2003
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Highly motivated business owners and self-employed professionals who want to significantly increase and sustain business growth.
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The interactive newsletter with action items you can implement today!
by Dianne E. Dawson, M.A.
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Have you identified your ideal client? Have you created a client/customer profile to describe them? If you haven't done this yet, sign-up for my teleclass "Seven Keys To Identify and Target Your Ideal Client/Customer". If you have, here are 10 very effective ways to use your customer profile: Look for peripheral areas into which you might expand. For example, if you are serving women between the ages of 25-45, could you expand that to 55? If you do training for mothers on how to lovingly discipline children and instill values, can you also offer similar services to paid caretakers, nannies and child-care workers? Identify lifestyle patterns or behavioral characteristics of your target market and develop a list of different ways to package your services or products to suit their style. If your market is highly social, offer something that is interactive, such as a workshop. If your market is busy professionals who don't have time for scheduled events, package your services into an audio or video file on your website that can be accessed whenever they want. Compare your readership profile to the readership profile of trade journals, magazines and newspapers targeted to your market. Look at those publications. Note what the issues and trends are, how messages are conveyed, what the buzzwords are. What additional services, products or topic areas are suggested? Is there something new that you can develop for this market? Compare it to the listening audience of radio stations targeted to your market. Consider asking to be a guest speaker on one of the programs. You might also "sponsor" one of their shows. If you run ads for your services, this may be a good place. Select zip codes for direct mail pieces. A direct mail campaign can be an expensive proposition, so you don't want to blow it by sending your piece to a random list of prospects. With your client profile in hand, you can purchase or rent the best list for your service or product. Select ezines and newsletters for advertising or placement of your articles. Many have found that having an ezine or newsletter can be an effective marketing tool. You can also use publications that belong to others by either placing an ad or submitting an article. Knowing who you are targeting will help you select the right publications for your articles or advertisements. Describe your clients more accurately when seeking referrals. Do your friends and associates know who you are targeting? Often times others want to help, but they don't have a clear picture of who you are targeting so they either send you the wrong client or don't send anyone at all. Being able to accurately describe your target market allows you to help others help you. Determine which relationships to cultivate at networking events. For successful networking, you need to have a means for deciding which relationships to follow-up with on an on-going basis, and which to maintain on a more casual level. If you meet someone offering a complimentary service targeting the same market that you are, this may be someone with whom you want to develop an on-going relationship. You could agree to make referrals to each other, place brochures in each other's offices, or you could co-sponsor a workshop or other event. There are lots of possibilities when the relationship is mutually beneficial. Design your website. Your website should be designed to appeal to your current clients and to attract new clients. Use your client profile as a guide when designing your website, giving that preference over your own tastes. Design your business card. Your business card should "speak" to your ideal client. It should contain enough information so that when someone comes across it again, even if they have forgotten meeting you, they know when looking at it what you do and why they might need your services. Keep in mind that business cards do get passed along, so yours should be able to "stand alone". In other words, when someone is given one of your cards, it should be able to speak for you in your absence. To subscribe: Send an email to dianne@virtualbusinessincubator.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line or use the form below: Dianne E. Dawson, M.A., is a Business Development Coach working with professional services and referral-based business owners who want to bring more clients into their business, and increase profitability and client retention. dianne@dawsonresources.comReprints: You have permission to reprint this article in its entirety, including attribututions and this notice (graphic not required). You may not alter the article or attribution. Please send an e-mail with the link to the webpage where this article is reprinted. Back to Ezine Index |
