Category — Ideal Customers

Not real fish, though this one is a lovely example (done on a computer). In marketing, your “fish” are your people – the ideal customers you want to reach.

Don’t try to please everybody

One of the hardest lessons for many solopreneurs (and even bigger companies) to learn is to not try to please everyone, only your own school of fish.

Apple doesn’t care what “everybody” thinks. Some people love the iPad. Some don’t care. Others hate it. Apple focuses only on the first group – and it’s a big enough tribe that they sold $150,000,000 worth of iPads in one day.

They know how to find a niche market, determine what they want, and how to deliver it.

Focus only on  your “fish”

Before you can sell anything, you need to know what your own “fish” look like, what information they need, and how you can help them get it.

Are they big fish (companies)? Small fish (solopreneurs)? Are they older fish (established businesses) or newly-hatched fry (baby fish)?

Actual fish want to know what’s for dinner and where to find it…the best sources for smaller fish, or plants, or flies.

Your clients probably don’t eat flies (at least I hope not), but they will want to know how to get their book published. Or how to set up a blog. Or an ebook on how to get more web site sales. Buy a copy (before the price goes up May 1), and help contribute to the “Jodi wants an iPad fund.”

Have you been able to find a market niche (or your fish)? Want some help figuring it out? Ask in the comments.

Image compliments of chefrandan

What is your niche market? What does it look like? Can you see a picture of it in your mind?

Is it grand and glorious, with padded couches, like the one in the photo?

Is it plainer, simpler and very narrowly focused? Or somewhere in-between?

Here’s more on what a niche is, why it’s important, and how to find one.

How to Narrow Your Marketing and Improve Your Results

Is Your Niche Too Big?

Does Your Business Have a Niche?”

When is it Smarter to Have Two Web Sites?

Image thanks to: hamed

Why all the cakes?

They’re not there to make you hungry.

They’re there to make a point about marketing.

Three friends, three cakes

My invisible (that’s invisible, not imaginary!) friend Megan had a birthday in January. I couldn’t be there in person, since she’s in Austin and I’m in New York City, so I got her some cyber cupcakes.

Two weeks ago, Jill, another faraway friend had a birthday too, so I sent her chocolate cake.

This Monday, it was my friend Bronwyn’s turn. Her cake was elegant and decorated with flowers.

A funky, creative friend got cupcakes that matched her personality, an extra-chocolatey cake for my chocolate-loving friend, and an elegant cake for the one who’s a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Give them what they want

Aside from wishing my friends happy birthday, I made choices based on my friend’s preferences, not my own.

Do the same with your potential customers. Create an image in your mind of what they like, need, or want. You can even create a series of biographies. Name them. Draw up a profile of what they’re like and the kinds of information they’re looking for.

To each, her own cake

For example, if you’re a blog consultant, you might have some prospects who are complete beginners and don’t quite know the difference between a blog and a blog post.

Other readers may already have blogs, but want some tips on how to improve them (attract more traffic, get more comments).

A third group might be more interested in technical information – like tips for using PHP (blog programming language) or developing plugins (mini-applications that add extra functions to your blog – like CommentLuv, which adds a link back to your blog when you comment on someone else’s – leave a comment here and you’ll see how it works).

This is especially important if you have more than one niche. Create content, products, and services that meet what your specific audience wants, needs, and can pay for.

Do you think this is important? Do you have buyer bios? Or, have you asked your readers for their opinions? Tell me what you think.  And, which cake is your favorite?

Cake images, in order, thanks to:
morguefile, morguefile, and tim parkinson

OK: Confession. Bronwyn, if you’re reading this, you probably noticed that’s a different cake. When I went back to the cake I sent you, I found that it was OK to share, but not OK to use commercially. So, I had to improvise. Hope you like this one too.

I hear this a lot, “My target audience can’t afford to pay me.” I even fell into the trap myself. Then I realized what I was doing, smacked myself in the head, and fixed it.

An essential part of marketing is to make sure you’re looking for people who can afford to pay for your solution.

A 60″ inch sealed-burner Viking stove for $12,659 (yes, that’s a real price, I looked it up) may be the greatest cooking tool ever — but small mom and pop diners won’t be able to afford to buy one.

So, either you need a new ideal customer, or you need to change your strategy.

Create a Ladder

What’s the level of trust they’ll have with you? If they do have $12,000, can they spare it for a super-powered stove? Or, would you have better luck offering a more affordable solution?

Instead of heading straight for the top-of-the-line bells, whistles, fireworks, and party hat solution, try something small first. Products that offer repeatable solutions to recurring problems.

First Rung

Offer some free information. A blog. Free reports. A free newsletter.

Second Rung

Offer a $7 ebook. Or, a $17 workbook. Something that’s low-risk.

Third Rung

Then, create slightly higher options.

Bundle the ebook and the workbook together for $20. Or, add a how-to video for $5 more.

Fourth Rung

Then, add an hour of consulting. Or a personalized design review.

Got a ladder yourself?  How many rungs does it have?  What are they?

Image thanks to: myklroventine

Trying to sell to an audience that’s too small can kill your business before it starts. Hamster shoes, anyone?

Too big, or too varied a niche can be a problem too.

Here’s an example of a marketing niche that’s too big. Just the other day, someone wanted a business name for a company she was putting together with two friends. She was having a lot of trouble finding a good name, and asked for help.

Each of them had a different specialty. They were: fitness, safety training (first aid and construction), and weddings.

Several people (including me) begged her to reconsider. We said, that’s three businesses, not one. Split them up. She left, disappointed that she hadn’t gotten what she wanted (a name).

There was no niche there at all. These were three businesses that didn’t belong together.

Why this matters

• it confuses prospects – the three businesses are so different, people will wonder how you can be good at any of them
• It may drive people away – do people looking for a wedding really want to see smelly people working out in a gym?
• They’ll need three marketing plans, three brochures, three sales pitches on the web site, and three sets of audiences to build

A real niche marketing strategy

• Picks a specific business to be in (say the safety training)
• Narrows that down further (maybe safety training on construction sites)
• Chooses a specific problem in that niche (safety training for new workers on commercial construction sites)
• Addresses marketing, web, business cards, ads, etc. to the people in that niche and only the people in that niche.

Not everybody, just your tribe.  The blue guys.

If you really want to be in two or three different businesses, maybe you need two different web sites.

Tomorrow, can your niche afford you?

Image thanks to  svilen001