Oh, the temptation to title this “Who loves you?” just so I could add “baby” at the end – but realise most of you are too young to have any idea what that would be on about. Aren’t you? 😉

So in part 1 we had a good look and think about what we want to achieve with our business.

Now to consider the people who will buy, your customers.

You need to understand who they are, get to know as much as you can about them. In the old days this was known as market research. I’m not sure if that is what fresh, wet-behind-the-ears business owners are taught at the local enterprise agency or modern equivalent, but it certainly was in my day, and at business college.

Yes, you are happy for anyone to buy, but you’ll have more success if you focus on the best possible customers for your product. If your market is very specific, you can plot the simplest route to it. This won’t stop others buying, but it will make the most impact on your marketing efforts.

So – picture them. How old are they? Where do they live and/or work? What do they enjoy? Do they go online? Do they surf the web or stick to the safe confines of Facebook? Do they use a computer, laptop, tablet or phone for online activity? Are they comfortable buying online? Do they have plastic yellow bodyparts (just checking that you’re paying attention!)? What websites do they like and visit?

For instance – the WordPress support website, The Blogmistress, is ideal for people who like to have control over their content but don’t want to have to sort out the updates. They want the control and to have an understanding of what can be done, but like to have someone on hand to ask or just do things if they are busy with their own work.

So the ideal Blogmistress customer runs their own business and/or blog, they love the flexibility of WordPress but don’t really have time (or the inclination) to get geeky with it as they are busy being successful at what they do. They also understand that using such a service is an investment in their business without me having to spell that out to them – this is useful for any supplier!

Understanding who your customers are can then guide you as to where they might look for and/or find you. Are they likely to be Facebook users, or perhaps more social media savvy and use Twitter or Google +? Are images relevant – might they enjoy Pinterest? Or are they not interested in the Internet at all? Do they just use email, or only go online if they absolutely have to?

Who are your ideals? Picture them in your mind and then consider what they want to know about you and what they have come to buy.

Make notes! We will bring everything together soon and with all of this information, you’ll have a good idea of a strategy that is likely to work for you, to succeed.

And you might like to join us on the November course on getting to grips with marketing online…

photo credit: Kaptain Kobold via photopin cc

‘Tis time to dust off my ancient (in Internet terms) Internet marketing questionnaire from 2008. Not least because in that time we’ve leapt forward with various social media tools and devices, so they all need to be brought into the mix, if only to understand whether they are useful for us or not. Every business is different and we each need to really know what is most likely to work for us.

You need to understand the best strategy for you, the tools that will help you achieve what you want. Over the next week or so I’m going to take you through each section of the updated document – reviewing and refreshing while sharing with you.

So – before anything else have a good think about what you really want to achieve. Many people say they want more visitors, more sales, more hits, more exposure – just more of whatever they can get. Well that’s not going to help you get anywhere. What exactly does success look like? What will happen if all goes the way you want it to?

Do you want to sell something specific? What is that thing – a product, a service, a subscription?

Some say they want more visitors. Why? What for?

So they can buy something? But what do you want them to buy?

Be specific because then you can understand how to get what you want.

You can attract thousands of visitors to your website but if they’re not buying anything, then something is not working. And if you don’t know what you want the majority of them to buy, then how can you know what to improve? Or if you do know what you want them to buy, to do – and they’re not – then you’re either attracting the wrong visitors, or you’re sales technique needs a good hard look, perhaps. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Be very specific about what you want to achieve.

• Do you want to sell one particular product, or a service?
• Or do you want lots of subscribers – and if so, why, what for?
• Or do you simply want to build a community for the sheer satisfaction?
• Or do you want to create something that can then be sold at a later date?

Stop everything and have a good think about this instead of tilting at windmills and hoping that your hard work is going to reap rewards. Focus! I’ll heed my own words and do the same for my business too.

Until next time…

Babs

PS: If you want some help with this I’m running some webinars in November, or you can book a 1-1 Skype chat by emailing hello@barbarasaul.com.

This post has been updated since first published in 2011 – and about time too!

photo credit: greyweed via photopin cc