Target Market – Do I need one?

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Your target customer is that person that matches these two criteria.

They are most likely to buy from you, not only once, but over and over again.

They will get the most value from what you offer. Not only from the actual product, but also from everything extra that you give your customers.

You cannot afford to target everyone with your marketing.

It will be ineffective. It will be expensive. It simply will NOT WORK!

By having a clearly defined target market, it is much easier to create effective marketing strategies that are a long term investment.

Knowing your target market will also help you to offer a higher amount of value to those customers.

You will know exactly what they want and how they want it.

Another reason why you should intimately know your target market is that it will allow you to communicate much more clearly with those customers.

Less misunderstandings, few complaints, more happy customers!!

The more you can know about your perfect customers, the more you integrate your business into that community of people, the better your business will do, and the more they will love you!

Yes, ever business needs a clearly defined Target Market.

Target Market – Is it really that Important?

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Short answer is yes, it is vital to great marketing to have a clearly defined target market.

If you target just anyone, your message will be heard by NO ONE!

Think of this simple example.

Imagine you are in a crowded mall.

You stand up on top of one of those flat benches that you try to sit on and are so hard on your butt.

And you yell out..

“Hey, you need new shoes, there are some here that are just perfect for you!”

Will anyone in that crowded mall think you are talking to them?  I doubt it.

Maybe the odd person will look down at their shoes and think, yes I should go buy some new shoes.

But that is not really helpful to anyone.

Now imagine you say the following…

“Hey, young man skateboarding by me, I see your shoes are wearing out, your should come in to this store and get new skate shoes that will improve how good you will ride and also look very awesome”

Do you think that will get a response…..

And – if you really know your target market (i.e. have a list of prospects and customers with names, info and more) you can say this…

“Hey Craig, slow down on that skateboard, and come look at the newest line of skate shoes.  Your toes are coming out of those ones, and the girls will love the tricks you do with new grip on your board….”

Does that not make so much more of an impact?

The more specific you can talk directly to your target market, the better your message will be.

Marketing – Doing it Right

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Marketing is the lifeblood of any business.

Without Marketing – you won’t get new clients nor retain old clients.

Here is my definition of Marketing

‘Marketing is EVERYTHING related to (that affects) the sale and transfer of Your Product to Your Client‘

(read more here > http://www.zedpromarketing.com/js-ramblings/basics-of-marketing/)

So that includes any type of selling, it includes referrals, it includes word of mouth, in includes telling friends about your business.

It also includes how you interact with your clients and customers. It includes matching the products you sell to what your clients need.

It includes having the right quality of products and services at the right price.

It includes timing, and includes your location and how that can impact sales.

So where to start so you never run out of clients, keep sales high, and revenue even higher.

Here are my top 5 things you need to do:

  • Clearly determine your target market
  • Define your key marketing message
  • Choose 2-3 easy marketing strategies
  • Tie all three marketing strategies together into one holistic marketing plan
  • Implement over and over and over

Target Market – who exactly are you selling too. The more clear you can be on exactly who is your perfect customer, the better you will be able to serve that person.

Key Marketing Message – you need to tell the world, or at least your target market about your business. What is special and unique about you, your products and services, how you sell, the value you offer and how it relates to the price your customer pays.

Marketing strategies – figure out what works for you. This can be anything from newspaper ads, flyers, word of mouth, referrals, signage, events, social media, digital marketing, sales people and more…. the sky is the limit. But find something easy, effective, that you are comfortable with and that you know works. If you don’t know if it works, get someone to help you determine that.

Once you find those marketing strategies, keep doing them over and over. Keep tracking how good they do, and how you can do them better.

Tie it all together. This is about making sure that you are keeping your target market in mind, that your key message is clear and succinct, and that all the marketing strategies work to support each other.

Do it over and over and over. Too many business owners put marketing on the back burner, especially during good times. And in bad times, they often cut the marketing budget, rather than invest in it to get more clients, increase sales and revenue.

Marketing is not a one-off activity for a business – Marketing is the business!!

Key Factors for your WordPress Website

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If you read my last post, I outlined many reasons why WordPress is the best solution for your business website.

Now that you are ready to move forward, I want to touch on a few more key things to think about.

Besides the design or look of your website, there is also a number of key behind the scenes factors to consider.

One big factor is the content of your website. Words do matter. Having good copy is vital to your website actually doing its job of promoting your business.

You also need to be concerned about how the search engines will view your site. Google and other search engines crawl through the content of your website so that they know how to rank it in their search engines. There is a whole process called SEO (Search Engine optimization) that is vital to the success of your website in marketing your business.

Google provides a webmaster service that can help you indentify and fix any issues with your website that may affect people from viewing it, or from it showing up in the search engines. Bing also has this type of service as well.

Another key part of your website is tracking the visitors that arrive and view your site. The best tool for that is Google Analytics, another free service that you can connect to your website.

You also should need to set up a way to handle Spam if you are recieving comments. And you should have some type of backup system in place. You may also want to run your site on a secure server to increase the trust factor for your visitors.

Social media is now a central part of how people use the internet. So integrating your site with your various business social media accounts is critical to successful marketing of your business.

There really is much more to a well planned business website than simply just making it look good. Doing things right will certainly pay off in the long run for your business.

Why WordPress for your Business Website

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WordPress is the professional option to build a website for your business.

Other website builders are often easy to use, have nice designs, and have a great array of features.

WordPress gives you the flexibility to grow your business in any direction, to any size, do really do whatever you want online.

WordPress is what the majority of marketing  professionals choose to build websites with.That is the main reason why I believe it is best to choose WordPress for your business website. It has the best holistic approach to allow you to build a sustainable and professional business website.

Here are a few significant reasons that support the holistic nature of WordPress as your website builder.

Professional and flexible website hosting

You can use whatever hosting option that works best for your business. This allows you to grow your business as fast as possible without worrying about overloading the system. It also allows you to add features related to the server side of your website. You can control access to files and folders. You also have full control of your business emails. You can set up any business emails, control forwarding, manage Spam all at the server level.

Expert marketing assistance

A website is a tool to help you market your business. Many components go into a good website, from good copy-writing, calls to action, good design, keywords, search engine optimization as well as other marketing strategies related to your website.

Since WordPress is the most used website tool available, you will have the greatest access to expert marketing help and advice if you use WordPress to build your website.

Marketing professionals understand WordPress and how to use it to run effective marketing campaigns. If you are doing your own marketing strategies, the tools you need will be available with WordPress, but may not be available with other site builders.

Adaptability

WordPress is the most flexible website tool because of the vast array of plugins and themes available to work with it. As well almost every major online service can connect to a WordPress website. So whether it is Social Media, billing, e-commerce or any other marketing application, WordPress gives you the most adaptable platform available.

Trends and internet changes

The online world is never static. New services and new ways to use the internet arise daily. Some catch on immediately and others lag behind. But if you want to be able to take advantage of any of these new trends, or be ready for the new changes coming along, WordPress is the best option.

Examples of these could be changes in Google’s search algorithm, or could be new social media platforms, or mobile friendly designs and functionality.

So overall, if you are looking for the best long term sustainable solution to build your website, choose what professionals use, choose WordPress.