Because any direct sales consultants and other home business owners start out with little or no marketing training or experience, marketing your business is hit or miss. Your budget is usually limited and you don’t want to waste money on poor results. And free marketing methods require a time commitment and your time is valuable too.
To get the most from your marketing efforts, it’s important to make sure you deliver your message to your target market – to the people who are your ideal customers and team members. Even the most well written advertisement is completely wasted if it’s not delivered to an interested audience.
For example, if you sell high-end baby clothes, you’re not likely to gain a lot of customers on a website for frugal moms. Even though many of the moms there have babies, they are looking for ways to save money and aren’t likely to indulge in designer or expensive baby clothes. You’ll get much better results with an article or ad placed on a site for professional moms on maternity leave or a nanny referral service.
Take some time to figure out who is most likely to buy your product or service. Are they male or female? How old are they? How will your product or service help them? Take a look at companies who sell products that are similar to yours to determine if their market is your market. How and where to they advertise?
By making sure your message gets in front of your target market you’ll start to see a much better result for the time and money you put into marketing.
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December 15th, 2009 at 11:50 PM
It is extremely important to know your target demographic before advertising (free or pay) so that you are not wasting your valuable time or money doing things that will get no results. You can build a demographic profile of your customer and revise it over time as you learn new things. Then you can figure out where to find their eyeballs. There, marketing in 500 characters or less.
Very nice down-to-earth article on basic marketing.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Hi Brian. Thanks for the comments. Great point about building a profile and revising it as needed.
Too many people take a hit and miss approach to advertising… they place ads and cross their fingers hoping for good results. It’s important to understand and track all the different factors involved for a successful marketing campaign. When you know what works and what doesn’t you know what to keep using and what to change.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I recently did a direct mailing for one of my side businesses and within the first week, one response paid for the entire mailing. I know the economy is down, but there still is plenty of opportunity available. When one considers how many companies have reduced their marketing budgets, it actually leaves those with the will and budget to compete with far fewer businesses.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:30 AM
That’s terrific Jenny! With so many people marketing online these days many of us forget that some of the old tried and true methods like direct mailing still work.