Earlier, I was reading this post from Seth Godin:
Three Things You Need If You Want More Customers
In it, he breaks down in broad but simple terms the three things you need if you want more customers:
1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach.
2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution.
3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.
As thirty day challengers, the first thing we hear about in Ed Dale’s “Symphony of Four Parts” is the market research, and this ties into it beautifully.
We learn about identifying our market, refining our keywords/phrases with Market Samurai and narrowing things down to our “phrase that pays.” We look at the numbers and work within those numeric parameters to make sure our “phrase that pays” is viable.
Then, we build a blog or site around it and see if we can get ranked fairly quickly and get traffic.
Once we have the traffic, we can test to see if they will “convert” – or buy whatever we’re offering. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – and when it doesn’t work – I have to ask myself…why?
Sometimes, it’s easy to lose site of the customer…I like doing the research, looking at numbers – working within established parameters. It’s all very logical, comfortable – numbers are so easy to define… But I’ve come up with a couple of duds over the last six months. And I think it’s because I get too into the science of it and forget all about the fact that I’m trying to turn a searcher into a satisfied customer.
Maybe I can get ranked…I can even get traffic – but in the case of my duds, I could have saved myself a lot of time had I simply filtered my “phrase that pays” through the three items above.
In both cases for me, I was able to satisfy number 1 – Market Samurai is AWESOME for that.
For numbers two and three, I think it just takes asking yourself those questions about your phrase, like this:
If my phrase is “how to report credit” AND the niche I’m trying to market to is “small businesses with in-house credit accounts who need to report their accounts to the credit bureaus, but don’t know how” – I just ask myself if my solution will help them – and if they have the desire and ability to spend money to solve the problem identified or implied by that phrase…
As it turns out – it will – and they do.
Now, If I was marketing on a local level only – I may not be able to get enough customers to support that business. But because of the way we can leverage the internet, we can target and reach a large group of potential businesses who need to solve that problem.
And that spells success!
So – in YOUR efforts to build YOUR internet business, just remember to keep your customers in mind. As you do your research and identify keywords/phrases with potential – filter them through the list of three things above. You’ll likely save yourself some money, time and a lot of effort…
Hug your kids – as of the 14th of this month, I’ve got a NEW one to hug!
Father and Son, 37 and 10 - taking the Thirty Day Challenge together and sharing our notes on what we learn about earning money online...
The Father & Son Thirty Day Challenge|2008 