You wouldn’t be running a business if you didn’t have people already buying your product or service. But in a sea of small businesses and tough competition, how do you catch your slippery customer hook, line and sinker?
1. Know what you’re fishing for
Fishermen don’t go fishing for goldfish when they’ve got families at home hungry for dinner. They pick the right fish and they bring them home. Knowing your target customer is one of the first things every business owner should do when starting out. The biggest mistake small business owners make when developing their marketing strategy is thinking that their business is for every fish in the sea. If only every potential catch was the same. But they’re not. And neither are you (or your business!) Marketing your business to a targeted customer increases your chances of converting those customers and building solid relationships with the people who matter. Now, there are plenty of questions you should ask yourself to find your perfect catch, but one of the most important is: “What’s their problem?” Get this nailed, and a whole lot of things will fall into place later.
2. Pick the right place to fish
Now that you know what you’re fishing for, the fishing and catching becomes a lot easier. But how do you know the right place to fish? Fishermen will often read reports in the morning paper telling them where the best catch of the day will be. It’s not as easy for you as a business owner looking for customers, but it’s not that hard either. Firstly, do a bit of research about the area where you’re focusing your business. Is it local? National? Or global? Getting an understanding of where your customer is located means you can focus your marketing tactics specifically on those areas. After that though, the better your profile of the customer you’re after, the easier it will be to find where they hang out. Are they a member of a network like Australian Businesswomen’s Network for example? Or likely to be searching for information about your product or service online? If they are, what search terms are they using? Next tip is – don’t fish next to another fisherman unless you’ve got better bait. Put simply, if you’re sitting alongside a competitor who is offering the same type of product or service as you, make sure you’re offering something tastier.
3. Use the right bait
Now if you haven’t figured it out by now, YOU’RE THE BAIT! So make sure you’re as tasty as possible. The best way to do this is by constructing your pitch and reach outs based on the problem you identified that they have. You need to remember that you’re really in the problem distribution business – because what goes hand in hand with that, is your solution. And if you’re writing web copy for instance, make sure what you put on the page is the perfect information for the search terms you already decided your ideal customer was using. Finally, remember that it’s not really about you, it’s about them….
4. Reel them in
This is where we diverge from the fishing analogy – you’re not going to eat your catch for dinner here, you’re going to nurture them and keep them with you. So after you’ve reeled your target customer in with your bait, make sure that you deliver on your promises and reward them for biting your bait. Happy fishing!
