Stupid Marketing Tricks - Part V

Thus far, in our quest to build a realistic marketing plan that produces results, we have done some homework and some legwork and have answered the first two questions:

1. IS THERE a market for my product? (do people need this product or service) AND
2. HOW MANY people feel they want or need my product or service?

These are but 2 of the most important questions you must ask before beginning to develop the plan. The next question is equally, if not more important. It is:

3. WHO ARE these people?

Now anytime we discuss marketing on the Internet, the subject of getting traffic comes up. Everybody wants traffic to their site. Everyone wants lots of traffic to their site. This is foolishness.

I have 2nd page placement on Google for my very generic search terms. First page on Yahoo. Does this get me traffic? Yes. Is it the traffic I want? In most cases, no.

What I get is the tire-kickers. I don't want tire-kickers. I want people who are

a. sincerely interested in marketing their product
b. are willing to do the work necessary to be successful
c. are willing to invest the time, money and effort to be successful
d. are willing to step back and do it the right way
e. have set specific goals by which they will measure success
f. are realistic in their approach and in their expectations
g. will not give up easily
h. understand that marketing is a numbers game and will play the game by the numbers
i. are willing to allow the real numbers to drive the plan, resulting in success
j. are willing to change the plan when market factors change

Unfortunately, what I often get is that person who is looking for the easy, get rich quick method of selling a product or service. These are the wannabe marketing rock stars (read 'failures'). Or I get the person who wants to pick my brain for hours for free. I turn down nine of these people for every one I accept. In short, I rely on the traffic to create leads, not sales.

Internet marketing works exactly the same as marketing in the real world. The game is simply bigger. Bigger offers much more opportunity, but also much more competition. The process of selling on the Internet, therefore, requires that you create a much tighter, more restrictive definition of your niche.

Here is a silly example. Imagine that you have a store in a mall. You sell skateboards. Now, who would you rather have in your store:

100 people age 65 and above OR
5 people age 14?

Certainly, the 5 people age 14. These are your real potential customers. They buy skateboards. Hardly anyone over 65 will buy a skateboard, unless they are buying it for someone age 14. 'Nuff said.

In the world of Internet marketing, you must imagine, however, that your store is located in a mall that contains several MILLION other stores. That changes the game in a major way. How will you set your storefront apart from the millions of other stores in that mall?

By defining your niche.

You must now define very clearly WHO that potential customer might be. Let's draw a picture of your first niche customer or client. Who is that person?

Gender?

Income Level?

Age?

Occupation?

Education?

Geographic region?

Lifestyle?

Purchasing characteristics?

What is the hot button for the person who fits this profile?

Why does this person feel they need or want what you have to offer?

What benefit (not feature) does your product offer to satisfy that need or want?

CAUTION - Don't feel that you must draw just one profile. You can draw as many as you like. For instance, if your answer to gender is both 'male' and 'female', continue through the rest of the questions for just 'male', and then repeat all the questions for female. You now have two profiles. You will want to do this because you will create one message for 'male, age 25-35' and another for 'female, age 25-35'. You will create a different message for each profile and will most likely want to create a different landing page for each profile on your site.

What will motivate the female age 25 is not necessarily what will motivate the male age 25.

When defining your niche, don't use an ax - use a scalpel.

Creating a single 'one size fits all' message for ALL your potential customers or clients could be said to be a VERY stupid marketing trick.

More at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com