Where is your target market?

Business people seem to be divided into two groups - those who are dedicated social media users and those who think it's a waste of time.  As I see it there are some issues that both groups need to be aware of.

As I teach people how to make LinkedIn into a lead generator I'm often surprised to find people who are selling business-to-business (B2B) who are Facebook fanatics, but don't 'get' LinkedIn at all.

I also find people who are selling direct to consumers who don't have a Facebook Page, sell via their Facebook personal account (tsk, tsk) and have been told they should be on LinkedIn.

So those social media-mad people may not necessarily be operating in the right place - and those cynics who don't see the point have probably had some negative experience (or 'heard something') that has made them feel social media is useless as a marketing tool.

People on Facebook tend to be in social mindset - they do buy stuff, but it tends to be gifts, crafts, personal stuff, handbags, shoes, cakes, jewellry, etc.  It doesn't mean people don't buy business things on Facebook, but it's much harder to make sales.

On LinkedIn people are in their business head space.  They see it as a business platform and are expecting other business people to connect with them.

Of course there are other platforms - Twitter (joining up the dots), Pinterest and Instagram (image based messages) and literally dozens of lesser platforms fighting for supremacy.  You might find the perfect platform for your business among them - but first read on.

Here's my take on it - there are some critical elements that are frequently ignored when people set out to market their businesses.

1. They don't mind where their business comes from as long as the customer is prepared to pay - which means that their marketing approach tends to be an 'I'll do anything for anybody' kind of message.  This might work when you're turning a hobby into a business, but it isn't going to work long term.
2. They haven't really thought through who would make a really good client or customer - not just once, but over and over.
3. They haven't examined their current and previous customer base to see what they particularly liked about what was delivered.
4. They don't really know what problems their product or service solves for their customers.
5. They think that the more activity they engage in the more business will come from it.

There are seeds of truth in all of these, but some refinement is needed.  Here are some steps that - if you follow them - I guarantee they will make a substantial (and positive) difference to the business you're in.

Firstly, be clear about who makes the very best client for you.  What kind of business are they in?  What personality type are they?  What size of business do they have?  Who are their customers?  How many staff work in the business?

Secondly, understand their problems.  What bugs them, frustrates them and keeps them awake at night.

Next, ask your existing clients why they buy your services/products and not someone else's.  What is it that they like about what you do?  What results have they had - preferably in measurable terms?

Number four - if you've ever had someone turn down your services/products what reason do they give?  What would your best customer tell them about why this isn't a good reason to say 'No'?

By now you should have a pretty good idea of what your client base looks like.  Now the next steps.

Number five - where do you find groups of these people?  Are they active on a particular type of Facebook Page?  Are they active on Twitter?  Do they hang out on LinkedIn and contribute to some of the business forums there? 

Number six - what do these people read?  Industry journals, specialist magazines, online news feeds, blogs, etc? 

Now it's time for action.  Social media does work - if you're on the right platform and talking to the right people.  Head for the places these people hang out and impress the socks off them!

By that I mean you need to hit the four hot buttons:

• Reputation: make sure you have a first class reputation with evidence to back it up
• Authority: develop a reputation as an authority in your industry - a thought leader
• Visibility: be visible - post regularly, ideally more than once a day
• Expertise: share your knowledge by helping people in groups and posting valuable material.

The result should be lots of connections who RAVE about you and a steady flow of new customers who are a perfect fit!

The magic key to focusing your marketing

If there I had to choose just one thing that would make a dramatic impact to anybody's marketing campaign it would be to have really nailed down their perfect client profile.  It sounds easy - but it's not!  However, it is definitely worth the effort.

For years I skimped on this job - and I knew I hadn't got it right.

Like most people I started out with 'anybody who wants what I offer' (a.k.a whoever will pay me!).  Then I progressed to 'web designers' - because one of the things I do is write web content and it seemed obvious.  But I hadn't specified what kind of web-designer - one man bands, specialists in a particular industry, agencies, client base, turnover, staff number ... etc. etc.  I thought that 'web designer' would be enough for people to recognise themselves or for others to connect me with any web designer they knew.  It didn't work.

Let me tell you a story that demonstrates why not:

About 10 years ago I attended two Institute of Directors meetings within 2 weeks of each other.  They were two different groups, but close enough to have some members who attended both.  I was the guest presenter for both meetings.

Part of the meeting structure was for each attendee to provide an outline of the referrals they wanted.  We were told to be specific so, at the first meeting I said "The training manager of a high street retailer".  Nobody 'bit'.

At the next meeting I decided I needed to be even more specific, so I said "The Training Manager at Arcadia*".  Immediately after the meeting Stephen came up to me and said "I've got a contact at Arcadia - he's the CEO!"  

Stephen had been at the previous meeting and I'd known him for some years already so I thanked him and then asked "Why didn't you tell me this at the last meeting?"

"You didn't ask," he replied.

"I asked for referrals to the training manager of any high street retailers," I reminded him.

"Oh, didn't realise that, sorry.  I just heard 'Arcadia' and made the connection."

The point of this tale is that you really have to be very specific for people to focus on connections - general descriptions are often heard as "Blah, blah, blah."

Of course, I got business because I network online and offline a lot, but not the kind of business I really wanted - regular clients who paid me monthly to create a reliable income.

Then I finally knuckled down and worked through a list of questions about my perfect client - and came up with a really detailed description.  The result - suddenly I started getting phone calls from people who fitted my ideal client profile - and I hadn't done anything yet!

Describing my ideal client at networking events is much more effective - nobody else has that level of detail and it means that everyone at the meeting starts imagining what that particular person looks like and making the connections with people they know who fit.

Are you up for the challenge?  Go to www.insidenews.co.uk and download the Perfect Client Profile Worksheet from the Treasure Chest.

*A large retail group that owned, at the time, Dorothy Perkins, TopShop, Burtons, Evans, and many more high street chains.

Have you 'got' Twitter?

People understand that Facebook is a social platform, LinkedIn is a business platform, Pinterest is for graphics and images; Instagram is for photos - but what is Twitter for?

Technically it's called a 'micro-blog'.  If you know anything about the history of blogging you'll know that blogs started out as an online journal - people used them to talk about what they were doing and share their thoughts with whoever was reading.  

When Twitter came along it limited people's rambling to 140 characters.  That's a challenge that has taught millions of people to be succinct!  It means you can't write a long piece, you have to get your thought over in just a few words (typically about 20).  

The challenge, with so few characters, is to write something that other people will find interesting - and, hopefully, respond to and/or share.

In the early days of Twitter (back in 2006) there were a lot of  people 'having a cheese sandwich for lunch' and 'just off to take the dog for a walk' (and there are still plenty of tweets that aren't very interesting).  The people who really got Twitter used it to 'join up the dots'.

What do I mean by that?

Twitter is great to use for finding interesting content so if you follow people who post it, you'll be able to keep up with your chosen areas of interest easily.  For instance, if you follow the thought-leaders in your area of interest you'll get to see all their blogs and stay right up-to-date with the latest information in that area.  

You can also get followers by sharing (Retweeting) posts that lead to great blogs, articles and websites and gain a reputation for being up there at the leading edge.  It's called 'curating content' - in other words being someone who is 'in the know'.

Some people see Twitter as a numbers game - the more followers the better, but I see it as a connecting tool - the right followers who get benefit from what I post will share my content with their followers and spread the word.

You can start conversations by responding to comments that interest you - but Twitter isn't like Facebook, it's unlikely that you're going to have an in depth conversation on Twitter, but it's a great place to start the conversation.  If someone is interesting then take the conversation into a convenient coffee shop (if geography allows) or onto Skype for a proper chat.

For people to find you worth following you need to forget about cheese sandwiches and step away from the 'what am I doing right now' concept that started it.  The secret of success is to post things that add value for the people reading your Tweets.  This means:

• Tips - your posts
• Advice - in response to other people's questions
• Interesting facts - that are relevant to your areas of expertise
• Quirky info - anything you think might capture people's attention
• Asking questions - people on Twitter are really helpful and will usually respond if you ask good questions
• Links to your blogs 
• Links to other people's blogs that you've found valuable

If you usually post good quality material you can get away with a bit of promotion if you've got a new products or service about to launch.

Never ONLY post a link though - always tell people what the link is about; there's so much phishing online that a link with no explanation can be seen as dangerous.

Make sure you review your feed at least once a day - I use Hootsuite to manage my Twitter as it makes it really easy to see when people have commented and enables me to respond promptly.

Twitter is a means of making connections that you can then explore further if you think there's value in that.