Prepare to build your Audience

If you want to make money, you need to have an audience of people to sell your products or services to. When you're starting out, you'll likely need to focus at least 75% of your efforts on building your email list:  You need customers to serve in order to sell your products and services and make money.

There is a great technique for marketing on Facebook that I will share with you in next week's post, but before you are ready to start any marketing efforts, there are two things you need to get crystal clear on:

1. Who is my target market?

2. What problems do my target market have, that they are already aware of, and that my product or service can help solve?

In many cases, the problem your potential clients are already aware of is a symptom of a bigger underlying problem you can help them solve. The bigger underlying problem can often be something your customers are not even consciously aware of.  

For example: If you are selling the Inspired Vocation opportunity, your target market's underlying problem is not knowing what their purpose in life is. A symptom of this is hating their job. It's important that you know the difference between the symptom and the underlying problem, so you can market solutions to the symptom. It's way easier to sell someone a solution to a problem they are already aware they have.

Complete the following two steps:

Step 1: Ask yourself, "Who is my target market?". What Facebook pages do they "like"? How old are they? Do they have kids? Are they married? What books do they read? What jobs do they have? etc.... Try to write down as much as you can think of that would be common among people who would benefit from what you have to offer.

Step 2: You need to bridge the gap between what this audience of people think their problems are (the symptoms) and the solution you have to their real underlying problem. To start, ask yourself: What symptoms does my target market have as a result of their underlying problem I am trying to solve? What are the common frustrations among the people in my target market? What do they desperately think they want help with? What headline would grab their attention right away?
 
For example, if you are preparing to market the Inspired Vocation opportunity, your target market thinks they need to solve the following problems:

1.  They hate their current job and want to find a way to get rid of it.
2.  They need to sponsor more reps for their current MLM opportunity.
3.  They want to build their multilevel marketing business but don’t know how.
4.  They wish they could build their own business from scratch, but don’t know how so they are attempting to promote an MLM opportunity they don’t feel that great about.

Taking the time (days) to sit down and REALLY think about these questions is important. It's the most productive thing you can do to build your business. All the marketing tips and tricks in the world won't do anything for you until you figure out the answers to these questions.

Of course, as you interact with your audience more over time you'll be able to better define the answers to these questions. For now, you just need to make your best guesses so you can start testing them out.

In Summary:  When you’re trying to market a product or service, it’s always easiest to sell someone something they already want.  If your potential clients need to be educated on why they need what you are offering, leave that education out of your marketing efforts.  When you are marketing, you need to market to what your customers already think they want.  After you have your potential client on your email list, then you can start educating them over time on why they need what you are offering.

What problem does your target market think they want to solve and what is the underlying problem you will help them solve?  Please share in the comments below.