How Do I Target Customers?

[ChasingtheDream]

I read somewhere that you have to target whatever you are selling to a particular type of person. I don't really understand how to target customers though. Can anyone help? I'm talking to a writer at the moment who is maybe going to write me a book about combining certain foods with a weight training program and it's going to cost me most of the money I have available. I'm a bit scared that I'll blow all my money and not sell it.

[IM Today]

Here's my method:

• Open an account at www.bubbl.us (free)
• Use the mindmapping tools to establish your niche
• Make new bubbles for your sub niches
• Create a new bubble with a generalisation of your market (sex, age, geographical location, earnings, potential interests, where they go, etc)
• Create an additional bubble to 'invent' a person (give them a name, job, school history, home life, a reason for wanting your product, etc)
• Market your product specifically to the person you have invented using keyword research to optimise your sales pages for each sub niche

It's a bit vague but open an account and try it. Things should fall into place quite easily.

[lancejeffersons]

In social networking sites, you add friends, and join groups that share the same and related to your site's niche..You can target your potential customer in this way..

[Jake The Ripper]

Here's my method:

• Open an account at www.bubbl.us (free)

yeah. i tried. but some crap came up saying it wanted to store something on my computer. alarm bells rang. couldn't get off the site faster. i hope your suggestion hasn't virused my computer.

[IM Today]

yeah. i tried. but some crap came up saying it wanted to store something on my computer. alarm bells rang. couldn't get off the site faster. i hope your suggestion hasn't virused my computer.

Jake,

The bubbl.us website was recommended to me by Sean Donahoe. Look him up. He's one of the biggest names in IM and he wouldn't put his reputation on the line by recommending a site that was going to infect the computers of the thousands of people who buy his products every year. The website has been a key research tool in two of his biggest-selling product launches over the last year.

Remember that the site stores the information you put into it. This means that the website will most likely placing a cookie on your computer that will help you retrieve your own information. I use McAfee antivirus and the site has a big green tick next to it in the search engines. This means McAfee view bubble.us as a trusted resource and that there are no signs of suspicious activity on the website.

Relax!

[Ryan.King1809]

I'm talking to a writer at the moment who is maybe going to write me a book about combining certain foods with a weight training program and it's going to cost me most of the money I have available. I'm a bit scared that I'll blow all my money and not sell it.

Sounds to me like your customers will be at the gym. How to target them? It's hard to say at a large scale, maybe you could get a foot-in with some weight/protein merchants, I'm not really experienced enough to tell you. If you are concerned about losing money though, I would be asking myself the question "There a millions of diet and exercise books out there. Why should someone buy your book over any other?". If you can answer that question and get the word out, then you'll have no problems. I hope that was a little bit helpful, goodluck.

[OnefortheMoney]

Health niche. Massive market. Plenty of places to find your prospects. You'll have a strong online audience because the information you want to provide is highly sought after. My question is this. If you're going to create your own product, why are you going to waste time marketing it completely yourself? Get a site built, outsource the copywriting and content, and get the website ready to accept payments. There are thousands of marketers who will happily be affiliates for new products because everybody wants a piece of the health niche pie. Your real challenge here isn't target your market. You'll be better off targetting those who provide for your market.

You're still a newbie, so I recommend you use Clickbank for your product. It's not the best resource but it's the most user-friendly for newcomers.

[LemonChip]

Hard to give any sort of real world examples without knowing exactly what you're selling or who you're trying to target...
But I guess as a generic answer you need to identify who the people are you're trying to target... Male, female, age, income, interests etc. Then you have to tailor your marketing to appeal to their collective personalities, their wants and needs.
Once that's done you just have to make sure that your marketing material is being put in front of them. That could be anywhere from social media groups, to flyers or cross-promotions at stores they're likely to visit. You basically just have to try and piggy back onto businesses / services / common interests that your target audience all share.

[ChasingtheDream]

I'm starting to draw some idea so thanks to everybody who has posted. I've identified my target market as mainly male, under 30, low to average wage with a keen interest in a wide variety of sports and personal fitness. I want to find them online and offline, so I've decided to use health forums as well as my own website to market the product. I'm also going to offer my local gyms a free short version of the book on memory sticks with a return to the website via a link in return for advertising them for free on my website. I have other ideas but these will be the ones to get me going. The book should be relevant for many years so there is no rush to build up different ways of selling it.

[lancejeffersons]

Niche directory and local directory listing..This is also a way to target your customers..