The Wrong Way to Do Social Networking

There are many ways to implement a social networking marketing campaign, but not all of them are equally effective. Here are some typical missteps:

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The Cheap Ass Guide to Determining Your Target Market

Who does #2 work for? Who does #2 wooorrkkk fooorrrrrrrrr?

The real question is, who do you work for? The sad truth is that many small owners don’t have the slightest clue who their target market really is. Oh, they think they know but when asked to put more than 2 seconds of educated thought into it many are off course.

You can see many examples of small business owners not having a clue of who they are targeting by attending any business networking function where people are allowed to give the dreaded 30 – 60 second “elevator” speech. “I’m looking for anyone who’s looking to buy  a house”, “I’m looking for anyone with a spine”, “I’m looking for anyone with skin”, I’m looking for anyone wh0 needs a website”, “I’m looking for anyone who needs printing”. You might as well just stand up and blurt out, “I’m looking for anyone that will give me money to sit down, shut up and not waste the next 40 seconds of your life”.

Why does this even matter? I WILL do business with anyone that can pay me for my services?

My answer to the above statement is, “No sh!t Sherlock”.  Of course you’ll do business with anyone who’ll pay you because that’s why you got into business in the first place, to make money. The reason why you need to know your target market is so that you don’t piss away your money marketing to the wrong people.

The article is not going to teach you the finer points of market research and all that jazz. After all, it is a Cheap Ass Guide. But I am going to give you cheap ass, do-it-all-yourself, I’m a writer because I have Word, I’m a graphic artist because I have Photoshop, I’m a web designer because I have Dreamweaver business owners a small exercise you can do to determine who your top client is right now. This way you’ll be able to at least start targeting the right people with your homemade flyers, website and business cards.

An Excellent Case Study

A few years ago I consulted a young woman who owned a skin care business. When I asked her to generalize who her top client was she confidently said, “Women in their mid-twenties that want better looking skin”. I then asked her to do an exercise that required her to call up her top 10 – 20 clients and ask them a series of questions. Now determining who her top clients where was a mini challenge. Does she go by the people that drop the most cabbage, the ones that she personally likes the best or the ones that may not spend a whole lot but refer the most business? Now in her case we determined that it really boiled down into 2 categories; people that spent the most and people that didn’t spend much but sent a lot of referrals. She had good personal relations with everyone across the board.

When her results came back (she spoke with 16 or so people) she was shocked by the results. Her average client was not young women in their mid-twenties it was actually white women in their late 40’s and early 50’s. They where married with children and worked outside the home.  They said that the reason they used her services was that they usually felt unappreciated at home / work and they just needed a place to unwind and be girlie. All this time she thought her business was being driven by Bunny Lebowski when it was actually being driven by Maude. When we looked at the books, something like 65% of her business fell into this demographic.

Here is why this example is so good. Some of these women had received several fliers and brochures for over a year but never came in until meeting the woman in person at networking events.  Her personality and professionalism got them in, not any of her marketing efforts. Why didn’t they? Because, according to them, all the fliers and brochures had pictures of young girls in their mid 20’s and where designed to look very young and hip. The women got the impression that her business (even though very clinical in nature) was for young girls and they did not want to go someplace that made them feel old. They felt old at work, they felt old at home and they did not want to go to a place that reinforced them feeling old all over again. Especially when going  in for rejuvination treatments and such.

Now after two years in business and seeing these woman on a day to day basis why in the hell was she so off when I asked her who her general client was? It’s because she was projecting her desires onto her business. She saw herself as young and hip. She saw her clients as young and hip. It was not what was really happening but that is how she saw it.  When she realised who her clients really were, and changed her marketing materials accordingly( more mature women in the photos, more comforting and reassuring copy, more clean and conservative design and layout) her response rate to her her ads, emails and mailers doubled. Why, because now she knew who was most likely to use her service and she geared her marketing to them.

You’re not McDonald’s so stop trying to market your business like they do.

Small business owners that try to target everyone on their ads are idiots. McDonald’s actually does target everyone. They target young women, old women, kids, men, African Americans, Asians, whites, Hispanics, handicapped folks and every age group within the entire racial spectrum. You know why? Because they can afford it. They can afford to do market studies. They can afford to profile everyone who eats their crappy food and come up with a plan to target market to them. Guess what. You probably can’t afford to and if you can and are still reading this for free advice you’re one cheap ass douche bag. If you’re doing this on the cheap and have limited resources (money) then you really need to put your efforts into targeting one person. You will still have people outside of your marketing bulls eye come to your business but if you do focus on the people who are most likely to use your services your marketing efforts will have a much better chance of succeeding instead of just plain sucking.

The Questionnaire

Gather up your top 10 – 20 clients and get answers to the following questions. Now who your top clients are is your own judgment. Do you prefer people that drop the most money or ones that refer the most business? Do you like catering to high maintenance people or ones that are the most appreciative? This is your own question that needs to be answered before you begin this exercise.

• What sex are they?
• How old are they?
• What race are they?
• Are they married, single, dating, divorced?
• Do they have children?
• Do they own a business?
• Do they work?
• Do they enjoy their job?
• How much money do they make? ( You may need to guesstimate this one. If you can’t ask then look at their clothes, car, jewelry. It’s actually very important to have an idea of your client’s income situation.)
• Why did they initially come to you?
• Had they seen any of your marketing materials before coming to you?
• How long did they wait from the time they knew what you do before they came in the first time?
• Why do they continue using your service?
• Have they ever referred you business?
• How much have they spent with you during the previous year, six months?
• What do they like most about your company?
• What do they like least about your company?
• How easy is this client to collect from? Do they pay right away or do you have to hound them for money?
• When this client comes in do you look forward to seeing them again or are they a pain in the ass?

Now is this the most effective way to find out your target market? No, but it is effective for doing it on the cheap.

That’s pretty much it.

Now people actually go to college and get real degrees in marketing and advertising. There are businesses out there that do real market research and have much more scientific ways of gathering this information but doing the above excersise will at least get you started down the right path. If you own a business you need to know who your business is targeting. If you can’t afford to target everyone then target who is most likely to use your service. Just remember, your target market may not be who you think it is or even who you’d prefer it to be.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida.