Are you running in circles trying to market your home business, but feel that you aren't connecting with your ideal prospects? Take a deep breath, clear you mind and make room for a new approach to marketing.
Stimulate your mind to begin working in the right direction by asking yourself the following three questions:
1. Who is my target group, and what are their needs?
2. What am I marketing?
3. How am I marketing this?
The importance of Question 1 lies within a basic rule of human interaction. People like to be understood. You will get a lot further with people if you know who they are, where they're coming from, and what they need. By first identifying your target group and then addressing their specific concerns, you can sell them something that will be relevant and beneficial to them.
Put yourself in the shoes of your target market. What kinds of frustrations and fears might they be feeling? Develop a mindset of empathy for their feelings. Empathy is a powerful thing. It works in life, and it works in business, because business is just an extension of the human relationship.
Never undervalue the role that emotions play in buying and selling. Don't worry that it is unethical to appeal to emotions in marketing. It is simply realistic. Actions almost always follow emotions.
As an answer to Question 2, you're probably tempted to say, "I'm marketing my company's product," or "I'm marketing my company's business opportunity." The real answer is that in business, and in every other area of your life, you are selling YOU.
If you doubt that, consider that there are over 28.7-billion* people out there selling business opportunities right now. Your target market could just as easily go with any of them. So the important aspect in your marketing isn't the product or the opportunity, but the why.
Give them a reason to join you. Present yourself as an authority your field. Generate confidence by providing helpful web content that's relevant to your target market's needs. Generate familiarity by staying in touch using e-newsletters, follow-up emails, and eventually offers that pertain to their particular interests.
The next thing to consider as you reconfigure your marketing is, "How am I going to go about this?" That's a topic for many articles, but I can give a few helpful hints right here.
Have you starting using the many free sources of advertising on the web? Many Network marketers have successfully used Squidoo, YouTube and many others to get their name, their face and their ideas out on the Internet. There are also good forms of paid advertising, like Yahoo Search Marketing and Google Adwords.
Articles are a wonderful way to attract prospects who are already interested in what you offer. As you compose your articles, keep in mind the kinds of things your target audience might be typing into the search engine fields. Use those keywords or phrases strategically within your text.
If article writing is not your cup of tea, outsource your writing projects using a service like Elance or Shelancers. (Yes, there are people out there who like to do the things you consider a drag.)
You can spread your content throughout the Internet using article directories like ezinearticles.com or GoArticles.com. Keep your content fresh and updated to keep yourself in the search engines' sights.
Reassess your marketing techniques frequently to keep your approach fresh and your name in Google's sights.
*Statistic from the Direct Selling Association.
About the Author:
Read about attraction marketing and learn how to apply the principles to your home based business. Cathy Yeatts is a business developer and small business blogger.
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