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“How to Find a Target Market...Guaranteed!”

by Andrea Wilson

If you don't have a market defined yet for the product you have in mind, you MUST RESEARCH until you find the RIGHT target market. If you plan on writing an information product (e-book) don't even begin to write it until you know who you are targeting. You might end up writing the same e-book after doing your research, but with a different twist or slant because you can see that a certain segment of the population would particularly want to read your book. This would be your target market.

Here's How to Find Your Target Market

Go through the Yellow Pages and look for industries or professions that would benefit from your product or one like it. You are looking for groups who already spend money on ads. Go to the library and ask to see the Standard Rates and Data Services (SRDS) catalogues.

You are looking for associations and trade publications for your targeted group. Are there lots? Good. Call the publications and ask for media kits and the last twelve issues of the newsletter (They may only agree to send one or two. That's okay.). Place ads in these publications to "test the waters" for your product. Place a couple of ads with different headlines to see which one draws better. Point these ads to your Web site where they can order your product or get a free sample. Capture their email address and first name. Why first name? So you can personalize your correspondence.

I've Tested The Waters...Now What Do I Do?

If you have drawn good response from one ad, roll it out to more publications. No luck, change the ad. Don't assume no one wants what you are offering. The ad is critical.

Learn to Write Sales Copy

This is one thing I heard over and over at every Internet Marketing conference I've attended. You have to learn how to write good sales copy. Several Internet Marketing gurus offer help with this. Buy a book, download an e-book. Spend a little money in this area...it will PAY OFF BIG TIME!

Research E-Zines the Same Way as Print Publication

You can do this research for online publications (e-zines), too. Here's a place to start: www.DirectoryOfEzines.com. This is a directory of about 700 e-zines that accept advertising. Read the FAQ's on this site to get a better understanding of what the Directory of Ezines offers.

Use Surveys

If you have an email list, survey them to find out what problem they are having that you could solve. How? Something you may not know about. There's a survey service called One Minute Poll. It saves you a lot of time creating a survey and tabulating the results.

Build Your Market's Trust

My sister Sue plans to write a cookbook some day. Will she have every kind of recipe under the sun in her book? No, she'll write something like "Sizzling Steaks for Seniors" and place ads in seniors magazines and travel and leisure magazines. Why? Because seniors reading these magazines have money to spend. If she has a Web site, she'll make sure her URL is visible on all ads and in the book, too. When they visit her site, she'll capture their name and email address. This way she'll build her list and send out a monthly newsletter full of great recipes, useful shopping ideas and food preparation tips. When she writes her four-part series "Seasonal Sauteéing for Seniors," will her target market buy them? Yes, because by now they feel they know Sue. They've enjoyed her first book and received all those monthly newsletters from her. They trust her.

Here are the three reasons people won't buy from you:

• they have no interest in the product

• they have no money

• they don't believe you.