"Mirror mirror on the wall, make my prospects wanna call!"

Wouldn’t you love to have a magic mirror that tells you exactly who the ideal person is for your business opportunity, product or service?  DUH! What if you already knew their exact problem and already have the solution they need? Wouldn’t that make your life easy? Well the good news is, you don’t need to have a magic mirror if you use the right tools to identify your target market so you'll already know exactly what they want and need!

 

In this 3-part series of articles, I'll show you the exact tools I used and the steps I went through in determining my target market. It seemed a little daunting to me at first, but once you go through the process it becomes very clear why you can't avoid this process. 

 

It’s helpful to keep a notebook to jot things down as you go - notes to yourself, questions and topics that you suddenly think of.  I keep one by my bed-and a little flashlight- for late night inspiration.

 

As you learn more about the kind of person you're marketing to, the more you'll speak their language and send the right message that will resonate with them. They'll feel like you're speaking directly to them and their needs.

 

Borrowed Inspiration

 

Learn to keep a “swipe file”. This is a collection of information, stats and templates containing proven and tested ad copy that other people have done. It’s common practice by copywriters, authors and publishers to maintain a swipe file and sort things by category. Essentially it’s a way to keep samples of things you see that inspire you or that you recognize as valuable, or a good resource. I keep a swipe file on my computer desktop, as well as a separate notebook that I can quickly reference. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...and it doesn’t hurt when it can help shorten your learning curve, too!

 

Getting Started

 

So...what, or rather “who” is your target market and why? Your target audience is a group of people who...

• Are experiencing some type of pain, urgency or challenge (or someone they love is)
• Are actively seeking a solution (or help in finding it)
• Are feeling as though their options are increasingly narrow
• Are looking for a specific benefit from your product, opportunity or service  OR
• They’ve concluded that joining you is the next logical step to getting their problem solved.

 

That last criteria is very important for you to understand, because you’ll need to create compelling marketing materials (blogsites/websites, email campaigns, reports, ads, etc.) that speak to your target market. Doing so will attract your target audience and get them to feel like you already know them. You’ll be so effective, they’ll feel like the only sane thing left to do is to work with you!

 

"Holy cow! Market Research? That sounds complicated!"

 

To be honest, I thought the term “Market Research” was intimidating. There’s a lot that goes into it. But the importance of market research cannot be underestimated. If you fail to do it, you’ll be wasting all kinds of your valuable time and setting yourself up to fail. It can mean the difference between a site (business) that makes money, and one that doesn’t. Chew on that a while!

 

Thankfully, we have access to online tools to help do the heavy lifting as well as the ability to leverage off the expertise of others who freely share their knowledge. As a former educator, I strongly believe knowledge is power and it should be shared with others to help lift them up. This is why I do this blog. I’m also fortunate to belong to a mastermind group, a team of trusted, supportive people who genuinely care about each other’s success.

 

By the way, I highly recommend masterminding for anyone starting out in a home-based business. We’re in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves. If this is something you’re interested in learning about, contact me and I’d be happy to share the information.

 

There are many components to market research, and tons of useful information and resources on the web. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but my intention is to keep it fairly simple, so I’ve broken this information into separate articles. I think it just makes sense to bite off a little bit at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. If you just follow the steps I’ve laid out, you’ll be off to a good start.

 

Brainstorming time!

 

You’re going to be making three separate category lists, each containing between 7-10 topics. Take your time with this exercise.

 

List #1: 7-10 interests or passions of yours
List #2: 7-10 problems that you (or someone you know) may be experiencing

List #3: 7-10 fears that you have

 

This will give you approximately 20-30 varied topics from which you will narrow down to the top 10 markets that interest you most. It’s important to note that if you aren’t interested in a topic, you’re less likely to produce good quality content on a consistent basis, so choose wisely. You can always go back and select a different topic from your list.

 

In my next post Part 2 - How to Choose a Profitable Niche For Your Online Business, I’ll teach you how to perform Keyword Research on your top 10 niche markets that interest you most.

 

If you liked this article or found it to be helpful, I’d love to hear about it - leave me a comment below. As always, please feel free to share a link to this article using one of the buttons below. Ciao!

 

Until next time, happy brainstorming!

 

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