Everyone knows that any successful business has a “dream market” – a list of people out there that represent the best of the best in terms of prospects. But, where are they? Typically, they’re scattered all over the country. Here’s how to find them and make them yours.
Determine Target Market and Buyer Persona
Before you do anything, determine your buyer’s persona. What, or who, are the most likely candidates for your product or service. Without knowing this, you don’t know who to market to. And, if you don’t know who to market to, you can’t design and create any marketing pieces.
The first way to define your market is to determine if there’s a particular size or demographic makeup you need to target. For example, do you need to work with companies that have a minimum number of employees?
Do you need to work with companies from a particular area of the country or that are in a particular industry? What about private vs public companies – does it make a difference which business structure or type you work with?
Next comes the buyer’s persona. What personality do you work well with? For example, do you need to work with extroverts, introverts, “thinkers,” or “doers,” or is there some other personality type that you think is the ideal type for your product or service?
A Meyer’s-Briggs test might be helpful in identifying these personality types more clearly so that you can determine this for yourself. Be careful though. Personality typing is not only very complex, it will set the stage for your company’s future growth.
Cultivate Relevant Content
Relevant content can only be created once you’ve got an idea of the type of company you want to work with. Let’s say you market primarily to small business owners, for example. All of your content would be geared towards helping the small business owner understand your product or service and how it can solve their problems.
Content needs to be created in such a way so as to be “evergreen” and marketable – at least for those pieces that you want to use as quasi -marketing pieces. Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique is probably one of the best strategies for B2B marketing, since it gives you a repeatable, measurable, way to create content that sells without coming off as being “salesy” – something most modern businesses resist.
Market That Content
Marketing your content doesn’t have to be difficult, but it is labor-intensive. Email outreach, phone outreach, and in-depth analysis of the types of backlinks that will be most beneficial are the be st ways to market content. At the same time, many businesses don’t want to put in the effort of time to do things this way.
Resist the urge to use third-party marketing agencies that rely on “backlink building” using link wheels, paid links, or some other tactic which violates Google’s (and others’) TOS. You don’t want to end up like J.C. Penny, Forbes.com, 1-800Flowers, Newsday, GoCompare Insurance, BeatThatQuote.com, GoHealthInsurance.com, GormetGiftBaskets.com, and Overstock. All of those brands were caught red-handed buying links for the purpose of manipulating their search rank.
All of them paid the price.
Track Metrics
According to lead-capture and metrics experts at Blitz, tracking metrics from online marketing efforts is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Without knowing your metrics, you have no basis for understanding how to best use advertising dollars.
You also don’t have any clue about how to really attract customers because you don’t know which marketing really works. Spend time on tracking site visits, time on site, conversions, and phone tracking for phone-in orders, and you can use these analytics to inform your marketing department and get more of those precious, precious, leads.
Michell Redmon has managed a small business for quite some time now. He’s always on the lookout for ways to boost business, and when he finds them, he likes to share them with others. You can find his helpful articles on various blogs and websites.