A core principle of marketing I learned many years ago is that it is much easier to attract than to pursue when it comes to marketing your products and services. So a great head start is to find people who want what you have; I call them believers. It’s so much easier to sell to a believer than to convert a non-believer. Converting someone is hard. Finding and attracting someone is much easier. This gets down to knowing your customer avatar. In other words figure out who your ideal customer is and what qualities and traits they have.
Now once you’ve identified the qualities and traits of your ideal customer avatar, then make sure your website, your copy, your brochures, your communication is congruent and targets these specific customers.
Now having said that, I do recommend spending some time, energy and effort, maybe 10% – 20%, in casting what I call a “wide net”. So part of my “wide net” strategy, was in addition to operating Jim Rohn International, I also created outside of the Jim Rohn brand some additional resources like Messages from the Masters, Quotes from the Masters, The Slight Edge Newsletters (and several other speaker’s online newsletters… Denis Waitley, Chris Widener, Ron White, etc.) – all daily or weekly online publications that built and continued to grow our online customer lists. I also started YourSuccessStore.com. All this because in addition to targeting just Jim Rohn fans I also wanted to attract Zig Ziglar fans, Brian Tracy fans, Les Brown fans and John Maxwell fans. I cast a wider net with the goal of building a bigger list, acquiring a larger base of customers and having a broader audience to talk and market to. But the first and critical point is that you have to know who your core audience is – know your ideal customer, your ideal market – that’s where you want to put your most of your efforts. That’s where you really want to be clear and make sure you’re maximizing technology and all the opportunities especially SEO (Search Engine Optimization), key words, targeted articles and blogs and different marketing strategies you engage, but occasionally use some of your energy, use some of your resources to cast a wider net.
So once you’ve got a good grasp of your basic, core business, understand your customer avatar then you can create your “wide net” strategy. So let’s say you’re a roofing company and the majority of your business gets down to when there are bad storms. A good example of casting a broader net might be offering an additional product or service you are able to maximize during slower times. Maybe it’s offering window replacement or doing home appraisals, there are all kinds of options. The key is even though it’s a separate product and it seems like separate business offer, the roofing company can make it available under their core business and then do proactive things to build that particular group of customers who purchase that product and then those same people become potential clients for having their roof replaced.
So for all of us marketing our brand, products and services, be sure you know your customer avatar, know who you’re going after and build your marketing around that group. Then once your customer avatar is established you can branch out and devote some time, energy and effort – and usually a product or two (or more) – to launch a complimentary type of business that can actually cross-pollinate your core business.
To Your Success,
Kyle
