There are many ways to market your business online, in fact there are so many was to market your business this post alone could be a 300 page book on the subject.
Before you begin any marketing campaign you must determine who your ideal customer is.
To do this will require a little research on your part.
For example, lets say your ideal customer likes to snowboard.
To know who your customer really is you need to do some research to see where they live, what their interests outside of snowboarding are, their age and gender. The more targeted and savvy your message is, the more your sales will increase.
The first thing you want to do is type a search into Google such as; “Where do most snowboarders live?” or “The average age of snowboarders” or even, “What do snowboarders like to do?”.
These are some basic searches to get you started. You will find the search results will provide many relevant links to answer some of these questions for you. Take inventory
of the studies you have found and the information you have uncovered.
Your next step is to leverage Facebook’s graph search. Facebook’s graph search will provide you with even more detailed information on your ideal customer.
Once you have a general idea of who your ideal customer is, you will take the information you found in your Google search and refine it within Facebook.
Here’s one way this can be done:
You will take the main location of snowboarders in the country you discovered and type in the Facebook search bar “ People who like snowboarding in (location)”.
Facebook will return a large list of search results of real people who meet your search query.
Next you will want to filter these profiles with Facebooks search filter options. These filters will allow you to narrow down by age, gender and interests.
Note: The key filter you will want to focus on is interests. Interests are the key information you require to target your ideal customer within the filters you applied.
For example: you narrowed down your search results to males aged 18-28 who live in Colorado with their main interests being; Burton, Wolfe Creek, Outdoor lifestyle and extreme sports.
Now you know exactly who your ideal customer is and where to target them. Isn’t this much easier then blasting a radio campaign, TV commercial or trade show?
The best part is, your budget will go a lot further because you are not attempting to throw advertising dollars out there and see what sticks. The money you spend will only be spent on reaching your ideal customer dramatically increasing your conversion rates and lowering your cost per customer acquisition.
Until Next Time!
Adam