There are two aspects of relevant and effective marketing:
If you take the time to get to know the needs and desires of your target audience, you can position yourself not as just another salesperson trying to get people’s money, but as the obvious expert who provides real solutions to those individuals who are actively looking for your product or service.
Who are those individuals? Your target audience!
In other words, you can’t even give away diapers to someone who doesn’t have a baby.
Instead, you should market your products to those who have purchased a similar product in the past, or to people who are actively seeking out your product.
Why?
Because they already believe in the product or service.
Which do you think would be the more effective approach—placing ads in every newspaper to proclaim the superiority of your diapers, or going directly to parents of babies who need diapers?
If you are going to spend money on advertising, it makes sense to purchase ad space only in those mediums that reach your target audience.
I have an extremely high closing rate on any product or service I sell. What’s my secret? I only try to sell to people who already buy what I have to offer or who are actively seeking what I have to offer.
Years ago, when I was launching my first photography company and had no leads, how successful do you think I would have been if I’d simply opened up the phone directory and started cold-calling everyone in the book? How many hours would I have wasted with such a shotgun approach? How frustrated would I have been? How much would I have annoyed the people I called?
Likewise, how successful would I have been if I’d ordered a generic e-mail list and proceeded to send promotional e-mails proclaiming my excellence in photography and the incredible promotion I was currently running?
The answer, of course, is that I wouldn’t have been very successful at all. I’m sure it would have been just a matter of time before I was completely frustrated, out of money and ready to call it quits on a failed business startup.
Instead, I did my homework. I concentrated on groups of people that I knew used pictures and needed them for their business cards. I offered a free service to the office and provided an educational talk on the importance of quality photography and the difference a professional photo would make in the company’s marketing efforts.
And do you know what happened? I had more business than I knew what to do with! Taking the time to know your audience and marketing to quality prospects is not only extremely liberating; it’s the fuel that powers the Zyxter marketing system.
To use our previous example, let’s say you have come up with the diaper of all diapers. It is 100% leak-proof and odor-proof. In fact, it has a built-in odor-neutralizing system and notifies you the moment your baby has a bowel movement or wets. This diaper receives every possible award and wins new product of the year industry awards.
But despite their quality and awards, you wouldn’t be able to give them away to childless middle-aged couples who would never have a baby.
They just aren’t your target audience. It doesn’t matter how amazing your product and service is—if you aren’t marketing to your target audience, you are just wasting your time and money.
On the other hand, if you went to the local daycare chain and gave a free seminar on the benefits of your diapers and the awards your diapers had won, it wouldn’t take long for you to sell your entire inventory! In fact, the daycare owners would probably be willing to send your coupons and flyers home with every baby’s and toddler’s family. The end result? You’d never have to market your product and service again. You’d be set.
Why? Because you had found your target audience—the people who needed your product. All you’d had to do was provide them with a free education on your amazing diapers and voila! You successfully branded yourself as the obvious expert in diapers. Consequently, you sold your existing inventory and probably could sign a contract to drop-ship inventory to every daycare in the chain every week for as long as they were in business. More importantly, the daycare workers began to coincidentally work for you. They began to recommend your products and services to the parents of the children at their facility.
If you want to maximize your marketing success and have fun doing it, do not stray from your target audience.
With the recent explosion in popularity of social networking Web sites it has become extremely easy to find your target audience, establish yourself as the obvious expert and win business—all without spending a fortune.
Sure, it takes some time to build relationships with your target audience; but that