Does Your Niche Market Include Baby Boomers?
June 27, 2008
If your niche market includes targeting baby boomers, you might be surprised to find a lot of your target audience spending their time on the web.
This is in STARK contrast to the current landscape of most of the web. Most of the web is created with young eyes in mind. Take for example the prevalence of teen tiny type used in many website designs Choosing the right typeface is truly an art… read David Airey’s Typography Tips but many graphic artists are in love with a 9 pt arial for content instead of the much easier to read 12 pt size.
Kay Frenzer over at SEOdiva offers a unique perspective on who is actually surfing the web. In her post Gaping Hole in Online Marketing to Baby Boomers, she chronicles many fascinating statistics of baby boomers on the web and how many of them feel ignored by the web.
One thing I’ve noticed with my older clients is they always want to add a page to their blog about “how to use a blog”. Yet, I have SEVERAL clients who are 60+ who are launching their second (or third) careers and are using a blog to help promote their new business.
So if your niche market includes Baby Boomers (people age 45+) then take a look at your site through THEIR eyes. Will they see themselves in the images featured on your site? Can they READ your site? Are you trying to reach them online?
According to Kay’s research, if your niche market included Baby Boomers, you’ll find a lot of them feeling ignored and unloved online!
Your B2B Niche Marketing Strategy
June 23, 2008
Niche marketing is not just for B2C websites but also apply to B2B websites as well. Creating an effective B2B Niche Marketing Strategy is essential to business to business marketing success.
Of of my recently discovered but quickly becoming favorite blogs is the one maintained by Joost de Valk. In a guest post B2B SEO: Marketing strategy for specific niches by his Onetomarket colleague Erik-Jan Bulthuis he writes:
As the graphs shows, it might take weeks or even months for someone decides to buy the product. In the same research of Enquiro Research, 85% of the respondents claim that they use online media somewhere in the buying process. This shows the importance of having a good B2B website for your products and services. Search engines do play an important role in the buying process.
When a purchasing decision takes weeks or months, that is defined by Neil Rackham of the Huthwaite Institute as a Major Sale. One of the defining characteristics of the Major Sale is that the buyer, whether it be an individual purchasing on behalf of a business or an individual purchasing on his/her own behalf, needs to be able to TRUST the seller.
That means, if you’re making a Major Sale that you need to be OBSESSED with building trust with your buyers.
One way to establish that trust is to have your website rank well NATURALLY on related keyword terms that your buyers are using to find the solutions your company offers. There’s just something about the listings on those first few pages of Google that automatically inspires trust among buyers… whether they’re B2B or B2C!
Which is why SEO is important to every business trying to execute and niche marketing strategy which includes the web as a marketing tool. It’s surprising how often visitors will type the business URL into the search box to find a website. What’s sad is when the company’s website doesn’t appear first in such a basic search.
Providing Customer Solutions = Profit
June 18, 2008
One of the biggest issues I get “push back” on from clients is encouraging them to focus on the problems their customers are facing when creating their marketing messages. When you can provide customer solutions to problems, profits will follow almost automatically.
This is why I hammer pretty hard on “focus on your customers as individuals so you can provide solutions” in my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results.
See, if you know what PROBLEMS your prospective customers are facing, you can then create marketing messages which focus upon the CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS your business provides.
The beauty of targeting your market as individuals instead of “groups” is that groups don’t have “problems”… individuals do.
When you define your target market as individuals, it’s easier to address the specific individual’s unique goals, desires and problems. When you define your target audience as individuals, it prepares you to create effective marketing messages… ones that enter into the conversation that is already taking place within your customer minds.
Results of Poor Customer Service
June 13, 2008
Building a business is hard work. You invest blood, sweat and tears (not to mention truckloads of cash and every waking moment of your life) to get your business started. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you may be nurturing a dream of your business getting big, becoming successful and then you sell it and retire to somewhere warm. But for now.. you put your head down and keep paddling as hard as you can upstream.
As you build your business, remember that the results of poor customer service can destroy any business, big or small.
You get your first customer… and your second… then your third. Oh, you’re rolling now. Ten, twenty… hey, this is fun AND profitable!
In the beginning, you treated each and every customer like gold. Your customer service was beyond extraordinary because you treated those first customers better than you treat your spouse on your anniversary! Then you got busy… busy finding new customers… busy running your business… busy, busy, busy.
But wait… that second customer is calling. Seems he’s not getting email from his website. Why? Well, because he never set up his email client to grab messages from the server. Of course, he has no idea how to do that and that’s why he’s calling you.
Oops.. the phone is ringing again. This time it’s a more recent customer who isn’t able to see her website. After 30 minutes of trying to determine what the problem is, you ask her to go to Google’s homepage. It’s only then that you realize she isn’t connected to the internet. She checks and sure enough, her DSL isn’t working.
Ah the joys of entrepreneurial growing pains. Yarak Starak writes in his post :Growing Pains: How To Manage Customer Service As A One Person Enterprise:
For a small business with a limited marketing budget, good customer service resulting in an above average reputation in the market, can result in acquiring new customers through existing client referrals - a “free” form of marketing.
During the start-up phase you have limited funds and one of the best strategies to survive this period of business growth is to use your existing clients as a marketing tool to bring in new clients (actually - this is a good strategy at any stage of business growth).
The cornerstone of achieving that outcome is good customer service, since your existing clients will not be willing to help you, nor will they feel compelled to talk about you and refer you to others, if they are not significantly impressed by - and benefit from - their interaction with your business.
The results of poor customer service is of course that your customers won’t be willing to help you grow your business by telling others OR by returning themselves.
Advertising and marketing alone can not build a business. If you must pay for advertising to bring in each and every customer, then your business will not survive… PERIOD! Advertising helps bring NEW customers into your business. Exceptional product PLUS exceptional customer service means not only that those NEW customers will return, but it also means they’re refer their friends and family. If every new customer your advertising brings in then goes on to bring in 3 more customers… THAT is the key to advertising success!
Small Business Advertising Solution
June 5, 2008
If you’re looking for a small business advertising solution, then begin by identifying the target audience for your marketing message.
Advertising is simply a way to talk to a LOT of people at once about the products and services you offer. Advertising is where you turn to when you can’t go out and meet your customers individually to explain personally WHY they should be doing business with you.
However, because the message is being delivered to the masses, it’s tempting to create a message that is focused on YOU and what YOU want instead of the prospective customer and what he/she wants. Instead of creating a customer building small business advertising solution, by creating “spray and pray” advertising messages, many small business owners will take a stab at advertising their small business, fail and then abandon advertising all together.
Small Business Advertising Solution
It’s not just small business owners who have trouble communicating with a large audience. Public speakers face a similar dilemma when preparing their message for the masses. The reason is simple: It’s almost impossible to effectively communicate with a faceless mob. However, the public speaker has a distinct advantage over the advertiser in that he/she can SEE the audience and can focus on a single individual in the audience. Focusing upon several individuals in the audiences helps the speaker “connect” with his or her audience.
The success principle holds true of your advertising. You’ve got to target your message so it connects with the audience. Just because you can’t see the audience as the message is being delivered, doesn’t mean you don’t need to still make the connection.
Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results will help you to put into practice this same success principle. Instead of trying to create an advertising message for a faceless mob, Beyond the Niche helps you to put an individual’s face on your target audience.
Beyond The Niche takes you step by step through the process of identifying and targeting your niche market. It then walks you through the process of creating compelling and selling advertising and marketing messages, the kind of messages that break through the clutter and reach your prospective customers. Learn more about niche marketing here.
Ideas for Marketing Using the Internet
May 30, 2008
If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve searched for ideas for marketing your business using the internet. The internet can be the best place to find innovative marketing ideas… or it can be the worst.
Most of the innovative marketing ideas you’ll find on the internet are merely marketing tactics. The problem with marketing tactics is that they require a cohesive marketing strategy to be effective.
So begin with creating a marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy will revolve around delivering your marketing message to your target or niche audience. If you need help with this, pick up a copy of the book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results
Once you have your niche market in mind, then it’s time to begin searching for effective marketing tactics for your business. It’s amazing how natural and easy marketing can be when you keep your niche audience in mind as you search for ideas for marketing.
For example, if you know your niche market isn’t searching for solutions on the internet, then launching a blog is probably the WORST thing you can do to market your products or services. On the other hand, if your potential customers are searching for answers via the internet, then launching a blog would be a GREAT idea for marketing your business.
The key lies in knowing your target or niche market audience.
Trust Building Practices in Advertising Today
May 26, 2008
One of the most important jobs your advertising can perform is to build trust, which explains why even the WORST advertising messages still are somewhat effective.
The mere ACT of buying advertising, whether it’s on television, newspaper, billboards or radio automatically grants you a baseline level of trust with potential customers. There’s almost a “Hey, I’ve heard of that company- they must be OK.”
One company that really understood the importance of building trust was Lifelock. For the past 2 years, Lifelock founder Todd Davis has been advertising his social security number on radio, television and anywhere else he could post it as a trust building practice in Lifelock advertising.
Unfortunately, this advertising tactic is backfiring on Davis. According to Wired News:
Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn’t work as promised and he knew it wouldn’t, because the service had failed even him.
Go ahead. Read the article. Read about how Lifelock is being sued in Arizona for OTHER misleading claims, including the $1 Million service guarantee. Read about how the credit reporting agency Experian has their own bone to pick with Lifelock and their business practices. Read the article and see if you’re willing to sign up for Lifelock’s services.
The problem with trust is that it is hard to earn and easily lost.
Advertising is about building trust, and Lifelock had earned a lot of trust with their advertising campaign. In an era when people are told to carefully guard their social security numbers, Todd Davis stood up and displayed his for the world to see. Tens of thousands of people said, “Gee. His service must be REALLY good! I think I’ll sign up,” upon seeing and hearing those ads.
Now, lawsuits abound as angry customers strike back because they feel they were lied to in order to gain their trust. Turns out, Todd Davis’ identity HAS been stolen repeatedly because of Lifelock’s ads… and according to the plaintiffs in the case… that means he knew he was lying.
In any case, Lifelock is about to learn a valuable lesson in the fragility of trust.
Can You Really Do Your Own Marketing?
May 16, 2008
As a marketing consultant, I often feel like I’m in the role of “marketing therapist.”
When I begin to work with a new client, I’ll hear of ALL the marketing strategies they’ve tried to implement. I’ll hear how nothing has worked. They’re afraid that nothing WILL work… but nothing could be further from the truth.
However, every once and a while… by no means with every client, but definitely with a few… I find can really related to the therapist’s situation in the following joke:
A husband and wife came for counseling after 20 years of marriage. When asked what the problem was, the wife launched into an extended tirade, listing every problem they had ever had over the past two decades.
When she finished, all three sat in silence. Then, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and asked the wife to stand. He took her into his arms and began kissing her passionately. The husband watched their impassioned embrace. When the therapist released her, the woman quietly sat down as though in a daze.
The therapist turned to the husband, “This is what your wife needs at least three times a week. Can you do this?”
The husband thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I fish.”
I can relate. Every once and a while, I’ll be working with a client and suddenly get the feeling like I’m the only one who cares if this works. I feel like I’m doing the kissing while the business owner watches dispassionately and then plans a fishing trip for Friday.
Can you do this?
Can a small business owner REALLY handle the marketing for his/her own small business.
YES!
However, you’d better get passionate about your business if you want to do so.
You’d better get passionate about what your business can do for your clients/customers.
You’d better get your head out of “me” thinking and get it focused on your customer.
You’d better see clearly the destination you want to reach and the path you’ll take to get there.
Otherwise, you’ll end up watching as your customers embrace your competitor’s business.
Have Google Adwords Let You Down?
May 9, 2008
Have you been beating your head against the wall, trying to make Adwords work for you?
Google Adwords is for chumps…or at least for people without an eye on the advertising ROI.
Google Adwords used to be easy… easy to use and easy to make work. But things have changed and not for the getter. Winning with Google Adwords today is hard. If you’re winning with Adwords, then you’re in the minority.
The reality is that it’s REALLY hard to make Google Adwords work for the average small business owner, especially the one whose business isn’t internet related.
For example, I have a web development client who spent THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of dollars over the past year running Google Adwords. She has hired consultants to help direct her Adwords campaigns, one of whom set her up to spend $1500 in one month without so much as a single new lead, let alone a customer as a result.
When she turned to me in frustration, I did an analysis of the number of people searching for her “ideal” keywords. The research clearly showed that there just aren’t enough of her target customers searching for her solution via the internet.
It’s not a matter of tightly targeting her customers… she’s done that.
It’s not a matter of her customers not NEEDING her product… they do.
It’s not a matter of the quality of her marketing materials… when she speaks in person and promotes her product, customers flock to the website and the orders POUR in.
The problem is that her tightly targeted target market just don’t know her product exists. If they don’t know it exists, then we can’t expect them to go searching for it on the web. We need to find a way to let them know it’s available.
We need to look to other avenues to promote her product.
I’ve begged her try traditional media to promote her product, but it’s way too much “work”. The fact is, Adwords is easy and familiar. Direct mail marketing on the other hand is “new” and therefore “hard”.
The basics of direct mail marketing are amazingly similar to the principles behind running a successful Adwords campaign. The difference is Adwords is reaching the “active” user… the user who knows he/she has a problem and is heading to the internet for a solution.
However, there is another type of customer… the type who knows he/she has a problem and has no idea where to start. This “passive” user needs to be reached via “active” media… such as direct mail, radio or television.
Meanwhile, I have another client who hired me for marketing consultation. He read my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results and wanted one on one help.
We first defined who his audience was and why they would hire him. We then created a tightly targeted message specifically for his audience. We invested in producing a television commercial to deliver that message and then started running his tightly targeted message on a cable network which squarely targets his ideal target client.
So far this year, my client has spent less on production + ad time than my Adwords using client spent on just adwords alone. Oh, and the client running television saw his website traffic figures grow to 5X their pre-ad traffic figures PLUS he’s seen new clients as a result.
The 2nd client got measurable SUPERIOR results for less money thanks to the smart use of traditional media.
Yet another one of my clients built her business on Adwords… but that was four years ago. She called today to ask my advice about traditional media. Her latest Adwords invoice was sky high and while her click through rates were dropping at an equally dramatic rate. Meanwhile she’s noticed that more and more “local” people are finding her. That’s probably thanks to her prominently displayed address on her web site. Her keywords plus her location = top SERPS in natural search for a long tail keyword.
So that got her thinking… what if there were a better way? What if she could reach people who hadn’t begun to search for her solutions via the web. After all, 5 out of 6 people in the world aren’t even ON the internet!
My formula for success with traditional media is as follows: Make sure the call to action is to visit the website. That way, you can watch the logs to see if the message is making an impact. If it is and the phone isn’t ringing, then you know to tweak the web copy. If visitors aren’t showing up at the website, then it’s time to tweak the traditional media message.
The same it true with Google Adwords. However, instead of paying for your message to be delivered to a broad television or radio audience, you’re paying for your message to be “hand” delivered one at a time to individual customers.
Sure, there are still some campaigns that can be run for a “reasonable” sum. However, if you’ve noticed all the banner ads on blogs lately… there’s a lot of discouragement amongst Google Adwords faithful and they’re turning to other avenues to present their marketing message. If your audience is internet users, then that’s your other option. On the other hand, if your audience is geographically local, then give your local media a stab at delivering your marketing message.
Watch That Message You’re Sending…
May 9, 2008
I love blogs… blogs are great. They make delivering your message to a widespread audience SO easy. No FTP, no HTML… just type and publish.
When you’ve got a Wordpress blog with the proper plug ins, you get a super charged Search Engine Friendly way to deliver those messages effortlessly to hundreds of thousands of people who are interested in hiring you to provide products or services.
So what’s not to love?
Well, marketing message mis-steps are NOT to love.
My business is exploding and I’ve been subscribing to the RSS feeds of various blogs maintained by people who provide the services for which I’m in the market. By subscribing to those RSS feeds… I’m shopping. After all, hiring a service provider is a Major Sale … so I’m doing my research.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve read blog posts by SEVERAL service provider that have effectively removed themselves from the running in my decision of choosing a service provider.
One just ran a post so off topic that it was an obvious “I’ve just signed up as an affiliate, use my link and buy!” Um, you’re a business professional and you’re promoting a membership site on which focuses upon getting you to eat your vegetables?
Another web site was listing characteristics of the service provider’s “ideal client”. I laughed out loud when “physically attractive/ works out / Pilates” was listed as a characteristic she seeks in her clients.
EXCUSE ME? Is this your business or an Match.com profile? Are you looking for clients or dating partners?
Whether it’s the chiropractor who is blogging about having a “bad day” or the marketing maven who’s blogging about her latest visit to a local sex shop…. you’ve got to ask yourself, “Does this help build my potential client’s TRUST in my ability to provide goods and services?”
Just Because You CAN, Doesn’t Mean You SHOULD!
Last month, a lot of bloggers engaged in playing “April Fool’s Jokes” on their readers. Many discovered that their readers were there for a reason… and that reason was not to be played as a fool.
I once had a client who was fun and energetic. She had engaged a branding professional to create her marketing materials. The branding professional did a wonderful job of “capturing” this client’s persona. Unfortunately, that business professionals clients weren’t seeking that “style” of help. Of course they adored her infectious enthusiasm… but when she sent those potential clients to her web site, she found they wouldn’t return her phone calls.
She hired me and we “toned” her website “down”. We created a more “professional” approach (including switching the color scheme from orange/purple to blue/gray.) The result… her potential clients returned her phone calls AFTER they had visited her website.
She was still funky, fun and infectious… but her website said “This is a serious, cool, effective professional who gets results” through the images AND the copy. As a result, her business took off.
Blogging makes communicating EASY and even FUN! Just watch the message you’re sending…. people ARE watching!
