I see many people sabotage their marketing because they don’t really know the answer to this.  I am going to answer this question assuming that you already have your product and website up…but you want to generate more leads.

When you create any marketing materials, you should be able to imagine your ideal customer sitting in front of you and you should be able to speak directly to the needs of that ideal customer.

This might mean pinpointing their gender, income, education level, geographic location, interests, dreams and desires, problems they want to overcome and so on. The more specific you get, the easier it is to find and market to your “target visitor”.

Other reasons you want to get very specific in who your target market is:

1. Big businesses attempt to reach a general population (ex. eBay, Amazon, MSN, etc.). Try using big business tactics on a small business budget and you’ll have too much competition that will outspend you any day.

2. You will have an easier time getting your website to stand out from the crowd. What will make your website different from the rest?

3. You’ll develop stronger customer relationships by targeting the needs of a specialized group.

4. With a general focus, your website content and advertising will have to appeal to a wide variety of visitors and this can be a difficult, time consuming and expensive task. If you target your niche, it is much easier to define the needs and desires of your potential customers and to target them in your copy and advertising.

Some Ideas to Start Defining Your Target Market:

1. If you already have customers, then analzye that data. Who is most likely to buy your product?

2. Make a list of the benefits of your product. I don’t mean the features of your product…but the benefits. What does it do? Save time, make you look younger, make you smarter…whatever it is. Make a list of benefits and create a profile of who your customer is.

Through this exercise, you may find that you have a couple of different profiles or markets. That’s okay. Doing business online is inexpensive. You can create websites to target as many different markets online as you’d like.

What To Do When You Have Your Market

Once you know who you’re looking for, you can start an Adwords campaign and choose appropriate keywords to target. You can find websites that reach your target market and have them promote your product through an affiliate program or you can buy advertising on their website. You can join message boards or email groups where your target market hangs out. You can create an email newsletter or ezine that delivers precisely the kind of content and products for sale that they need.

To learn more about online marketing, sign up for my Internet Marketing Sweetie course.

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