I was recently in Alpharetta, Georgia with a group of wonderful advisors and inevitably when you’re in social media you will be asked the following question, “How do I find new clients on social media?” It’s a hard question, yet not so hard question all at the same time.
First, what is target marketing?
Gosh – this is when those marketing experts come in and throw a bunch of lingoes around and it sounds all complicated. So we are going my route. Personally, I like easy, but it requires a story.
Imagine your friend calls you up on the phone and says, “Hey – I’m outside the grocery store and my car won’t start. Can you come help me?” You have some time and you say, “Of course, I’ll swing by and pick you up.” Then your friend says, “Wow – thanks so much. I’m standing outside and wearing a navy blue jacket. You can’t miss me.” You drive to the store and wow – it’s a busy day. You pull around and start looking for this navy blue jacket and then start saying, “Geesh – there are a lot of folks in navy blue stuff. Navy blue coats, navy blue shirts, navy blue scarves…” Then *bam* there’s your friend. You pick them up and off you go.
This is target marketing. Let me explain.
It’s this simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do.
Second, who does my target market look like?
Seth Godin, my personal man crush of marketing wisdom, wrote a fabulous book called “Tribes”. In it, you will quickly find out the world has returned to personalization and you must find your target market (your tribe) and match them with your services, benefit, etc. In order to do this, though, you need to know who these folks are.
This is where creating a scotoma, a blind spot, is critical to the success of your business. You absolutely must refine your vision so you can see your bullseye through the massive amount of people and noise. In the story I shared, your eyes will start to narrow on that blue jacket. You see a blue scarf…nope. You see a blue t-shirt…uh uh. You see a blue hat…not that either. THE BLUE JACKET! Ta-dah!
In order to know who your target is you must challenge yourself to get really honest with yourself and define every single thing about them so you can create a scotoma and go after the target. Otherwise, you’re just throwing darts around and hoping to hit something.
Last, what words would my target market use?
Another exercise I tell professionals to go through is my Google test. To find your tribe, you have to know their language and you have to speak it yourself. The Google test clears up a lot of the mumbo jumbo.
It’s very simple, but it’s going to require you to have a few friends help out. Ask 10 people you work with and 10 people you do not work with to answer the following question, “If you went to Google today and wanted to search for someone like me, what words would you use in the search field?” Then sit back and shut-up. Don’t taint them with suggestions. You’re going to want to, goodness knows you’re going to want to, but hold back from doing this.
Once they tell you what those words are – then use them on your website, LinkedIn profile, your takeaways, etc. These folks are your tribe. They know you. They also want you to find others like all of them.
Be a person of action – Do you currently have a target market? Take time and create an ideal blind spot so you can focus on your target client. Allow friends and clients to help you find your words so you are able to connect with others who are like them. Target marketing is simple but requires a little work.