Finding Where to Market and Connect with Consumer

Fish where the fish are. You should know who your ideal customer is. (Marketers might call this a target persona.) But where are these people? Which social networks do they use? What publications do they read? What communities are they part of? Where do they go for information? A fisherman would plan to hang out by the right pool. How do you find it? Ask, don't assume. Too often, only sales and customer service reps talk to real, live customers; marketers tend not to interact directly with the people they are targeting. So change that: Survey folks on your e-mail or mailing list. Invite customers to a meal. Or, just pick up the phone. Shoot where the pheasant will be. In other words, be there before the sale. You can apply this concept (based loosely on Wayne Gretzky's comment, "Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it has been") in numerous ways. I think of it as anticipating your customers' needs and serving them before they even know they need you. How do you do this? By answering both the questions they have and those they should have when they're looking to buy. For example, check out a few blog posts from Yale Appliance and Lighting: "The Four Best Steam Ovens"; "Quietest Dishwasher by Decibel Rating"; "How to Clean Your Gas Grill." Notice how the titles read like the contents of Consumer Reports? CEO Steve Sheinkopf is positioning his Boston appliance company as not just a retailer, but a resource. He's shooting where the pheasant will be. He's there before the sale. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Can you stand one more animal analogy? This one is from George Orwell's classic Animal Farm. I'm invoking it to underscore the concept that while customers may vary and may lurk in many places around the web--Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, discussion groups--some customers are better than others. Most have constrained budgets and limited resources. So focus your efforts on the channels and platforms and segments that will yield the most for you. Not rocket science, certainly. But in an age when digital tools and platforms and apps are expanding at a rapid rate (anyone care to join Sir Paul and me on Vine?), it's worth mentioning. Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226124#ixzz2SWoZ5YiT Use a source like the one below to better connect your business! http://www.pureleverage.com/launch/6?id=joingeo