Friday, June 6, 2008

Why Must You Define Your Target Market Before Starting Your Online Marketing Campaign?

What is target marketing? Simply put, it involves breaking a market into segments and then focusing your marketing efforts on one of those segments.

The key to any businesses success can depend on target marketing. It provides focus for all your marketing activities and makes them more cost effective.

Entrepreneurs who do not plan ahead to determine who their target market is before they spend money on advertising will end up wasting a lot of time and money.

You can plan ahead by:

1. Determining the correct target market for your business.

2. Figure out the best way to reach them.

3. Develop a message to reach them with.

Think of your target market as those people who are most likely to buy from you. Do not be too general, describe your target market with as much detail as possible, using your knowledge of your service and how it will benefit others. Ask who would want your product or service? Successful entrepreneurs understand that only a limited number of people will want their service or product. Your goal should be to determine, as closely as possible, exactly who those people are and then targeting your marketing campaigns toward them.

TIP: Become a specialist. Do not attempt to offer everything to everyone, refine your service or product so that you attract a particular customer segment - your target market.

Why do people spend their money on products or services?

1. To solve a problem.

2. To satisfy a basic need.

3. Most importantly, to feel good.

Which category does your service or product provide a solution for? Once you know be prepared to market to it accordingly. Keep in mind that your service may fit into more than one of the three categories.

Your potential customers can not tell the difference between your company and your competitors. So it is your responsibility to target the group that you know is interested in your service.

Target marketing provides direction for your service or product. Once you know your target market you can then direct all your resources to this potential group of people. Your business will gain focus and you not waste your time or money on people who have no interest in what you are offering.

Some advantages to knowing your target market are:

1. Potential customers who read your marketing ads will know exactly why they need your services.

2. It will help you decide how and where to market your business.

3. Your marketing strategy will be more effective and produce more results.

The bottom line for your business is less time wasted on marketing campaigns that will not benefit your business and more time dedicated to locating prospects and turning them into customers.

There is a target market for everything. Why would someone buy water in a bottle when they can get it for just about free from the faucet?

So, have you identified your target market yet?

Copyright 2007 Joe Rispoli

Leverage your online marketing campaigns with our free advertising resources. Visit Joe Rispoli's website at UcanTo.com, to find out how you can advertise your business for free.

Productive Article Marketing Revealed - 4 Comprehensive Ways to Multiply Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of the best website SEO strategies that is designed to get free targeted traffic for your website. It works by writing original articles that are related to your target niche and submitting them to various article directories online. These articles are then posted by publishers so other webmasters and ezine publishers can use them for free as long as they keep the resource box that directs online users to your website.

1. The success in article marketing largely depends on the quality of articles your write. In order for your copies to be widely distributed, they must be easy to read, well-written and focused on your target niche. Focus on writing articles that offer solutions as these are the kinds of copies that are often search for by most online users.

2. Choose keyword-rich titles. People search the internet through the use of keywords. When you make your headlines keyword-rich, they will be most likely to be found by your potential readers. To further entice your readers to open your articles, make sure that your headlines are intriguing and attention-grabbing.

3. Keep your articles short. Online users today have shorter attention span and they prefer short articles that are direct to the point and meaty.

4. Multiple the number of your articles. While it it true that the quality of your articles is the number one element that dictates the success of your article marketing campaign, the quantity of your articles plays crucial part too. As each submission grants you one quality inbound link, the more articles you submit, the more links you obtain for your website that can result to increased traffic and of course, sales.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

SEO Secret - Don't Tell Anybody!

Content, content, content is the mantra. Then many gurus go on to espouse 'go for the long tail keywords' - it is easy to get top rankings for these keywords. Tosh - more of this later.

Long Term Keywords

Say you are trying to create a page on your website that is targeted at the keyword "Directory". Hey that is a highly competitive keyword with 977,000,000 competing pages. However, if you design a page targeting "top submission list of business directories in UK", the competition is down to just 240,000 pages. So the gurus will tell that is easier to get a top ranking on that phrase - its true but is it worth it?

Proportionate Effort

How many vistors will you get for such a phrase? Probably peanuts - remember you still have to create the page, and promote it with a linking strategy. So how many long term keyword phrases (and content pages) will you have to target to get reasonable traffic? It is also probably true that sites with high rankings for "directory" or "directories" or "business directories" will also do well for this long tail keyword phrase because the power phrase is "directory" or "business directory".

OK - if you go for the killer phrase, nobody is going to kid you that it is going to be easy! Aiming for a 1000 visitors a day from one keyword phrase has its attractions though! But as before you have to create the content and have an extensive linking strategy. However, even if your ultimate aim is a Page 1 ranking, one of the side effects is that you will rank well for long tail keywords anyhow as the campaign rolls out. For example, you will start to rank well on various combinations with the keyword "directory" included.

This is not going to happen overnight but there are plenty examples where small companies have taken on the big boys. Even for example in the highly competitive market of Golf, at least one of big hitters started from nothing and competes with the big boys.

Howard Farmer
Business Links Directory - promote you website in our Professional Business Directory. Our site includes extensive categories, Google maps for your location, and comprehensive site descriptions. Submit your site today - all sites reviewed within 24 hours. Visit our collection of SEO articles.

Best Article Marketing - Announcing 5 Powerful Ways to Grow Your Article Marketing

A lot has been said about article marketing but one thing remains true: It is the best free marketing technique in the World Wide Web today. This is the reason why numerous webmasters are making this method their primary marketing arm. It doesn't only deliver impressive results but it also makes product and website promotion a lot easier even to those people who do not have technical skills.

1. Clearly define your objectives. If you are writing and submitting articles just to create inbound links for your website without seriously considering the needs of your target market or making your content useful, you are doom to fail. You must strive to make your articles content-rich so they will be read by your target market. It is only through this that you can increase the chances of your resource box being clicked.

2. Attract the right kind of traffic. Sure you can attract all sorts of traffic using this method. But if you want to increase your sales and your online revenue you must attract those people who are most likely to buy from you. How? By making your articles more targeted. Focus your contents on your target niche so they will be picked by target audience.

3. Make your articles easy on the eyes. Break your articles into short paragraphs leaving several white blank spaces for your readers. This will make your content look scannable and readable.

4. Optimize your content. Make it easier for your potential readers to find your content online by incorporating major keywords not only on your article body but most importantly, on your titles or headlines.

5. Write articles on a regular basis. Increase your online presence by writing and submitting articles, if possible, on a daily basis.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Profitable Article Marketing - 6 Key Ways to Make Money With Article Marketing

Article marketing is probably the best traffic-generating technique there is in the internet today. It help you create quality inbound links to your website in an instant and it helps your website rank higher on major search engines. Not only it brings enormous traffic to your site, but above all, it makes your website popular without the need to shell out money. Here are the 6 ways to make money with article marketing:

1. Consistency. Few submissions won't guarantee your success in article marketing. To promote quality and steady traffic to your site, you have to be consistent in terms of writing quality articles and submissions.

2. Fresh content. Always provide your readers with new information that is useful and timely.

3. Length of the article. Most online users do not have the time to read very long articles. If you have a lot to say, make a 2 500-word article instead of 1-1,000 word articles. You will be sure that your articles will be read and you earn not just one, but 2 quality inbound links.

4. Article distribution service. If you don't have the time to submit your articles manually, you can use article distribution services that are very cost-effective. For less than $5, these services will electronically distribute your articles to thousands of online publishing and article directories.

5. Resource box. You would like your readers to click on your website's URL, right? You can do that by crafting the perfect resource box that will entice your readers to visit your site after they read your article.

6. Use keywords throughout your articles. You can sprinkle keywords on your title, on the body of your article, and even on your resource box so your article will be indexed by search engines.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.