Client Conversion aka The Conversation You Should Be Having Online

Episode Transcript:
Hey there. How you doing? It’s Chris, your friendly neighborhood, Internet Sherpa back again with another one of those tips on how to use the internet to bring buyers to the door, but cheeks in the seats, and of course, build your list.
Today, I want to hit you with one of those cliches that I tend to pull out from time to time when I’m working with brand new clients.
For most of the clients that I work with, I’m the first marketing dude they’ve ever dealt with. So normally, I have to find a way to get across marketing stuff.
One of the cliches that I use, it’s kind of a sideways cliche, but it’s just how I talk, is Your customers really don’t care what’s in the gumbo. They just want you to spoon them up a big old bowl and push it across.
I don’t know why I got hooked on the gumbo for that particular cliché. It probably has something to do with me hanging out in Louisiana thanks to my rich Uncle Sam.
If you’ve never been to Louisiana, I highly suggest you take a little time and wander down there. It’s a different kind of place. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s not like the rest of the United States. I’ll just leave it at that.
Anyway, the thing that’s most important to get across, the thing that I used to have to work the hardest with, is to get my clients to take off their technicians hat and then put on their marketers hat.
What I mean by that is if you tend to be good at doing a thing, you tend to be focused on that and think that everyone else is focused on that. So if you’re a massage therapist, hairstylist, esthetician, whatever, all that stuff that you did to get good at that, that’s your focus. It’s very easy to think that your clients are focused on that too.
And they’re not. They’re 100% not.
They want you to be focused on that, but that’s not what they’re there for. Not at all.
They’re there for what, all of that goodness that you have cumulated all that knowledge they are there for what’s on the other side of it for them.
They’re not there for what you do, they’re there for what you do does for them. That’s an interesting little concept to get across to people.
I was working with an esthetician when I first got started, back in the day working on websites. She had a radio frequency skin tightening service that she provided.
She was all about that machine. She wanted it featured on her website. I didn’t know any better. I do now.
I said, give me the link to your manufacturer. I went there and realized that every bit of information that was on that website was all about having a conversation with estheticians.
Nothing on that website was about here’s the information that you can use to talk to your clients because your clients don’t care about this piece of machinery.
So over time I realized, oh, there’s this thing going on here.
I had to get her off of the concept of selling the benefits of using this machine and talk about what the machine does.
We eventually got there, but that was an eye opening experience. I’ve found that I run into it myself from time to time.
Most of the people that I work with, I have to get that across.
It’s not the hardest thing in the world to do, but sometimes it takes a little bit to go,
“Hey! What you think is important, isn’t what your clients think is important. Even though you’re kind of talking about the exact same thing”.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say I’m working with an aesthetician and, maybe they do facials. I mean, it’s the aesthetician. In addition, they do a few other things to include permanent makeup or, microblading, not quite the same thing, but you know where I’m going with this.
I would say, “Hey, what is the problem that your best customer wants you to solve?”
First of all, it narrows down who we’re talking about because you know, somebody who wants microblading may not want some of these other services. It narrows that down.
So they’ll say my best customer wants Permanent Makeup.
Cool. Now I started with the why’s.
The first question. Why?
Because they want their eyebrows to be nice and neat and pretty
Cool. Why?
Because they don’t want to be walking around with crunchy looking eyebrows or something to that effect. I’m paraphrasing.
Okay, cool. Why?
Because… I could say something like, because they don’t like getting up in the morning and having to deal with that every day. There could be a bunch of things.
At some point, if you keep asking why, you’re going to get to that emotional why. The emotional why is what I refer to as the underlying Why?
That’s the conversation that you need to be having. That’s the marketing point.
That’s the part that the people are coming, looking for. That is the conversation you need to be having. That’s the frequency you need to be transmitting on.
Once, you know the conversation that you’re supposed to be having, everything else starts to make sense.
What you do on social media, what you put on your blog, if you’re going to be blogging, everything that you do.
All of your marketing. The words that you use. The things that you talk about.
All of that hinges on what is that underlying Why?
Because that’s what people who are looking for you are listening for. That’s how they get to, “Oh, this person gets me.”
So the question is, what is the conversation that you should be having? Once you have it start having it as much as possible.
Can you have two or three different conversations?
You absolutely can. You may have two or three different audiences depending on what your services are. What’s most important is that you understand that’s the conversation you’re supposed to be having.
One of the things we keep hearing me talk about is building your list.
Well, at some point, the people that you bump into online are going to end up at your website.
You can’t have a disjointed conversation. What you start to talk about out there online needs to continue when they get onto your website. Otherwise, they’re not going to join your list because you broke the conversation.
So, everything from the content on your website, your social media, even the stuff that shows up in your reviews.
All of that needs to be aligned along this one conversation that you’re trying to have.
Once you get that done, then all kinds of things wonderful happened for you.
All right. I think that’s what I really wanted to hit you about. Make sure you understand this conversation.
Now, if you don’t quite get how I said that you need a little bit more syllables from me, give me a call (702) 582-6708 or hit me up at https://ift.tt/3BLlqXV.
We can kick the Willie Bobo just a little bit longer and really dive into this because the conversation you have is very important and it’s important that you get it right. And I am here for it.
So if you need my help, you got it.
Now, before I bounce out of here, let me say one more time. Thank you very much for throwing your attention in my direction. You could be throwing your attention anywhere in the world, anywhere else at all, but for this short period of time, you’re throwing it at me and I do appreciate it.
So thank you. Go forth and do good things. I’ll talk to you next time.

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3 Tips on How to Build Trust Online

Hey there. How are you doing? It’s Chris, your friendly neighborhood, Internet Sherpa. Back again with another one of those tips on how to use the Internet to bring bodies through the door, put cheeks in the seats. And of course, build your list.
Thanks for lending me your attention one more time again. 
Today I want to chat with you about something that’s so important and ridiculously easy to overlook. And that’s how to build trust online.
You see if you’re going to be operating in this online space, you have to adapt a little bit of what you do offline to the online world.
And trust is one of those things. That’s kind of a biggie.
You know, I’m all about that list, right?
If I don’t mention it like three, four times each time we get together, I’m not doing my duty as I see it.
Well, the thing about that list is that you’ve got two groups of people there.
Customers, who have already spent money with you and know what you bring to the table.
So there’s no real issue with them. Of course, if you stunk up the joint, don’t worry about them. They’re never coming back anyway. Let’s assume you didn’t.
But then you’ve got brand spanking, new people.
Folks who jumped on your lead magnet because it looked tasty to them.
They’re on your list but aside from that lead magnet, as far as they’re concerned, you’re just like everybody else. There’s nothing all that special about you.
Well, if you want to do some commerce with these folks, at some point in the future, you’ve got a little relationship building to do.
You’ve got to get them to feel some kind of way about you. The question is, how do you do that? Well, this is that trust thing I wanted to talk with you about.
Building trust in the online world actually pretty simple. It mimics how you do it in the offline world.
There are probably a bunch of different ways we could break this down, but I’m going to give you three tips to chew on.
1. Show up consistently second,
2. Bring value
3. Be authentic.

Let’s take those one at a time.

How to Build Trust Online: Show Up Consistently

Show up consistently.
There’s something to be said about people we’re familiar with.
If you’re on an elevator headed down to the parking garage at work and a couple of tatted up biker dudes you don’t know get on. Depending on how you roll, you may feel a little uncomfortable. But once you realize it’s Bob and Jim from accounting who are riding out to bike week after work, that whole scenario changes around a little.

If you’re taking this online thing seriously, your visibility depends on you getting content out there online.
Whether you create it or you get someone to create it doesn’t matter. You need content to influence the search engines and the folks you want to do business with.
Well, whatever type of content you prefer, get it out there on a regular basis.
They say it takes 7 to 12 touches before someone is comfortable enough to spend money with you.
Every time someone comes in contact with a piece of your content, that’s a touch. It’s like someone bumping into you on the street in the real world.
Those touches help you rearrange their mental furniture.
You go from, I don’t know this dude to the he’s pretty straight, and that gets you closer and closer to trust, which is on the road to them feeling comfortable enough to spend money with you.
And if you’re wondering how it is they’re going to bump into your content, don’t forget that they’re on your list.
You’ve got permission to reach out to them and say, Hey, how are you doing? What’s up?
Here’s something helpful you may be able to use.
Which brings us to the second point.

How to Build Trust Online: Bring Value

This may sound a little cruel, but it’s real. There some people that just take and never give. You may know one or two of them. Just being around them is a chore.
Then there are those folks that seem to bring up the whole room when they show up. They’re always looking to help out and if they ask for assistance, it’s because they really need it.
Of the two relationships, that second one is the one you want with your list.
If every time you reach out to your list you’re trying to sell them something, they’ll most likely see you as the first guy.
But if you work your position as their resident subject matter expert. You can hit them with things that are common to you but that they would have never known.
Industry trends, new products that are coming out, anything that you know that will make their world a little better.
Getting those 7 to 12 touches is a lot easier when you’re giving instead of taking.
Do you send promotions? Of course, you do. Otherwise, what’s the point?
You’re just going to send way more non-salesy stuff.
Here’s the secret. Even the non-promotional stuff is promotional stuff. You’re promoting yourself.
When your people need something that they know is in your wheelhouse, you’ve already got a seat at the table.

How to Build Trust Online: Be Authentic

So…Show up consistently, Bring value and finally… be authentic.
And what I mean by be authentic. Let folks see your face.
Business is a people that people thing. And when people see your face the mental furniture gets shuffled around pretty significantly.
Before they see your face, you’re a concept. After they see your face, you’re a person.
That’s why I’ve got my handsome mug plastered all over the front of my website.
Good bad or ugly, I want you to know who you’re working with.
Your future customers want to know you’re real.
They want to know that you’re real because it makes them feel comfortable.
Show up consistently, bring value and be authentic.

If you do all those things, that’ how you build trust online.
As you can probably tell, this is one of my favorite topics.
If you want to get your hands on the nuts and bolts of this trust building thing, grab a copy of my Funnel Blueprint at https://chriscarter.net/list.
It breaks down the tools for building your list and how to nurture that relationship so that you can generate sales in a predictable manner. It’s good stuff.
I think that’ll do it for me for today. You could be throwing your attention anywhere in the world but you’re throwing it at me.
And I do appreciate it.
Thanks for listening.

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Marketing Introduction: The List

Today, I want to have a little fun.

I want to give you a little peek into the kitchen, so you can see how the gumbo gets made.

I want to introduce you to the method behind the madness.  The why behind the what.

But before I start running off at the mouth, I’ve got a confession to make.

I‘m not sharing this goodness with you just because I’m a stand-up guy.

I have an ulterior motive. 

I want to shift your thinking a little.

I want to rearrange the old mental furniture as it were.

Specifically, I want to adjust how you look at your list.

If you work in the salon industry, when I say your list, you probably think I’m talking about your clientele.

Which is sort of true, but not completely accurate.

Let me splain.

In s”Salon World,” especially if you’re an independent in Salon World, survival is all about building a clientele.

That’s a bunch of folks who, for whatever reason, decided to give you a shot, then decideded they like what you do, they like the way you do it and they keep coming back.

Without them, every day is a white knuckled struggle to find new biscuits to sit in the chair.

Now, I come from the Internet Marketing world. 

To me there’s a pretty significant distinction between your clientele and your list.

You can reach out to the people on your list. 

You’ve got their phone number, their email.  You may even have a mailing address. 

If you need to contact them for whatever reason, you can.

You don’t have to wait for them to wander back into your shop.

Having a clientele is a good thing, of course, it’s just that it can be a little unpredictable.

Clientele is pretty much a salon industry phrase.  Outside the salon industry they just call it repeat business.

And everyone knows, you don’t survive without repeat business.

With that being said, if you had the option, which would you prefer to have.

A group of people who really like how you do what you do, or a list of people who really like how you do what you do and who just happen to have given you their phone number and/or email address?

Obviously, it’s that second group, but put a pin in that.  I want to knock out one of the walls in your mental living room.  Give you a little more floor space.

Everyone knows that your most important business asset is your list. 

Actually, let me be a little more accurate.  Your most important business asset is a responsive list.  Folks that are accustomed to hearing from you from time to time and are absolutely okay with it.

It’s so much easier to get these folks to stop in for a visit than to try to wrestle some stranger in off the street. 

Now here’s the rearranging the furniture part. 

If you agree with me that a responsive list is a valuable business asset, how many names do you need on your list to keep your appointment book full?

How exactly do you grow that list?

And what do you need to do to make your list a responsive list?

This is my favorite challenge.

You see a lot of entrepre-ninjas I meet are laser focused on getting to that next sale.

Whereas my focus is on getting them to build their list the way Internet marketers think of a list.

That means a list is more than just the folks who have already thrown a little cheddar in your direction. 

It’s anyone who knows who you are, knows what you do and who has given you their email address and/or phone number.

Some folks on your list will have already purchased services from you and some have not.

But what they all have in common is that they know who you are, they what you do and they’ve given you permission to reach out to them from time to time.

Percolate on that for a little why don’t you.

And while you’re percolating, let me give you a big piece of brisket to chew on.

What if you had a list with 1000 names on it.

That’s 1000 names of people who know who you are, know what you do and who have given you permission to contact them from time to time.

Do you think it would be a worth it to build an asset like that for your business.

Now I hate to do this to you, but  I like to keep these little confabs short so I’ve got to get ready to bounce.

But I’ll pick this up next time with a couple of tips on to how to grow your list and how to make it responsive.

Thanks for lending me your attention.

If you want a copy of the actual document I use to explain all of this stuff to my new clients in a non-geeky way, go to chriscarter.net/list and download my client blueprint.

Thanks again for your attention.

I’ll holla at you next time.

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Marketing Teflon – Protection for Your Marketing Budget

Hey there! How are you doing?

This is Chris, your friendly neighborhood Internet Sherpa. Back again with another Internet tip.

Today’s tip is a little different.  Instead of a tip on how to get clients through the door, I’m going to help you with something that I like to refer to as your Marketing Teflon coating.

Did I just make that term up?

Yes, I did.

But when I’m finished with my explanation, I think you’ll be okay with my little bit of creative license.

The “definition” of Marketing Teflon is your ability to cut through the fluff when someone emails you or calls you on the phone to sell you the newest, hottest whatever that  you’ve just got to have for your business.

The genus of this tip comes from a conversation I had recently with one of my peoples that’s much like conversations I’ve had with quite a few others in the past.

It Starts With a Phone Call

In this most recent scenario, an aesthetician client of mine responded to one of those robocalls where they say your Google listing is about to expire or something similar.

Now you may be asking yourself, “If she’s one of your clients, why is she responding to marketing robocalls?”

That’s easy. The people who design those things are good at what they do. Plain and simple. 

I’ll spare you the down and dirty details except to say that at some point during their conversation, what started as a pitch to help with her Google listing turned into a “I can help you promote your business” type of call.

The Only Question That Matters

When she was done telling me all of this, I asked the same basic question I ask whenever this kind of thing pops up.

“What are they actually going to do to bring you new customers?”

As you can imagine, she wasn’t able to tell me what they were going to do, other than “they said they were going to promote my business.”

I certain you’ve been on the receiving end of at least one these phone calls.  Chances are you hang up before you get passed from the recorded message over to a live human being.

What’s important to note is that with these phone calls, the person on the other end of the call is a sales professional with a single purpose.

Get you to say yes.  Either to their main offer, a discounted introductory offer or at the very least some form of a freebie.

Because if you say yes, the conversation continues and they still the opportunity to sell something to you at some point in the future.

That’s straight out of the marketing playbook and it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There are some great offers out there.

The purpose of your Marketing Teflon coating isn’t about saying no to everything, it’s about knowing what you’re saying yes to.

Presentation Is Part of the Process

When someone reaches out to you with an offer, as opposed to you going out into the market and looking for a service, they’re going to present it in the best light possible.

Something that’s going to dramatically increase sales and grow your business.

They’ll listen for clues as to what’s important to you and try to highlight those particular benefits.

Their goal is to get you to engage in something that I like to refer to as wishful listening. 

That’s where you listen to their pitch but you’re already picturing the possibilities.  Thnking about how nice those increased sales will feel.

With your Marketing Teflon coating in place, you’re a little more detached, a little more analytical.

Stay Focused on What They’re Actually Selling

The person on the other end of the line can’t sell results.  All they can sell you is a tool or a process that leads to results. 

And those are things you can evaluate.

• What’s required to make this tool work? 
• Do I have the ability to execute this process? 
• How do they produce said results? 
• Do I have the budget or time to make it work?
• Is this something I can do myself or do I need on going assistance?

These things are specific and quantifiable.

When someone reaches out to you with an offer for a product or service, they should be able to explain to you the exact path that leads directly or indirectly to a sale in non-geeky terms that makes sense to you.

If they can’t, then they either don’t understand their product well enough to sell it to you or they just don’t have a very good product.

So to wrap this up, whenever you’re listening to a marketing pitch be more analytical skeptic than wishful thinker and always have them explain in gnats behind, fine detail exactly how this would work for your specific business.

If you’ve got an offer in front of you that you’re not sure about, just give me a call. (702) 582-6708

I’ll help you make sense any technical mumbo jumbo, cut through marketing speak and make sure you’re solid on pertinent questions to ask so you can make an informed buying decision …whatever that happens to be.

Thanks for listening.  Talk to you next time.

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Content is King. Long Live Content Repurposing.

In the online space, content is king and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Content repurposing is the best way to get a ton of milage out of all of that variety.

If the local news crew does a feature story about you, that’s content. If a client gives you 5 stars on Yelp, that’s content too. Anything that someone can look at online, that has an effect on what people think of your business is content.

Your job is to shape that conversation. One way to do that is by putting your own content out there. And if you’re going to create content, you may as well do a little content repurposing so you get as much bang for the buck as you can.

But let’s not get it twisted, we’re not talking about cranking out a bunch of fluff just to fill up the Internet.

Different people digest the Internet in different ways. Repurposing your content allows you to be where more people are looking with more of what they’re looking for, with a lot less effort.

So What is Content Repurposing?

It’s taking one piece of content and turning it into four, five or even six other pieces of content. Then pushing those new pieces of content out to other online platforms so you can direct people back to your website.

Let’s say you have this nice article you want to hang on your blog. The easiest way to repurpose that article is to turn it into a video. This used to take a whole lot of heavy lifting, but now we’ve got the benefit of technology on our side.

Two sites you may want to investigate are InVideo.com or Vidnami.com. Silly names. Great software. 

Simply cut and paste your article into their software and the system spits out a video, complete with images, scenes and subtitles in less than 10 minutes. If you want to fiddle with it after that you can.  But they’re pretty sweet right out of the box.

I use InVideo most of the time these days but I used Vidnami when I was putting together the Client Finder Course.If you want to give either of these a try use one my affiliate links: https://chriscarter.net/vidnami  or https://chriscarter.net/invideo.

The Vidnami link will get you a 14 day free trial and the InVideo link gives you 50% of for life which is pretty sweet. InVideo also has a free for life tier so you can try either one of these platforms out without really having any skin in the game.

So now that you’ve got a video and an article, you’ve got options. Obviously, you’re going to slap your video on YouTube, but why stop there?

There are a ton of other video sharing sites you can use for content repurposing. Just Google video sharing sites and you’ll see what I mean.

• Daliymotion.com
• Vimeo.com
• Youtube.com

Audio Content Repurposing: Podcast Without Being a Podcaster

You know what else you can do with a video? Pull out the audio and create a podcast.

I know that sounds like a bridge too far, but let’s get real. It’s not like you need to be a technical savant.

As your duly deputized Internet Sherpa, if you want to fire up a podcast so you can get more milage out of your content, I will take care of the geekery and get you over the hump.

Whether you do or not, is up to you.  I just want to remove the technical hurdle so this form of content repurposing is open to you.

Content Repurposing with Social Media

So,  you’ve got a banging article and a killer video. Your next step should be obvious.

Social media.

Social media loves video. Facebook, Instagram video posts and stories. Twitter and of course TikTok.

You’ve got options.

You know what else social media loves? Images. Pictures.  Photos.

Take that original blog article, chop it up into a few snippets, slap some cool images on them and push them out all over your social media as well.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn Pinterest. More bang for your buck.

Reblogging for Content Repurposing

You can get additional milage, even if you don’t chop up your original article.

Repost it to the different blogging sites that are out there :

• Blogger
• Tumbler
• Medium
• and More

Same content. Wider audience.

The Wrap Up

This has been a lot of what, without much of the why. I’ll dig more into the why in another article. 

For now, just think of this way. Whether you like it or not, your company has an online profile and so does your local competition.

For a lot of your future customers, that’s all they get to go by. What you look like online in the various places you show up is their only point of reference. 

You can actively shape your online profile or you can let it shape itself and see what you end up with.

Repurposing content is just one of the tools in the toolbox you can use to shape that conversation.

If you want to take a deeper dive into shaping what your business looks like to your future customers, check out my Client Finder Course or if you’re not into homework, just schedule a call so we can chew the fat a little.

Thanks for the attention. Talk to you next time.

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How to Promote Your Business on a Shoestring Budget

It is a common misconception that marketing and advertising are only for large businesses. This couldn’t be further from the truth! It does take some creativity, but there are plenty of ways to promote your business on a shoestring budget. In this blog post, we will discuss 5 creative marketing ideas that have been proven effective in small businesses.

Start By Creating Useful Content

One the best things you can do to promote your business is be useful. After all, if you’ve got a tiny little website online, you need to make the most of every visitor.

Creating helpful articles is a great way to educate your customer and it gives you an opportunity to share some of the insights and knowledge that are uniquely available through your business.

It also accomplishes one of your key objectives which is to establish your authority with future customers and the search engines that will guide them your way.

In addition to populating your own site with content, it’s also a good idea to publish, promote or even write articles for websites like Medium.com. This will allow you to introduce an even wider audience to your brand.

Remember to Promote Your Business on Yelp

Some of the most important promotion your business will receive will come from outside your company.

The reviews that your customers leave on sites like Yelp, Foursquare and Google Maps have an outsized effect on what many potential customers believe about your company. These reviews are very important to the success of your company and should be monitored regularly.

And while it may not always be the flowery praise we all want, this feedback can help you identify specific things that need improvement, as well as what’s working for your business.

Monitoring Yelp in particular is especially important because it has such a large audience across platforms and impacts the responses from voice assistants like Alexa and Siri.

Leverage the Power of Social Media

People like to do business with people they know like and trust. Social media is one of the easiest ways to help potential customers get to know and like you.

Your routine social media posts promote your business by letting your audience see who you are and what you are all about.

Though it can be easy to get sucked into the social media vortex, try not to post anything more than once a day and make sure each of your posts is high quality with an eye-catching image or graphic.

With social media, a little goes a long way. You do not need to spend a large chunk of your marketing budget to be effective. There’s no need to worry whether or not your audience will find what you post to be interesting.

Anything you post will garner at least some attention, and everything you post will sit online waiting to be viewed by a potential customer who wants to know ore about you and your company.

People want to work people. Using this particular marketing channel helps to humanize your business.

Don’t Forget Referrals. The Original Way to Promote Your Business.

Review marketing is often referred to as the new “word of mouth” advertising, however the “old word of mouth advertising is still out there driving new business every day.

Referral marketing is one of the least expensive and most effective ways to get new clients. You can get a referral from an existing customer or from some other source such as a fellow professional, local shop owner, etc.

One technique that works very well is providing an incentive for people to refer friends and family to you. You could provide the referrer with a free products or services, or even use a points systems. This turns your system into a game where customers can unlock prizes based on how many referrals they send your way!

Referral programs are a great way to grow your business. They allow you to reward the people who are helping you grow your company and they help new customers find you when they otherwise have gone undiscovered.

The main caveat with referral programs is to make sure that the rules are clear and all participants understand them. This helps prevent abuses and hurt feelings over feeling cheated out of something owed them!

One of those common misconceptions a lot of small business owners tend to cling to is that “marketing” is something that only large businesses with deep pockets do. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

Large or small, your business needs new folks coming through the door. If you don’t promote your business you may find that you won’t have a business to promote.

You don’t need a huge war chest to promote yourself. There are plenty of ways to promote your business on a shoestring budget. In this blog post, we will discuss five creative marketing ideas that won’t break the bank.

Conserve Your Budget

Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune on marketing. These four marketing ideas are simple and cost-effective because they don’t require a significant investment, which is perfect for small business owners on a shoestring budget.

If you want to discuss how these ideas could work in your own campaign, schedule a free consultation to do a little brainstorming. We’re standing by ready and waiting to help you succeed!

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Big Game Hunting: How to Find Your Target Audience Online

When you first get started online. The Internet just seems big. The idea of firing up your laptop to find your target audience and then getting them to stop by for a visit may sound like crazy talk.

What’s frustrating is that you know your target audience really needs your products or services but you can’t help them because you can’t find them and they don’t know you exist.

In this article, we’re going to help you fine-tune your marketing and improve your tracking skills to find customers online.

Questions to Find Your Target Audience

The first thing you need to establish is who’s in your target audience. It’s called a target audience for a reason.

No target. No audience.

If you’ve been in business for a while, you have bit of a head start. You can find your target audience by taking a good look at your current clients. We’re going to look at them a little differently than how you’ve looked at them in the past.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re a problem solver. Your products and services solve problems for your current customers.

If you understand your current customers and their particular preferences, you have important keys to fine tune your outreach and find your target audience. It’s time to hop into the lab and check out demographics and psychographics.

Demographics

These are facts concerning your clients both existing and prospective that can help you to identify them deeper. They include:

• Age
• Gender
• Geographical location
• Educational levels
• Income levels
• Marital status
• Employment and industry

With these basic pieces of information about your current clients, you can identify similar traits your target audience is likely to have.

Psychographics

Knowing who your target audience is is half the battle. The other half is defining their interests and preferences. For instance, if you manage a gym, your patrons are most likely interested in:

• Health
• Fitness
• Weight loss
• Running

Over and above these, you may also consider the pop culture interests. If you own a boutique, you may also target persons who watch the fashion shows like Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty on Amazon or ‘Project Runway’ on Bravo.

Because you have current clients, you don’t need to guess. You can ask them directly, present them with a survey or send them to an online quiz.

Benefits/Problem Solving

The on point to keep at the front of your mind through all of this is that you are a problem solver. What are the problems your services helps with or the potential benefits that it provides to the persons who are likely to purchase it. Below are some of the questions you may have to ask yourself:

• What sorts of people may face the issues my service solves?
• What answers are they looking for?
• Why do they need these answers?
• What are their major pain points?
• What do I provide that is distinct from my competitors?

By asking these questions, it may be possible for you to fine-tune your audience’s psychographic and demographic requirements. By the time you have exhausted all the three categories here, you ought to have a firm idea of who your target audience might be.

Tools to Find Your Target Audience

Once you’ve narrowed your understanding of who you’re looking for, now it’s time to find your target audience online. Listed below are some of the methods you may use separately or as part of an overall campaign:

Social Media

To leverage this tool, you may want to use the demographics as a way of identifying the sites where your target audience is more likely to visit.

• Facebook is by far the largest social media site. Around 69% of Americans have a Facebook account and appeals to people of just about every age group.
• Instagram is mainly used by younger persons than those who use Facebook. Roughly two-thirds of Americans below the age of 30, mostly women, are active on the platform.
• Twitter is preferred by a paltry 22% of the adult population, mostly male, in the United States. Its users tend to be based in the urban areas and are more educated than the users of the other platforms.
• Pinterest is largely loved by females who are educated and wealthy. Its users straddle just about every age group and are largely below the age of 65.
• The users of LinkedIn are largely below the age of 65 and are also very educated. They mainly reside in cities and suburbs and are also more likely to be seeking professional services rather than consumables.

General Rules and Guidelines

How you use each of these platforms varies because what the people do varies by the platform they’re on. Here are a few general rules and guidelines you have to adhere to. These are:

• The users of Facebook are always seeking all kinds of goods and services such as consumer, business, and services.
• Instagram is mainly used to sell physical goods even though some services also tend to make use of the platform to reach out to a potential audience. For instance, any service that allows you to demonstrate a ‘before’ or ‘after’ photo is highly welcome.
• Pinterest’s users love finding products on the site which they go ahead and pin for later purchases.
• LinkedIn users are professionals who are more likely to seek out business products and services. For instance, if you run a clothing store, you would rather use Pinterest or Instagram.
• If on the other hand run a law firm, Facebook and LinkedIn may be the most suitable options.

Search Engine Marketing

While you’re out there trying to find your target audience, it safe to say that some members of your target audience are out there trying to find you. They may not be looking for you specifically, but they are looking for someone who does what you do.

You really ought to make it easy for them. Make sure you’re using search engine optimization to increase your visibility online.

They all boil down to a properly optimized website as well as a well-established online presence. This requires the use of relevant keywords. Consider what phrases potential customers would type into the search engines when trying to find your services or products you offer.

Your site also needs to be mobile-friendly and if possible optimized for voice search. On the same note, you also have to standardize your online listings and claim them in the leading review sites like Yelp, and Google.

When you’re trying to find your target audience online, always realize that you are the haystack in search of a needle By shaping a reliable online presence across search, social and review platforms, you make it much easier for your future customers to find you.

When you start by understanding who you’re trying to attract, you can better fine-tune your marketing campaigns and spend less time trying to find your target audience.

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