3 Solid Online Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Today
Has it ever happened to you that you felt bombarded with the “latest and greatest” tactics that are supposed to conquer the Internet for you in 30 seconds and you don’t know where to start with your marketing?
There is a simple but profound solution to the overwhelm. We need to stop to operate at the level of “tactics” first. You need to rely on solid online marketing strategies, instead of tactics.
Tactics do have a place but if you are marketing your small business online, you are much better off starting with the foundations and getting strategic before you ever think about tactics. (For the foundations of web-based marketing, go here).
The first pillar of your marketing is your market, your people. (For a list of tools to help you deeply understand your audience, go here). All your marketing efforts need to revolve around your market.
Here you will discover 3 online marketing strategies to help you get clear on:
- who you are targeting,
- what language they speak and what message they are attracted to and
- how you can really help them.
This, in turn, will make your marketing message ultra magnetic to the right people, making it effortless to get great clients who experience great results and are a joy to work with.
Ready to start?
STRATEGY #1 – Setting Your Destination
Before we do anything else, we are going to define your ideal client. This is similar to choosing your destination before buying a plane ticket. It is really clever to decide where you want to go and then board the plane that will get you there.
The reason why we are going to do this is that every market is made up of segments and your products and services are not “one-size-fits-all”, nor should they be. We want to find the segments of the market that are the perfect fit for you and repel the rest.
Repel? Yes, repel. Small businesses generally don’t have the marketing budget of big corporations. Therefore, if you try to reach all the segments of the market with your message, you will probably end up reaching nobody. We want to concentrate our time and financial efforts on the perfect segment, which is going to make you the happiest in your business!
Example:
Let’s say that you are a weight loss expert. The weight loss market has several segments:
- natural weight loss,
- weight loss for mothers who want to lose the “baby fat”,
- weight loss for men,
- weight loss for brides-to-be who want to look fabulous on their wedding day,
- weight loss for kids,
- weight loss for people who want to lose the last 5/10 pounds,
- people who would like to lose 20 pounds or more, etc.
The uneducated mind will want to target the whole weight loss market instead of recognizing that there are “sub-cultures” in the market.
How smart would it be if we did weight loss for brides to devote our resources to target kids and men as well? Not very.
Once you know which segment of the market you target, you need to discover their biggest desires and problems.
Brief Exercise
Start by answering this question: What Is Their Biggest Desire?
TIP - Go deep with your answer until you reach their deepest desire. The first answers are usually just surface desires.
If we go back to the example of the weight loss for brides, the first answer might be to lose an x amount of weight. If we go on asking why this is important, we get to the real deep desire, which in this case might be desirability. (they want to look great in their wedding dress and be the fairest of them all).
Now answer this question: What Is Their Biggest Problem?
TIP - If you don’t know your market, go to the forums and/or groups and read about their biggest problems. Do your homework because you cannot help them if you don’t know them.
These insights into your market will determine how you communicate with your target prospect and, most importantly, how you can help them with free and paid offers.
STRATEGY #2 – Establishing Instant Rapport
Marketing your business on the Internet can have a weird side-effect. We start to think we are talking or writing to an amorphous mass.
In reality, only ONE person at a given time is listening to or reading your marketing message. You aren't addressing a group of people.
To set the right tone for your engaging communication, we are going to create your AVATAR, the online person you will be talking to in all your future interactions.
The idea here is to turn a “mass of people” into ONE person who represents the whole and communicate with that person in everything you write or say using the right language. (You'll be writing and speaking to one person, after all).
TIP - Don’t guess. Use your experience with clients to draw info for your avatar. If you are new, do the research. (Spend a couple of days, go to groups and forums, find out what they are already buying, read reviews of products and services they are already buying, find out who is selling those products and services to them).
Now that you have your avatar and know which language to use to communicate your marketing message, we are moving to Strategy #3, which is a lot of fun because we actually start helping people.
STRATEGY # 3 – Offering Relevant Help Now
You know your target prospect’s biggest desire and their biggest problems. Now ask yourself this question:
How can you help them right now?
Perhaps you have a brief exercise or experience you could walk them through that will help them right now.
TIP - Give them some of your best stuff. Something awesome that will help them right away. (If you give your most powerful stuff away, people will automatically think to themselves “Wow. If this person is giving this away for free, I cannot imagine what the paid stuff is like.”).
Package your help in the most valuable way possible ans simply start to give it away as a way of building your list.
NEXT STEP
Do these brief exercises because they are going to have an immediate powerful effect in your marketing and in your business…
Strategy #1 - Setting Your Destination
After determining the segment of the target market you want to focus on, answer these 2 questions about your target audience:
- What is their biggest desire?
- What is their biggest problem?
Strategy #2 - Establishing Instant Rapport
Create your AVATAR and address this „person“ in all your interactions.
Some info about your avatar
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Occupation:
Biggest Fear:
Biggest Desire:
Secret Desire:
Other Relevant Info:
Strategy #3 - Offering Relevant Help Now
You know your target prospect‘s biggest desire and problem. Now ask yourself this question:
HOW CAN I HELP THEM NOW?
Create a brief exercise or process that will help them right now.
Package that help in the most valuable form for your target market.
Start giving it away.
…and keep building a business to be proud of
Ana
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