Do you know your Market?

Written by David Foster on May 8, 2009 2:41 pm

Hey Readers!

So do you know your market? Do you know the people that you are marketing to and what their needs and questions are? If not then you need to take a step back and learn...

So what do I mean by this? Well what I mean is that if you do not know WHO you are marketing to, then your efforts may be in vein. You have to figure out who your target market is, and then create all of your marketing materials and campaigns to cater to that EXACT person...

See, 99.9999% of people on the Internet today who are trying to build a business really have no idea WHO they are marketing to, nor do they really care. They want anyone with a pulse as long as they can make a sale and get closer to their dream of the perfect lifestyle for themselves. But when you approach your business like this, you end up working with people who you really don't like and will try to avoid having contact with.

Now I don't know about you, but I would rather work with cool people who I connect with and who I would be happy to run into on the street. So when I create anything to do with marketing I am always...now get ready for this because it really may surprise you...MYSELF. I also know exactly WHO I am marketing to so my marketing campaigns are usually very effective.

So first of all how do you find out WHO your market is?

Well you have to do a few things. You simply have to ask yourself some questions. You really need to take this seriously because it could be the difference between the success and the failure of your business...

Now you have to separate this into an individual and NOT a group first of all. So many people feel this urge to gear everything towards a GROUP of people and you need to start thinking on the INDIVIDUAL level now...this alone will put you ahead of 99% of the marketers on the net today...

ok back to the meat...

Ask yourself this question: If I had to create the PERFECT single customer for my business, what would they be like?

Would he/she be married?
Would he/she have kids?
What kind of clothes would he/she wear?
How old is he/she?
What gender?

Yes you want to get so detailed that you even want to think about what he/she eats!

This may sound funny to you and you may be thinking that I am full of shit but I promise you that I am not. I learned this from a marketer that you may or may not have heard of and that is Frank Kern. His methods work!

So once you have figured out WHO your "classic" customer is, how do you attract him/her?

You need to BECOME YOUR CUSTOMER!

Pretend that you are in your customers shoes. This will allow you to uncover who they REALLY are.

OK Dave...ya sounds like a load of crap...how would I step into my customers shoes? How do I "become my customer"? Well you simply have to care about them enough to want to...

See if you are out here on the net and all you are looking for is the almighty dollar and do not have a genuine interest in your customers, or business partners then your success, if any, will be short lived...

The point is that once you step into your customers shoes, you're going to find out that the people you want to attract are JUST LIKE YOU!

They have the same desires...needs...wants...frustration and you just have to start gearing your marketing as if you were speaking to YOURSELF and you will attract the kind of people that you want to work with.

So the next time you are writing a Blog post or an article to submit or any marketing material, write it as if you are sitting across from your ideal customer and as if they are 100% alone and it is just YOU and THEM. Get intimate with your customers...let them FEEL the real you...

Don't pitch pitch pitch all the time! Talk to people as if they are real human beings just like you. Speak to them as if you truly care about what you can do for them potentially. Speak from your CORE and not your SURFACE.

Once you learn to master this, people will be coming to YOU asking you if they can give you money...

Case in point...I actually had a person call me on the phone last week and ask me to send me $6500 for a product that I market. I did not have to sell them. I did not have to "beg" them...I did not blast my ad on their social page or spam them. I simply gear all my marketing to attract people who I want to work with and they want to work with me. I...and this may shock you...actually build relationships with my contacts...

Ask any person who is on my personal marketing team...and you will see that with every single one of them, I am not just a "sponsor". I am not just their "team leader". I am not just some dude who took their money and has left them hanging. I am their friend and business PARTNER because I truly and honestly care about the success of each and every one of them as much as I care about my own.

I do not do this because I want a HUGE house and a bunch of fast cars. I do this because it is what I LOVE to do. I have always and will always love to help people. The things that I have gained financially from doing so is just a bonus. When I set out to change MY financial life, I just wanted comfort. I wanted to make enough money to buy a car that stood a better chance of not breaking down. I wanted to be able to live in a house where I could have as many dogs as I wanted and never have to worry about the winter heat bill...

I just wanted a worry free life and guess what...in setting out on my journey to HELP as many people as I could...I am there. I love my lifestyle. Sure I do like some fancy things...and will have them when I feel that I really want them...but that is the beauty of OWNING your life...

So my suggestion to you is to get to know your customers and prospects. Learn what THEY want in their life. Stop focusing all your energy on what YOU want. Because once you flip these thoughts, you will feel the change. Find a way to offer them THEIR lifestyle and genuinely care to help them reach it and you will find that people will suddenly come to you instead of you constantly trying to drag people to you...

Now how does this apply to social networking? Well think about it. When you are out there just blasting your link all over any site that allows you an inch of space to do so, you are worried more about what YOU want because you don't even know what the person you are marketing to needs or desires. You ASSUME that you know them. You ASSUME that you have exactly what they need, but if you simply got to know that person a bit instead, you will see much better results but you HAVE to truly care. If you don't then go ahead and keep blasting your ad shamelessly and see where that gets you...

I encourage you to start using this immediately. Start approaching every prospect like YOU would want to be approached...I know novel idea huh? I mean it is not like I just broke the DaVinci Code, but it is such an easy concept to follow once you see how different people will react to you when you take a genuine interest in them and their lives.

So get out there and make some REAL friends! Become a real marketer and separate yourself from 99.9999% of the rest of the so called "marketers" out there...this is my challenge to you...then I want to hear your results.

Shoot me an email if anything happens that you notice in just making this slight change. d.foster1970@gmail.com.

Enjoy!!!