Creating marketing magic begins with identifying your target market.
Marketing is merely the process of bringing the solutions you offer to your selected target audience. It’s just that simple.
When you were a child, perhaps you passed away the lazy days of summer as I did and indulged in the sport of drowning worms. I could call it “fishing” but that would denote a level of success that I was never able to achieve. In my attempt to catch fish, I would take a fishing rod and reel - equipped with little more than a hook and a bobber - down to a creek behind our house. As I made my way to the creek, I dug up a few worms, and when I arrived at the water’s edge I impaled the unlucky creatures on my hook and tossed the line into the creek with great expectations.
Looking back, I can see that because my goal was to catch “anything,” the only fish I ever caught were either carp or catfish and I didn’t catch those very often. I knew that the creek that ran behind my childhood home was teaming with blue gill, bass and other “desirable” fish. I knew because I saw other anglers stand in the very spot I did and catch those very fish. However, despite my good intentions and all of my efforts, the best I ever caught was an occasional carp or catfish.
Years later, I can see that the reason I was catching these “bottom feeders” is that I had my hook lying on the bottom of the creek. The anglers who were bringing in the fish I desired weren’t using the huge hook I was using, nor were they using earthworms for bait. (Nor, for that matter, were they using an oversized orange bobber!) In my youthful exuberance, I had over-estimated the depth of the waters and seriously over-estimated the mouths of the creek’s “desirable” fish. No matter how noble my goals, I was not fishing with the proper bait and tackle, so I could not catch the fish I desired.
Experienced anglers know that choosing the proper tackle is essential before you begin to fish. You have to know what you’re fishing for, because that determines everything else. By the time an angler picks a target, s/he will have made many decisions well in advance.
The first choice is whether to fish in fresh water or salt water. From there, the angler will choose the weight of the line, the type of bait and the size of the hook. If you want to be successful in fishing, you have to choose your target in advance.
Whether it’s fishing or marketing, you greatly increase your chances of success by defining your target in advance.
Just as in fishing, when you choose in advance the target audience for your marketing message, you increase your chances of success. Anglers go to great lengths to figure out what particular species of fish like to eat and where they eat it. You need to know what your customers “eat” and where they eat it. You also want to know what they listen to, watch and read.
Identifying your target audience is essential to creating marketing messages that are clear and compelling. Indeed, there is no easier way to generate confusion with your marketing message than to try to cast your net broadly over a wide assortment of solutions. If you believe nothing else, believe that a confused mind says “no” and offering information that your target audience doesn’t want or need will create confusion.
Paying for success “up front” with time and tenacity
Chris G has an interesting post on “How to Get Top Blogs to Notice You” Chris suggest a three point strategy for positioning yourself so you’re PREPARED for when your blog finds its way into the cross hairs of one of the mega blogs on the internet.
Chris’ team did their homework by posting about a phenomenon that you and I have probably noticed, but didn’t bother to blog about. “Is Google Toolbar Hijacking 404 Pages?” fits BEAUTIFULLY into the content provided at the Codswallop blog and turns out to be a “breaking news” story (one of his tips) which garnered some link love from Techcrunch!
Notice how Chris also graciously acknowledges another blogger, Wendy over at emomsathome.com who suggested he blog about this oddity. Wendy, whose blog really isn’t ABOUT technology passed the tip on to Chris. Yes, networking is an ESSENTIAL part of blogging (also noted in Chris’ top blog notice post).
I work with a LOT of new blogger and they will take a look at Chris G’s blog post and go, “Gee! When will that happen to me?”
I’ve been a subscriber to Chris’ blog for a long time now and I’ve watched him work HARD to achieve this accomplishment. In other words, I’ve been watching as Chris has been “paying” for this success LONG before it happened. Chris has been doing a LOT of legwork behind the scenes preparing for this “big break”. He’s been gracious enough to chronicle the process for those of us interested enough to follow along.
Preparation is the key!!! There is no such thing as an overnight success… it’s often a matter of paying for success in advance.
One hundred years ago, people didn’t borrow money to make a major purchases… they scrimped and saved to afford what they wanted to purchase. Today, we have “easy payment plans” that allow us to “pay as we consume” which is especially overused in the United States. Because of these “easy finance” options it’s far too easy to lose sight of the fact that success is expensive and there are no “payment plans” available for you to pay as you go.
More often than not, success is paid for “in advance” and the currency is frequently time and tenacity.
The quest for increasing blog traffic…
Driving traffic to your blog is the only way you’ll make money, right? Well, if you’ve got nothing to sell but other people’s programs (a.k.a. affiliate marketing), then yeah…you’ll need traffic and lots of it to make any money.
However, the quest for “more traffic” is really just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, as a blogger the first thing you look at is your traffic… and let me tell you, if all you want is lots of generic traffic, THAT is easy.
I once had a client who asked me to set up a blog for him in the “background” of his HTML website. He had signed up for several “get rich quick” type free seminars which were extolling how a blog could make you a millionaire without any hard work on your part. He was wise enough NOT to purchase their $1500 “magic blog” solution and instead hired me to install WordPress in the backgound of his current site. He planned on “practicing” blogging on this hidden site before he began “blogging for real” out in the open. So, I did as I was asked. I set his opening post to his user ID and password he needed to enter the administration area of blog. I sent him and email telling him the FIRST thing he was to do was to REMOVE THAT POST! He confirmed that he was going to get started IMMEDIATELY.
Well… he didn’t remove the post. I’m not sure he ever even went and SAW the post. About 8 months later though, the sex.alt list members had found it and my client was getting 8000 visitors a day to his web site… or rather the “hidden” blog on his server was generating that traffic. None of those posters gave a rat’s ass about the personal development products my client offered legitimate visitors.
Want lots of traffic? Set your Word Press blog to “allow anyone to register” and then set the default registration status to “editor”. (Let’s not get silly and allow these people to change your theme and plug ins… or lock you out of your own site!) Publicize this fact and watch your visitor count SOAR!
Oh, you say that’s not the type of traffic that you want. I understand. Then exactly, what kind of traffic DO you want coming to your blog?
THAT is the million dollar question. It’s the first thing Paul Stamatiou addresses in his post How to Boost Your Blog’s Traffic.
It’s easy to say that it starts by improving your blog’s content…. but Rand over at SEOmoz goes even deeper with 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic. He begins with the REAL basics, with advice such as hosting your blog on it’s own server.
See, improving your content may or may not be a good tactic for you. Over at Problogger, there’s a post on Increasing the number of page views… where some people say they LIKE seeing low page view numbers per visitor because that means visitors are clicking on ads and by leaving the site, are making money for the site owner.
Some of the crappiest content on the web is specifically designed to get you to click on their link in the search engine results… and then you’ll find absolutely HORRIBLE content on the page but several links to “good” content. When you click on those links, the crappy content site owner gets paid.
So before you begin chasing elusive “blog traffic”… first define your blog’s PURPOSE. Then, define your blog’s AUDIENCE. After you have those two covered… then it’s time to address the blog traffic issue.
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