“If you try to sell to everyone, then you’ll end up selling to no-one.”
An old school of thought was to sell, sell, sell – sell to anyone who will buy. Even though this sounds good on paper, it is not very useful. If you are talked to everyone and anyone who will listen about your services and product, eventually, people will stop listening. And if you are a local business, you will start noticing people crossing the street when they see you coming – not fun. This will only cause you to “spin your wheels” without getting the results you are looking to achieve – a.k.a. Grow your business.
Biggest Mistakes:
The biggest mistake business owners and entrepreneurs make to attempt to appeal to everyone at once. In other words, they try to sell to anyone who will buy. Sounds great – right? Wrong. If you don’t have a good understanding of marketing and how to create an effective marketing plan that works, you will make the same mistake.
First things first
There are 2 things you need to know before you can start making money or grow your business
- Know your niche in the marketplace
- Know who your target audience is
#1 – Your Niche
Let’s start by knowing your niche in the marketplace. Competition is fierce online. You only need to spend a few minutes on Facebook to see all the ads in your feed. And what’s with all those ads following me wherever I go on the internet? Unless you have a huge marketing budget – knowing your niche is essential. Basically, your niche is what differentiates you from the competition.
For example, let’s say you want to start a business designing websites for businesses. If you search the internet, you will see there are thousands of successful companies building a website. Also, there is a huge amount of “website builders” like Wix and GoDaddy that will allow people to cheaply build a website. If trying to grow your business as a website designer, you will have a difficult time. Knowing your niche is understand what makes you different – what problems can you solve in for your customers that others are not?
#2 – Your Target Audience
There is a lot of information on the internet about the target audience, and it can be confusing. Read any article, and the first things they tell you to do is decide the demographic:
- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Profession
- Income
- Education Level
- Marital status
Hmmm…..When I first saw the demographic list, I thought, “Really? What does this mean?” Looking at who my clients were, some were in their 30’s while others were in the 50s. I had both female and male clients, and they were located all over the US. I did not understand how this was going to help me find my target audience.
But when I looked a little deeper, I saw the similarity. Even though I have male clients, most of them are female. They are entrepreneurs and small business owners in their mid-40s with an online business in the service industry. They all know who their target audience is but struggle to find them online.
Why is this important?
Knowing your niche in the marketplace will make growing your business easier. You will be able to easily find your target audience. Identifying your target audience will give you a clear focus on who you will serve and why those people need your products and services.
