Developing Your Target Market
About The Author
XO Digital Marketing aims to help main street businesses marketing themselves in the digital age. Building a local online presence is not impossible & can be more affordable than traditional marketing. It is far more interactive and allows the people and personality of your business to shine through. We provide a full range of marketing solutions to help bridge the technology & marketing gap for entrepreneurs to focus on their people and products. Need help attracting new local clients? Need help getting repeat business? We can help on both fronts. We hope you find our ebooks helpful in teaching and training you on various aspects of digital marketing that you can employ today to increase your bottom line. We provide both baseline and advanced techniques to help no matter what level you are currently operating at.
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Developing Your Target Market
I'm kind of a big deal We have discussed a bit about positioning yourself as an authority on your website, and giving people the impression that you are a big deal, and you are good at what you do. There are limits to how you do that, and if you go too far you will come across as slimy and combative to those who are seriously interested in giving you money. Your hope is to impress people and let them figure out on their own that you are a big deal. That's not to say that you can't ask other people to help you in this department however. With this in mind we are going to focus on two areas: 1.
Your target markets social media platform of choice
2.
Directory listings.
Developing Your Target Market In this section I am not going to teach you how to game social media to benefit from search engines. That is not the way I believe you will win in the long run. I am however going to share with you my thoughts on how to market directly to your customers and get the benefits of social media in search engines at the same time. Since we are going to do it the right way, it requires a little planning in the beginning. So for today we are going to focus on finding your avatar. Avatar, you mean like the movie? No I mean your ideal customer. An Avatar is an iconic representation of whom you would like to sell your product to above everyone else. I know you might be inclined to say everyone here, but I have learned that if you are MARKETING to everyone you are selling to no one. Red Bull And Their Marketing Genius Take a look at Redbull for a minute interacting with their clients on Facebook. No seriously go take a look! ( http://facebook.com/redbull ) Did you notice they have 39 MILLION fans? Did you also notice that they are clearly marketing to a particular audience? What age & interests do you think they are targeting? If you guessed 20-35 year olds who are into extreme sports then you are right! Now, let me ask another question. Of those 39 million fans, do you think all of them fit that market? Of course they don't, but by defining who they are talking to, it has allowed them to get traction. Page 3
Developing Your Target Market
Benefits Not Features I also would like you to notice that they talk about their products very little, on social media. They talk about the larger picture of what they would like to associate their brand with, and its benefits. It doesn't matter if YOU believe that Redbull gives you wings or not, in the eyes of the many that follow them closely, it gives them energy if they drink it. I want to be clear about associations and outright lying here. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this, and if they were to come out and make false claims as fact then that would be a serious violation of integrity. These are merely subjective views created by Redbull and those who like them. In that light, many people do not care what insurance does technically, and many customers might yawn at the idea of talking about insurance, at least until they need it or get billed for it! However with a little thought from you in the beginning, I am sure you can make a list of benefits that each product has, and draw associations of what those benefits represent. Begin Developing Your Target Market I would begin to write down who your avatar might be. To do this answer the following questions with this in mind. 1.
What age is my ideal client?
2.
Are they married? Do they have kids?
3.
Where do they live?
4.
What are their interests?
5.
What are their needs at this age?
6.
What conflicts with their needs and their wants?
Once you have developed who you are speaking to, we then want to develop what we are saying to them in general. Here are some ideas to get you started. 1.
Where do they hang out online?
2.
If I had one product that I sell, that they need, what would it be?
3.
What are the features of that product? What are the benefits of that product?
4.
What pleasures can I associate?
5.
What fears? Page 4
Developing Your Target Market
6.
What can I associate with my product even further out?
Social Media
So you have developed your avatar and know who you're marketing to. Now we need to find out where you audience hangs out. For many companies Facebook, especially if you are selling to consumers, is probably going to be a likely candidate. Once you have identified one social media platform that you are going to use and excel in, you should begin to hone your message. Then look at the view, likes, and response data to understand what your audience is interested in. After working with many companies one thing is very clear most are not familiar with social media and they don't have a lot of time to use it. So rather than trying to be everywhere on every social platform my advice would be to pick the platform that your avatar is most likely already spending time and focus your marketing efforts there. Pick A Social Platform and Excel
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Developing Your Target Market
Although you'll find most of the time that we will mention three or four social media platforms please realize that there are hundreds that you could choose from and it's your responsibility to find the ones that best fit your audience. It's important to have a well-rounded set of goals when using social media especially in the beginning. For example a lot of people have an unreal and an unspoken expectation to use social media in the beginning and generate a ton of traffic. Although this is possible, it is not likely and I want to give you an example to compare. I've said this before but rather than think of social media as a billboard, think of it as a building. A lot of planning goes into place when constructing a building for business. You look for prime location, what side of the street how many people pass this area on a daily basis, how much is it going to cost, etc.? Building a social media platform is really much the same thing. In the first few months our goals are to build the platform. Rather than setting goals of generating traffic, it might be ideal to look at the data. Don’t overlook that 1st you must have an audience to speak to, building an audience is a goal & strategy in itself. 1st Goal So our goal for the 1st few weeks is to identify one social media platform that is likely a better fit for your avatar. Build out your page. Each social media platforms have some level of customization they allow. Use your logo, and successful marketing you have previously used in the past, and personalize it. Consumers and businesses connect with humans, not buildings of fancy slogans. They want authentic. 2nd Goal Establish goals for followers. Find current clients, past clients, family, & friends. These are the easiest to identify and connect with. Then set goals for new connections for each week. Find people using hashtags, community pages, or find pages similar to yours and see who follows them. 3rd Goal Have a consistent posting schedule then begin following it. With a little thought you can pre-schedule a weeks worth of content in about an hour. That's 15 posts! Then, in a month you can look at the data. Tips to having great success Post Frequently I suggest 4-5 times per week at least, and up to 3 times Page 6
Developing Your Target Market
I suggest 4-5 times per week at least and up to 3 times per day at the most. Content •
Create a call to action in almost every post.
•
Include a picture with almost every post.
Find a star Who is the one most likely talking? Content types •
This or That
•
Themes to days
•
Fan Showcase
•
Office Showcase
•
Business Shout Outs - Local good will
•
Caption This
Ideal Post Times (Try to pre-schedule 3 posts a day.) 8AM, 11AM, 4PM, & 8PM If you run your Facebook posting like a business and put it on your schedule you will find time for it. If you follow the plan that I laid out you can eventually learn to create a couple of week's worth of posting in an hour or two. Then you can just check in daily for a few minutes to make sure it is operating smoothly, and comment back. Below I have further explained my content strategy. Use this as a guide to find content that you can use. Make sure to find content that reflects the personality of your office, but somewhat conforms to the style that I have laid out here. The last page is an actual content map that you can use to write your "every week" schedule. I have filled out two days as an example. If you take a look at this you will see that every Monday there will be a "Local Business Shout Out" at 8 a.m. ideally it would be great to have three posts a day, but if your time and staff are limited, simply preschedule one post a day at different times. Once you learn this concept well, literally take a 1 or 2 hour block of time each week to schedule this content. Page 7
Developing Your Target Market
This or That This could also be A or B or True and False Questions Themes to Days Health Tip Tuesday Game Day Theme Don’t forget to add a product/service tip of the day! Client/Fan Show Case Bring your clients into the story with a gas card give away monthly!! Office Show Case Help your clients feel like they are a part of your world by highlighting birthdays, milestones, and other major office events. Business Shout Outs Highlight other companies and @tag their FB page for exposure. Caption This Find funny pictures that people are left to add their imagination and comment. Monday Post 1: Local Business Shout Out 8am Post 2: This or That 11am Post 3: Caption This 4pm Tuesday Post 1: Themed Day (Health Tip Tuesday) 8am Post 2: Office Show Case 11am Post 3: This or That 4pm Simply continue this for the rest of the week; hopefully you can see that once you have a plan on how to tackle this it can be done well ahead of time with less stress.
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Developing Your Target Market
Conclusion Digital Marketing encompasses many different but related tasks that are necessary to for success of your business. A great many business owners have not yet taken these strategies seriously and have not achieved optimal results in there market. If you are a small business trying to build a brand in today’s world, the time is now to begin this journey to build your online presence to reach your consumers. Some of these items in this e-book you may be able to tackle some of these on your own, others you may want to hire others to do for you. Visit our website at www.xodigitalmarketing.com to see if there are ways in which we can help you get started.
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