Home
List of Articles
The Complete Site Build It! Reference Center... This Link
Directory May Change Your Business.
Click here now.
SBI Case Studies: Personal, real-world stories told by
flesh-and-blood humans. Detailed recountings of individual SBI!
experiences, each in their own words, in their own styles. Read
them by
clicking here now. |
 |
How To Target Your Market
Stop!
If you even the slightest thought of selling anything online,
you must be able to answer one question before you do
anything...
Who wants to buy your product or service?
If you're going to sell, there has to be a market that will
buy, it's an irrefutable law of business and it applies to
online businesses as well.
"Catering to a niche" or "specializing" or "targeting a
market," whatever you call it, it's the key to a small
business succeeding on the Internet.
Let Amazon or Ebay sell everything to everyone. Small online
businesses target a few select markets and give those markets
the special attention that only small businesses can give.
Find Your Markets
First, you should just ask yourself the question I posed
earlier, "Who wants to buy my product or service?"
Most small businesses know their market well; they just have
to think about it for a second.
For example, let's take web design. We start by making of
list of anyone that might need web design:
* Individuals
* Churches
* Schools
* Small Businesses
* Large Businesses
* Etc.
Target Your Markets
When you look at that small list, you start to realize that
each market has it's own needs, budget, and reason for
needing web design.
For example, imagine the difference between web design for
large corporate businesses and web design for schools.
Large businesses will probably be looking for an ecommerce
solution and they have the budget to afford a team of
designers. You would need to target them with this in mind.
Schools on the other hand, do not need ecommerce. They are
looking for a way to inform the community about what is
happening at their school. They might also want to
incorporate a webmail system for the students and faculty.
Overall, large businesses will need a more professional
approach than schools.
The point is, each market deserves special attention. You
can't compromise between your markets. Instead you must
target each market individually.
What Does My Market Need?
Let's say we decided on small businesses as one of our key
markets. How do we know what they need?
You can start with some common sense. Small businesses are
going to be price conscious, but expect quality. You will
most likely be dealing with the owner or someone close to the
owner. You basically just want to think about who your
customer really is.
An optional next step is to actually ask. Find some people
who represent your target market and just ask them what is
important to them.
Just imagine a visitor arriving at your web site and
instantly knowing that you can help him. If you have
correctly targeted the right markets, your visitors will feel
like you are in tune with their needs.
About the Author
* Article © JC Anderl - Ask JC a question about web hosting
or online business and he'll answer you personally.
Visit http://www.business-web-hosting-guide.com for more
online business articles, free software, a web hosting
dictionary, and personal assistance.
Written by: JC Anderl
|
|
Recent Articles
Do I really need a website?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Do I really need a website? ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I hear this question A LOT. Many small businesses and one-woman- and one-man-bands ask...
E-Commerce Made Easy
INTRODUCTION What does it take for small and home-based businesses to get started with e-commerce? My goal is to answer this question and to give you information that allows you to get started with selling your products and services on the...
Use Your Yellow Page Savings to Finance Your Internet Local Search Visibility
Copyright 2005 Off the Page
A Yellow Page Ad Says You’re "Open for Business"
Most small businesses that have a storefront or provide a service are committed to a Yellow Page directory ad. It was a safe bet, since buyers went to the directory...
Check out the
Site Build It! Action Guide. Have a free, "inside" look
at the Guide that SBIers actually use. This is the best and most
affordable way for you to build a flourishing, profitable small
business on the Net. |