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One thing I’ve learnt over the years is that you need to be very clear about the type of business you want to work with when you develop your marketing messages. You need to identify their needs and problems and explain how you can solve them, particularly if you sell a service. Even for those of you selling products, you still have to be clear about the profile of your customers, so that you can target your marketing effectively.
The Savvy Marketers target market is small/micro businesses who are just starting out in internet marketing and who have limited or very little knowledge of how to promote their website & feel overwhelmed and confused by the whole prospect of online marketing.
The type of person or business you target needs to be clear in all of your marketing messages including your website. It’s surprising how many businesses fail to mention the type of person their product or service is for and just ramble on about how long they’ve been in business for or how great their product/service is!
Prospects aren’t interested in how great your product or service is, but how it’s going to help them solve their problem! Service providers in particular must make sure this comes across on their website and other marketing materials. It’s easy to fall into the trap of just explaining what your services are, but neglect to mention how it will help solve your prospects’ problems! Your target market needs to be clearly explained on the home page of your site (so that visitors know they’re in the right place when they arrive on your site) as well as a dedicated page on the type of customer your work with.
Robert Middleton, who helps consultants to market their businesses more effectively, wrote a post on defining a target market and how to create a compelling marketing message. This post is over 3 years old, but still well worth the reminder that all people are interested in is ‘what’s in it for me’!
You can read the post here – Marketing Messages that Work
So who is your target market and how is your product or service going to help them, make their life better or easier?
Please share any insights you have into defining your target market and creating a message that attracts new prospects, any tips you have will be very useful to our readers!
About Sam
Sam McArthur is an internet marketing consultant with 12 years in the industry. She helps professional service businesses with their internet marketing strategy, helping them to see significant results from their online marketing activities, particularly within the search engines. She also consults on the latest internet tools, technology and best practice techniques.
