Marketing an online business requires imagination.
You’re the creative type. I have a feeling entrepreneurial urges go hand-in-hand with creativity. So do you have an image of your ideal customer?
Who immediately snaps into your mind when you think about ways to market your business online? Knowing what she needs or lacks, what she’s dying for more of, or what motivates her can help you zero in on more effective ways to talk to her.
When you know your customer, you can give her what she wants — solutions. Fresh ones.
Try picturing her moving through her day. Fiction writers are adept at this.
Plop your imaginary customer into an ordinary scene. See her interacting with the checker at the grocery store, watch what magazine she picks up while waiting at the car mechanic.
Listen to what makes her mad, what puzzles her, or makes her laugh out loud when she gets on the phone with her best friend.
What problem can you solve for her? Can you offer a smaller, prettier or jazzier gizmo, a more efficient way for her to reach her goal, a more creative system?
What does she want that you can provide?
A character in a movie I saw last night uttered this line:
“I may be losing my grip on reality, but I’m still in charge of my hair.”
You may be in business online to market your professional coaching skills, or to sell smart and seductive home furnishings. Whatever you offer, keep your customer numero uno in your mind.
She’s looking for answers. She may not be losing her grip like the character from the movie, but she’d certainly love to at least feel in charge of her hair.
Sure, she may well be intrigued by the quality of your membership Web site, your eCourses, your state-of-the-art gadgets.
But what she really wants is to feel not afraid, not out of control and not unempowered.
Whatever you’re marketing in your online business, whether it’s a service, information, or a product, remember that.
Serve her delectably fresh solutions. Go over the top and be wildly generous with your customer service. Most importantly, deliver your promise (and don’t promise anything you can’t deliver).
How excited do you get when shown a plate of wilted greens and leftovers? That’s what I thought.
Bring out your best china and gleaming silver, and entice your online visitors with mouth-watering answers that really address their concerns. Their real concerns.
Offer something to reduce those nagging little worries or middle-of-the-night anxieties. She’ll pay attention. So will we!
