An All-Too-Common Perspective
I was interviewing a new client recently and was running through the usual qualifying questions with him – the first of which was: “Can you tell me which market your products are targeting?” His response startled me. He said: “well that’s easy, it’s the Internet!” I paused, not quite sure, how to break the news to him.
I’m sure he was thinking: Wow, this guy is really lame, I offer Internet services, who did he think my market would be?
And I was thinking: No wonder he’s got no traffic to his site and he’s spending $200 a day on Adwords advertising and getting no conversions.
The problem is that his view mirrors that of many businesses – that the Internet, all by itself, is a market and all that it takes to tap it is to be present in it.
But The Internet is NOT a Market
The Internet is no more a market than a post office or television channel is. Like those, it’s a medium – it is a means of reaching a market. Potential buyers can reach through the Internet to find your products or services or you can reach through the Internet to find them. But just being on the Internet – having a website, for example – is no guarantee that you are present to your potential market. In fact, only posting a website is a bit like holding up a sign in the middle of Grand Central Station in New York City hoping somebody will stop and order from you.
Finding Your Market On The Internet
So if you’re on the Internet, how do you reach into that amorphous mass of would-be buyers to find your market? It’s not as hard as you think. There are several reliable ways to do just that:
A Few Precautions…
Whatever form of market targeting you use make sure they include strong and market-specific offers. A weak offer or an offer with too-generalized appeal defeats your purpose. Also, in whatever you do, it’s always a good idea to construct a few test offers or test campaigns first.
Why Target Anyway?
Some businesses do get away with generalized marketing or poorly targeted Internet campaigns – for a while. They might get the “low-hanging fruit” but it never works in the long run. First, generalized marketing is only a symptom that the business does not really know who its market is. This means that the business will have more than selling problems to hamper their growth. Second, generalized campaigns will always prove to be more expensive than targeted campaigns and will always result in a worse ROI than market-targeted campaigns.
Get Serious
Using the Internet as a medium for your market and means of boosting your sales offers many benefits. But if you are going to use the Internet as a marketing vehicle, get serious about it – make sure you don’t lose your market focus by throwing offices to the general Internet visitor. Invest in going all the way with it – carefully target everything you do on the Internet – it’s not expense and it will pay off big.
This article previously published here.
…
Kurt D. Lynn is offers business consulting services to growing businesses in the U.S. and Canada. For more information or more articles, check out his blog at http://www.KlynnBusinessConsulting.com/blog
Read more articles written by Kurt D. Lynn
Related posts:
- Buyer’s Market, Seller’s Market? A Market in Transition
With a few exceptions, most of the nation is either in transition or has already made the transition from a sellers market to a buyers market. What this means exactly is that now may be the best time in years to purchase a first home. Because inventories are increasing in... - Your Good Reputation and How to Market It
To make your business grow in the right way, many things have to be taken into consideration. Marketing and advertising your products and services are the most important. Without developing and implementing intelligent brand marketing and promotional strategies, it will be impossible to see an increase in you customer base.... - Article Marketing – Writing for the Internet
Article marketing incorporates writing carefully and concisely for a target audience on the Internet. While all writing begins with good grammar, accurate spelling and compelling content, there are several differences between print writing and online writing in both structure and purpose. Online articles tend to be shorter than printed text,... - Expired Domain Market – Realities and Perceptions (Part I)
Expired domain market offers you several advantages and benefits of making money out of expired or expiring domain names. This business is unique in a sense that it originates from using something that is considered dead and wastage by a number of people. It is almost like a product recycling... - Article Marketing Secret: How To Identify and Write For Your Target Market
Many people question as to what topic they should choose to write their articles… Fortunately, the short answer is simple… Write articles that appeal to your target market. But what does that mean exactly? I always pose this set of three questions, when I am talking to clients about what... - Market Penetration Pricing
A quick-entry price strategy that presumes that sales volume rise when an object is priced low which in turn reduces the overall costs is called market penetration pricing. This is a useful strategy that can be used in price sensitive markets. For example, consider the market for DVD players; this... - Marketing Tip: Connecting With Your Target Market
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... - How Any Internet Marketer Can Make 10,000 NEXT Weekend
Lately, I hear from a LOT of struggling internet marketers. Many of them are worried about paying next month’s rent, or having their electricity turned off. In other words, I hear from a lot of internet marketers “with their backs against the wall.” The sad part is that if they’ve... - Retire From Your Job With This Internet Business Training Program
The possibilities with information marketing are limitless – it’s up to you whether you want a five, six or even seven figure income. Whichever appeals to you most – it is ALL more than possible with information publishing. Here is the best plan for information publishing and how to quickly... - Supercharge Your Internet Marketing Using the Improved Google Keyword Tool
As an Internet Marketing Consultant, I know that whether using pay-per-click (PPC) or organic search engine optimization (SEO), the process begins with our research keyword. This is true whether you’re doing your work yourself or working with an SEO Consultant. The search engine ranking for our chosen keywords consumes us,... - Newsletter Publishers: The Redheaded Step Children Of Internet Marketing
People who publish online newsletters, often referred to as “ezines”, have always played an important role in the growth of the Internet economy. In fact, if you listen to any of the Internet gurus, they are going to tell you time and again that the most important thing you can... - Article Marketing for Internet Affiliate Programs
When you decided that the time was right to look for business opportunities that let you work from home online, internet marketing affiliate programs like those offered by Click Booth were likely a big draw – for good reason; they make it possible to make money fast. For those affiliate... - Do Nice Guys Fail In Internet Marketing For Online Businesses?
Todd was in trouble. Our internet marketing training for online business was selling like crazy. Orders were coming from everywhere. We were able to get outside help, but it wasn’t enough. We stopped advertising, but the orders still kept coming and we were in way over our head. OK, I... - The Six Degrees of Internet Marketing
The theory behind the Six Degrees of Separation is that all people on earth can be connected together in as little as six steps. The concept was made fun in the 1990′s, with the creation of The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (oracleofbacon.org) – which is a website that documents... - Marlon Sanders: The Hero in the Internet Marketing World
If there should be a hero in the internet marketing world, Marlon Sanders would be it. Marlon Sanders is one of the most respected and also the most popular internet marketers in the world. He is even considered as the marketer’s marketer. Marlon Sanders is known to sell some of...