Where Do I Find More Clients?
In the last post we discussed a cost-effective way to identify your ideal customer.
In the last post we discussed a cost-effective way to identify your ideal customer.
Large concerns spend huge sums of money and take years to conduct this area of marketing, and you've accomplished a scaled down version for free in a few minutes.
Now that you've identified your most valuable type of customer, how do you attract more of 'em?One way to determine this is to ask your control group to describe themselves. Large companies do this by sending out surveys. You can do this yourself by asking them. Find out their preferred magazines and newspapers, websites, stores, etc. You may uncover areas of similarity within the group that point to a target-rich environment for your product or service.
The objective of targeting your advertising is to lower the cost per view or impression of your ad from qualified prospects. By advertising in niche publications you may reach a higher percentage of qualified prospective buyers than in general periodicals. For instance, maybe your ideal client skims the local Pennysaver. Advertising in this publication will undoubtedly cost less than running an ad in the main town newspaper, and you'll reach a higher proportion of prospective customers.
Case Study: Athletic Club
Sometimes you'll discover sources you would never guess. In one company, a martial arts dojo, we discovered that the ideal client was a grad student from the local university. As a result, we discovered their best advertising medium was a handwritten flier with tear-off tabs posted on a local bulletin board.
It turned out the bargain basement look appealed to the price-sensitive student. As a result, we reduced the yellow pages, newspaper, and coupon ad expense, and blanketed the bulletin boards with handmade posters. Our ad cost to reach this segment dropped which proved a windfall.
In the next post I'll explain how to determine what you want to tell your reader and then we'll look at how to calculate the true value of a customer and see why that's important. And later on I'll explain some potentially disastrous pitfalls of using Paypal to accept credit cards. If you have a Paypal or other consumer merchant account, you definitely want to read about these scary possibilities. Until then,
profitable business All!
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Hi, I was just reading your post and I am still having a hard time visualizing how I am going to request information from my customer base like you described above. Do you call and ask them over the phone, or is it a paper type survey? Is there a way that you can approach the conversation without sounding like you are prying for information at the risk of violating privacy? Thanks for your input!
ReplyDeleteIt really seems to be looking outside the box when you choose advertising strategies. What a great lesson about the tear off posters. In our economy these days there are quite a few customers who just shut down at adding extra expense. If there is a way it will save them money in the long run, however, they may just bite.
ReplyDelete@Terry
ReplyDeleteI personally would choose to use facebook, being that they will already have the information requested all you would have to do is target your advertisement based on their age, interests, etc.
I am curious about your next blog post being that I have used Paypal to accept payments and have not currently had any trouble (thank goodness).
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question and your readership.
It depends on the relationship you have with your customer. We're assuming that you're pretty close with your ideal client so you can talk to them. Just be aware of boundaries. Don't ask anything personal that they might feel uncomfortable disclosing. You can manage this by using an anonymous survey. However, crafting an effective survey requires a great deal of specialized skill so I recommend employing skilled marketing help.
Thanks again for your questions and please continue to read. There's a lot of great material coming shortly. Until then,
pfA!