Category: Target Market

Genuine Concern Earns Free Publicity

Posted on by Robert McFarland

The best way to reach your target market through the media is to have a genuine concern for your customers. If you really care for your customers, it will show through in your press releases.

I’m not talking about the kind of press release that is self-serving and draws attention to your company or your products and services. That’s not news to your target market. The media—and your customers—will smell a fake.

However, the media and your target market will recognize a newsworthy story as one that has their best interests in mind, where the hero of the story is not your company, but your customers.

Here are the steps to get noticed by the media:

1. Identify the angle for your story.

For the media to take interest in your story, it has to have a newsworthy angle. Think through reasons why your story would be of interest to the media and to your target market. Does your story help your customers save or make money? Does your story relate a benefit to society as a whole? Does your story champion a cause of interest to your target market? Does the story reveal new information or research of interest to your customers? Does your story tie into a larger trend from a local perspective?

2. Identify the hook(s) for your story.

Think through how you could say the main idea(s) of your story in ways that would be most interesting to your target market. Write out several potential headlines for your story, and figure out which headline would pique the most interest at the media source where you send your story.

3. Write a press release for your story.

Include your catchy headline, and a similar sub-headline. As you write your first paragraph, include the basics of the story. What is happening? Who is involved? When will it happen? Where will it take place? Why is it happening? Make sure that the information you provide would be of interest to your current or prospective customers, and include quotes from people with official status in your company or from people who your target market recognizes as an authority figure.

4. Write with your audience in mind.

While you are writing your press release with a specific agenda, make sure that what you send out is written so objectively that a news outlet could include your press release without changing a word.

5. Format your press release professionally.

Press releases should include a dateline, facts, figures, and—most importantly—contact information, as the media need to know who to contact and how to reach them. Finally, print the press release on your letterhead so that it looks official.

6. Distribute your press release.

Send your press release to all television and radio stations, local and metro newspapers, national newspapers, industry magazines, and any other form of media that reaches your target market. Don’t forgot to send it to relevant blogs, and press release submission sites geared to industry professionals. Today online media is just as important—if not more important—as conventional media: bloggers can connect better with their audiences because they are more customized to the interests of their audience.

Key Takeaway

Addressing the needs of your target market in the products or services you offer can actually become newsworthy information. If you provide people with a solution to their problems, a way to avoid problems, or an opportunity to enhance their lives, the media and your customers will be interested in what you have to say.

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Our GUIDED TOUR can show you how to put together press releases that work! Check out how the pros do it and craft the perfect press releases for your business.

 

 

Stop Wasting Your Resources!

Posted on by Robert McFarland

Your marketing resources are finite. You can’t afford to waste your resources. Therefore, you need to be laser-focused in your marketing.

The two questions you have to ask yourself are:

  • What do people really want to buy from me?
  • What related products are they already buying?

Here’s how to find a target market of potential customers so you don’t waste precious resources on blitz marketing.

1. Find companies who already have the customer base you want.

The fastest way to develop a customer base is to find existing businesses who have the customer profile that you want to market your products or services to. Armed with that information, you will know who is more predisposed to purchase your products/services.

2. Negotiate an incentive so they’ll share that customer base with you.

Once you find other businesses with the same customer base who you can customer-share with, strike up a relationship with those business owners to work out an incentive for customers to purchase from both of your businesses.

3. Focus your marketing on this group of predisposed customers.

You develop a win-win relationship this way: you have an audience to market to, and they generate an added value from their current customer base.

But how do you figure out what kind of financial incentive you can afford? Here’s a formula from Jay Abraham you can follow with great success.

LV = (P x F x N) – MC

Here’s what it all means:

  • LV is the life time value of a customer
  • P is the average profit margin from each sale
  • F is the number of times a customer buys each year
  • N is the number of years customers stay with you
  • MC is the marketing cost per customer (total costs/number of customers)

Once you know how much you need to spend to attract a new customer, you will know how much of an incentive you can offer to a business to help attract new customers.

Key Takeaway

Here’s the step-by-step process. First, find companies who already have the customer base you are looking for. Next, negotiate an incentive for them to share that customer base with you. Finally, focus your marketing resources to this group of predisposed customers.

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