It is absolutely vital that you know who your Target Audience is.

Why? Because if you send out marketing materials to people that are not likely to need your products/services – you are wasting your time and valuable resources.

How do you know who your Target Audience is?

Your TA is simply the people that you would like to do business with. In essence you need to know who your ideal clients/customers are. Once you know this, you will know how and where to look for these people/businesses.

For example, if you are a hairdresser, would you be looking for clients by advertising in a national fishing magazine, or would you be better focusing on people within a 5 mile radius of your salon?

If you are a plumber, would you find many customers by advertising in a national computer magazine, or would a more local approach work better?

If you are a mail-order bookseller, would you put leaflets through 5,000 doors in your local area, or would you have more success with an advert in a national publication?

I know these are slightly extreme examples, but I hope you can start to see the point in trying your best to put your offer in front of the people who are most likely to respond.

Recently I was talking with a coach business who wanted to start running coach based tours for older folks from the Midlands to various seaside resorts for one and two week holidays. They were talking about an advert in “Yellow Pages” for next year. I asked them how many of their target audience would look through that publication if they wanted a holiday. As we started brainstorming, excellent ideas such as Post Offices, Supermarkets, Church Halls, where lunch clubs and tea dances are held, hairdressers and cafes locally would be good places for posters. All places where their Target Audience would be much more likely to see the tour posters and respond to them.

It is the same for any business. Spend some time really thinking about the people most likely to benefit from what you are offering and where to focus your marketing efforts to ensure they see your offer and it is compelling enough to trigger a response.

Are you doing this kind of laser focused marketing at the moment? If so, revisit your original findings and make sure they are still 100% valid. If not, start today.

~Ray

This is a guest post…

When a person comes online, they are generally looking for information and resources. Many people are searching for a way to make money online and therein lies the setup for an unhealthy partnering of newbie and Internet savvy scam artist.

Everyone that has been online for a while and has set up a business needs to market that business to pay their bills and to grow their business. However, marketing seems to be in need of growing a “conscience” when it comes to the ebooks, the software, and the tools that are offered to new people and those that are still searching for a method to better their life. Whether retail marketing or sponsorship program, each requires a lot of the person’s time and resources to market to the new client.

Every day there are emails offering the newest marketing blitz, the most cherished system that a person cannot live without, the only method to making thousands of dollars as evidenced by the checks the marketer has received. Granted, there are disclaimers, but it is like saying something in a courtroom. Once the word is out, it is highly unlikely that the jury is going to forget what was mentioned. The same goes for claims to wealth.

Receiving an email with a product that seems legitimate and is followed with a heart-felt sales offer will encourage many people to continue and become a representative. The story behind how the marketer got to his position, how he felt during the start-up phase, and how he managed to obtain the goals set is much more interesting than how much he received in his last check. There has never been anyone that could spend that marketer’s check but himself, so there seems to be no real reason to be showing checks in a sales solicitation.

After a person becomes a representative or purchases a product from a marketer, that marketer has a responsibility to help or lead the new person to obtain their goals. To keep retail sales from being cancelled, a follow up email on how to use the product or some of the benefits not mentioned previously or some general knowledge of how the product has helped others will be most welcomed. The follow up lets the new representative know that the marketer has his best interests at heart and that he is not just another notch in his sponsor’s printout sheet. Knowing there is a caring person behind a great product or program is more than enough motivation to a new person. This can be an inspiration to them to do well and to continue to try knowing that they have someone in their corner should a problem or questions come up.

Many Online marketing send out multiple solicitations to join their respective companies and, honestly, just wait to see who takes the bait and runs with it. That is one method of marketing, but it seriously lacks a sponsor’s responsibility. A marketer should help a new person as much as that person wants to work.

Giving ideas, helping them through hard and easy times, and sharing methods that seem to be working and letting the everyone takes what they need and leave the rest seems to be a responsible attitude. Everyone is different and new people have fear of failure on their mind and so trying to make everyone fit one mold is not a workable method. What works for one may not work for another, but it is helpful to the new person to know what the options are and to count on their representative to guide them.

To sum it up, if you are working programs or products that require sponsoring, then make sure that you retail products and that you spend time with those you bring into the program.

To do anything other than guide and share with those that you sponsor is irresponsible marketing and should be reconsidered.

Internet marketing can be a great source of friendship and business profits that last a lifetime if promoted properly. Do your part to make the Internet a more responsible and caring place.

This is a guest article…

One of the most vital aspects of this recent marketing concept which every business owner should be aware of is that it’s completely free. With the right idea, intuition and planning; viral marketing on social networking websites can return thousands of client prospects to any business website.

Social networking website, as the name suggests, are networks of people and friends who use the Internet to communicate, socialise and share, all through one website. Common websites of this nature are Myspace, Facebook, Bebo and many others.

These websites can be utilized through viral marketing methods; that is the concept of providing marketing material which propagates itself to many other people by giving an incentive for this to occur. For today’s Internet audience this incentive is usually interesting, entertaining and more commonly, not related to the business involved. internet marketing

This may sound confusing but it’s the system of these networking websites which allows this technique to become effective. For example if a business finds a video which could become popular. If this video is interesting, entertaining or both, it will entice viewers to pass it onto their friends to share it. By adding your website link or marketing message into that video as a footer, or maybe adding your URL to the video description, your business details are being passed wherever the video is sent. This is what makes viral marketing on social networking websites so powerful for businesses of any size.

One important factor must always be taken into account for successful viral marketing and that’s to not flood the media with your material. Journalists, the media and members of the public will value your contributions much more if every one of them has a sense of strong content and a good angle. Distributing viral releases or PR as much as you can will result in people devaluing your presence if the content isn’t worthwhile. internet marketing

Some websites such as Myspace also offer profiles which can be used to the same effect. Making a profile for your business allows you to add people all over the world as friends, who can see your profile and therefore any marketing message you choose to present. However an interesting, unique angle is often required to make the most effective use of this method. For example using an interesting, make-believe character as the profile owner or offering another, more attention-grabbing incentive for visiting your website.

Should you get professional assistance with social networking campaigns? That’s the question many businesses will ask.

“One of the great benefits of viral marketing on social networks and anywhere else is that it’s 100% free and can provide fantastic results. Good marketing agencies do have the Public Relations and marketing knowledge to get the right angle for your material, which will result in the most publicity. Whether a person chooses management for their viral campaigns depends on the situation they are in but if the budget is there then I’d certainly recommend looking into it.” internet marketing

Internet marketing success is not easy to quantify because it varies for each and every online individual.  But there are some indicators that can help you to gauge the success of your efforts.

Current internet marketing has developed and modernized the area of online advertising and marketing.  You need to make sure that your webpage has completely and thoroughly informed, persuaded and convinced you customer that they need to have your product/service without another moments’ delay.  Your web page should have astonishing substance, your articles should be attractive and persuasive and your videos should be well designed to help convince your customer to buy.

Although there is no definite description for internet marketing success, if your web site has a large number of valuable incoming links, your site will be considered powerful.  The more incoming links you have will certainly help improve your site’s Search Engine ranking.  Email marketing is an essential component of internet marketing.  You must capture every single visitors detail and create a list of consumers for your product.  You can then send them much more detail and specifications about your product/service.   You must have a thorough knowledge about the business which you have decided to start marketing online.  Along with your detailed knowledge, you need to be prepared to work very hard, establish objectives for your marketing strategy and continually test every activity you undertake.  Determination is an essential quality needed to enable you to persist with your business when times are difficult.  You need to ensure you clearly define what your product/service offers your prospective customer, what benefits they will experience from using it and how they will feel afterwards.  Just defining your product/service is not be sufficient.  Following the above will put you on the right track for success in your internet marketing efforts.

Once your website is performing well, you can add another element to it, affiliate marketing.  Affiliate  Marketing involves you promoting other complementary business products and services using your web site and earning commission for your service.

There are plenty of guidelines available for helping you to succeed.  A successful internet marketer requires a lot of knowledge but have an aptitude to continue learning and increasing skills, good planning ability and lots of energy.

The sky is the limit when it comes to internet marketing potential. Use all that you can find on internet marketing techniques, internet marketing tips and the plethora of tools available to improve your success rate.

Remember, be ready to learn and adapt to the latest Internet Marketing trends and integrate them into your activities.

~Ray

I joined Ecademy in March 2008 and was full of interest and excitement as I hadn’t come across anything quite like the site before.  Online networking was new to me then and I was keen to talk to as many people as possible to get my name known and my business recognized somewhere other than this blog, which was 6 months old at the time.

There was a flood, literally, of new contacts in the first few days of my membership.  It seems some members, particularly the black stars, who prey on the new joiners and catch them totally unawares.  I was flattered at the attention, all these impressive business people striving to add me to their contact list.  After a while though, my research showed me that there are several tools that are available to black star members that the mere mortals such as myself where not privy to.  It seems the black stars can send standard messages to anyone who joins and anyone/everyone in their contact list.  Every time they write a post they email me, every time they post a marketplace listing, they email me, every time they start a club or are looking for members to their club, they email me, every time they do anything, they email me.

Other membership levels there are power networkers, of which I was one, and free members.  Although there are some good and genuine people on Ecademy,  They are hard to find and I stumbled on a few by pure chance that I want to keep in contact with.  Actually 5 out of 272 (my contact list at date of leaving).  Not a good percentage eh…

The power networkers seem to resent the black stars because of the way they keep pestering everyone as I mentioned above as I was invited to join a power networkers club - strictly no blackstars allowed!

So it became clear there is a two tier structure at Ecademy which was not particularly pleasant.  Each time I posted an article or a listing, the same few “experts” immediately, I am talking of a few minutes, literally, commented and pushed their own point of view.  Some of the comments were not pleasant, or called for, but these “experts” did not post their own views up for others to read - I wonder why!

I was a member of a club specifically aimed at Ecademy members in the East Midlands.  For months there was talk of starting regular meetings in the real world.  Endless discussion but only 1 meeting actually took place recently in Long Eaton at a time I couldn’t attend.  Oh well.  Up until I left there was no feedback about this meeting so I have no idea how it went.  I would have thought though, if it had gone well, they would have told the club members at least.

There are some good points about Ecademy that I will miss.  Within a few hours of joining and setting up my profile, I was on page 1 of google for my name.  That was cool!  The articles and blogs, despite attracting all the attention they did, are found in google and other search engines due to the key words and the little summary box Ecademy have on the site when you post them.

The main drawback though was constantly being contacted by people to be added to their network.  These people often didn’t bother reading my profile to see if I may be remotely interested in them or their business, to see if we had any common interests.  And these contacts came from all over the world.  A fantastic achievement for Ecademy who are trying to build a worldwide network and helpfully show your ranking in the UK and globally constantly.  But a bit tiresome.  I doubt I will ever leave this country, and I doubt even more if my business will stretch even to France, let alone New Zealand or India or Chile, or Morocco or China or……

So what now?

Back in July, I was approached by a chap called Mark who was starting a UK only business online community.  He was experiencing the same problems with Ecademy and started approaching others who were flamed each time they posted, or constantly had helpful and free suggestions to offer other Ecademy members for no financial reward to see if setting up such a forum would be of interest.

Well it was, and it is.  I am now a founder member of a forum called UK Business Labs.  I advertise it here on my blog because I like it.  I really like it.  There is no pressure to find unknown people and chase them to be added to a contact network.  No major ego’s at work.  Just UK business people who want to avoid some of the loneliness of being in business on their own, who want to chat about topical issues of the day, who want help with their websites or business models, who sincerely want to help other people in the same boat as themselves just because they can.

There is ample opportunity to write profiles, blogs, advertisements and postings that are all search engine visible and guess what?  My UKBL profile appears in google above Ecademy.  That is an amazing triumph for a forum that has been going just a few months.  Ecademy have been at it for more than 10 years!!

I did think I would have more regrets about leaving Ecademy but no.  I only now have to concentrate on one site which is a real pleasure to visit.  There have been occasional attempts to spam the forum by new members but the moderators are on top of this and deal with it immediately.  I can ask any question on the forum about business, topical events or stuff in my personal life and get solid, measured, helpful, friendly, meaningful responses.

The forum is UK centred so there are no approaches from elsewhere that are destined to go no-where.

So, if you want to find me these days, look on UK Business Labs and say hello.  Have a good look round and you might actually start to realize that what I have been saying is right.  It must be because membership is growing daily and there are a lot of ex and current Ecademy members already there!

~Ray

Now that it has been over a year (I can’t believe it either!!) since I started this blog, I feel it is time to explain how I became able to blog almost overnight, from being a total blog virgin and not even knowing what a blog was.

Anyway… here are my secrets…

I was on a marketing course in December 2006 when I met this unassuming chap called Ed Rivis. He gave a short talk on internet marketing and although almost paralysed with nerves, he went on to give a full and detailed description of all the (then) popular internet marketing avenues open to a business - of which having a blog was one.

Not knowing much about blogs I pursued some of the other suggestions Ed made to good effect.

So it was a no-brainer when I heard Ed had produced a complete educational course on blogging. I had to buy it to learn about the black art of blogging. I wasn’t disappointed.

A whole disk arrived in the post and dispite my distinct misgivings about the quantity of materials, I put the disk in and started watching.

I watched the entire disk, working the clear examples as demonstrated on the screen, downloading the software and configuring it exactly as Ed did on the screen and… bingo, I had a blog!

What a program!! If you are remotely interested in blogging you must put this how to disk on your essential purchase list. He even gives examples of how to get your brain into blogging mode and kick start your creative juices.

OK. I know it is only enough to get you started, but just getting started is actually quite a steep mountain to climb without the knowledge, clear instructions and multiple demonstrations from Ed to keep you on the right road.

Anyway, this blog is a testiment to Ed. Without the Ultimate Guide To Highly Profitable Small Business Blogging I would probably not have started last September.

So cheers Ed - thanks for your help! And no, I don’t get any commissions or anything for sending you over to buy this. I am just one happy bunny who bought it, started a blog and now have in excess of 50,000 hits per month.

~Ray

As a successful business owner, you are constantly wondering how you can attract more business and more clients.  If your business is online, the main challenge is how to get more traffic to your website.  Marketing is the answer for both online and offline business growth.  Without marketing, you will never be able to get targeted traffic into your website, or focused prospects to your business.

Internet marketing is not quite as easy as it may sound.  It may not have the costs attached to some traditional methods, but you do have to work hard in order to attract targeted traffic into your website.  You need to write a constant flow of good articles that are related to the products or services that you are selling.  Joining forums and the discussions in it are an excellent way of raising your profile and posturing yourself as THE expert in your area.  You also need to have a good, active and visually appealing website.

Whatever you are selling, internet marketing is more hard work than money but get it right and the pay-offs are substantial.

There are excellent websites set up specifically to help spread knpwledge and contacts and some can help you with your business growth.  Thanks to social networking websites, such as Facebook, you will see that internet marketing is a now a lot easier than ever before.  Facebook has become one of the most popular social  websites.  Here you will find a tremendous amount of traffic.  It has millions of subscribers logging and out each day and many thousands more registering each day and you can be sure that you will be able to get your fair share of targeted traffic from this website.

On Facebook you will see that all kinds of people with different social backgrounds join.  The members themselves separate themselves into distinct groups which you can see.  The fact that Facebook gives the flexibility for people to create and join groups of their own choices means that you should be able to track down your target customers.

Whether the group is separated by age, school, gender or interests, you will find them all on Facebook.

Another great thing about Facebook is that it will provide every member with the tools needed in order to communicate with their network. These tools can be used to advertise or market your products/services to other Facebook subscribers.  You can use social ads, Facebook beacon, Facebook Platforms, pages, insights and polls.  Learn more about Facebook Marketing direct from the site itself. Once you have joined, make sure you look me up there and make contact!

~Ray