There are four types of people in the world... There are dog
people and cat people... And, there are people who would own
neither and people who own both...
My wife and I have always been dog people... Our neighbor is a
cat person...
My wife is fond of saying that the only good cat is a dead cat...
My neighbor has threatened on dozens of occasions to kill our
dog, if our dog did not stop barking at his cat... Our neighbor
despises our dog, because our dog barks at his cat, and his cat
walks by our yard as in fear for his life...
All you have to do is to holler real loud, when you see the cat
trying to sneak by our house... If you do it just right, the cat
will jump out of its skin, before setting the new land speed
record for a feline... LOL... My wife is so mean...
Putting my child-like amusement to the side, there is actually a
business lesson in this story...
Who Is The Real Target Market For Your Business?
I am forever amazed at the responses I get, when I ask online
marketers who is in their target market...
Everyone? Really?
You would be wasting your breath trying to get my wife to like
cats, and you would be equally frustrated trying to convince my
neighbor of the value of dogs in this world... Both are dead-set
in their ways, and you will not change their minds...
Try selling your kitty scratch pad to my wife...
Try selling your dog bones to my neighbor...
You could spend ten million dollars and a lifetime trying to
convince my wife that cats are awesome and she should buy your
cat toys, OR you could call my neighbor and get his business for
the price of a phone call...
Honestly, which approach makes more sense?
We Must Advertise To The Right People.
If you have been trying to operate a business online for any
length of time, you will have realized by now that you must
advertise and there is always a cost for adverising -- a cost
that can be measured in either time or money...
We all have to spend time or money to attract an audience to our
website, so that we can make the pitch for our products or
services...
Given the high cost of advertising -- free or paid, it makes
sense that we should try to talk directly to those people who are
most likely to buy what we are selling, doesn't it?
This is why it is so important for us to properly identify our
real target market...
If you deliver your pet-product advertising to people who refuse
to own a dog or cat, then you are wasting your limited time or
financial resources trying to sell your stuff to people who would
never buy your goods...
Think about selling ice water to an Eskimo... Then realize that
the guy in the desert is parched for a drink, and he might pay
ten times the going rate to buy your ice water...
If you are talking to the wrong people, your advertising will
produce few sales, and therefore, your advertising will be very
expensive...
On the other hand, if you are talking to the right people with
your advertising, you will be able to sell more stuff to more
people, thereby reducing your overall cost of advertising...
When your advertising consistently pays for itself, you will find
it a no-brainer option to keep advertising...
You will find that by taking your advertising resources and
messages to the right audience, you will be able to consistently
produce profitable results for your business...
Tracking Down Your Target Audience:
I have often found that forums are an excellent tool for finding
new ways to reach my target audiences...
Contrary to what you may have taught by other marketers, I don't
seek out niche consumer forums so that I can drop links in my
signature file... That could be a real waste of time, since most
consumer-oriented forums do not allow signature files...
Whatever the product or service, I seek out consumer forums for
the niche to do research... I want to learn about the people who
are in my target market...
I have found that the consumer forums in any niche can teach me
three important lessons about reaching my target audiences:
I can find forums where I might be able to advertise on-site;
I find other websites that my target audience finds useful,
where I might be able to buy advertising; and
I find the questions that people in my target audience are
asking -- questions that I could possibly answer in the form of
an article for my website or a syndicated article.
I know you have heard it before, but I will reiterate the point
here... Google is your best friend...
Since I have been talking about dogs and cats in this article, I
wanted to emphasize the usefulness of forums with examples...
In my first search, I plugged in the words "dog forum" into
Google... The first result was http://www.dogforums.com/
With more than 68,000 threads and 800,000 posts related to dogs,
I am certain I would have no problem finding other dog-related
websites and topics for articles that would be of interest to
readers in that niche...
It contains 67,000 threads and nearly 700,000 posts... Once
again, it will not be hard to find related websites where I might
be able to advertise, and I will have no problem uncovering
questions that my target audience is already asking, so that I
can construct articles for my website or syndicated articles that
will directly address the needs of the people in my target
audience...
In Conclusion...
I have come to realize that for as long as my wife and I continue
to live where we do and my neighbor continues to live where he
does, my wife and my neighbor will always be tweaking each other
over our dog and his cat...
The only way for that battle to end is for one of us to move out
of the neighborhood... LOL
As a business owner, you must understand that your target market
can never be described as everyone on the planet... It is
important for you to do your research, to better understand who
your real target audience is, so that you can more easily
understand how to get your advertising message to them
directly...
Once you understand who is in your target market and how you can
reach them with your advertising, you will find yourself on the
road to real success...
Marty Bradfield: If you are struggling to make money online, or you are looking to
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