Web 2.0: Changing the Way We Market

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Web 2.0: Changing the Way We Market

Written by Leanne Hoagland Smith

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Define Your Target Audience - Who Is Your Client?

Your target audience consists of the people and businesses that are most likely to need and want what you have to sell. Before you create a marketing plan for your business, it is critical that you define your target audience and create an ideal client profile so you can attract this audience with your marketing. Once you have identified your target audience and ideal clients you will find it so much easier to design your marketing plan around their identity and their needs.

Define Your Target Audience
Some of the questions you may want to ask when defining your ideal client are listed below. Not all questions will be applicable to your ideal client, so pick and choose the questions based on your needs.

What is his or her age?
What is his or her gender?
What is his or her marital status and do they have children?
Where do they live?
What is his or her income?
What is his or her educational level?
What is his or her hobbies?
Is this person involved in any organized sport?
Does this person own a business?
In what industry is his or her business?
Is his or her business located in their home?
How big is his or her business?
What is his or her annual revenue?
How long have they been in business?
Who is his or her ideal client and do you know how to reach them?
What tasks and issues does this person hate to deal with?
What problems does this person have?
How can you solve these problems?
Will this person pay for what you offer?
Has this person worked with someone like you before?
Where can you find him or her?
Does this person belong to any organization such as a trade association or volunteer group?
Do they read any industry or entertainment publications?

Once you have answered the questions and created the ideal client profile, then you incorporate this information into your website and other marketing materials. You'll waste less time looking for clients, and when you find them they will be more likely to hire you. Ideal clients will inspire you, make you feel confident, pay you what you're worth, praise you, and refer other clients to you without being asked.

Who Is Your Client?
Another way of defining your ideal client is to look at past and present clients. Which of these clients did you enjoy working with the most? Pull those client files and list their characteristics based on the questions above. To help you concentrate on which marketing methods worked best in the past, client attraction mentor Fabienne Fredrickson, recommends you ask how your favorite clients found you.

Perhaps the most important benefit of this process is that you will be empowered to fire clients who drive you to distraction, and you will not waste time trying to get an unsuitable client to sign a contract with you!

You deserve to work with clients who bring out the best in you-so don't be shy, and get started on finding your ideal client!

Web 2.0 has changed many of the old ways of conducting business. From monitoring unhappy customers on Twitter to allowing interactive feedback on blogs to providing new revenue opportunities on mobile devices, Web 2.0 has also changed what we think and do about marketing.

Web 2.0 and Social Media
One of the most obvious and sometimes least understood changes has been social media. From its early origins at Amazon where you could write book reviews to today's super connectivity, social media has changed how people market their products and services.

Part of the challenge in embracing social media is that it has dual roles as a platform and a message vehicle. In the past, marketing plans were constructed to look at target markets and how best to reach them through traditional message vehicles of print, trade shows, television or cable broadcast and radio. In the late 1900's and early 2,000, Pay Per Click (PPC), banner advertising and websites became the new tradition. Leads were collected and placed into the marketing funnel with the goal to move a certain percentage down into the sales funnel and then into the revenue funnel.

Web 2.0 Transforms Marketing
Today those avenues are still available, but Web 2.0 has literally transformed the marketing funnel to a marketing web. Imagine for a moment a spider's web. The center of this finely planned and woven masterpiece is Web 2.0 and just underneath it is where you collect all of your revenues. At various intersections between the radiating vertical and connecting horizontal threads are your messaging vehicles such as print, TV, radio and social media sites. All of these vehicles link directly back to the Center. Business experts call this an integrated marketing platform.

As potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) become attracted to your messages they may actually land at an intersection. Your first goal is to keep them and this is sometimes referred to as being "sticky." Then your next goal is to continue to build the relationships and bring them closer to the center with the end result to convert them into paying customers. During the process, some will leave because they are not the right fit at that time, but they may actually take a filament of your spider web back with them such as by signing up for your blog RSS feed or for a free offer.

The traditional marketing funnel appears to have evolved into an expanding web, which is due to the functionality of Web 2.0. For example, if you engage in article marketing, your articles can be picked up by other sites that you were not aware of and reach entire new target markets. Now it seems like your business is truly going where no one else has gone before. This is why your market place is truly global.

What is important for any business or organization to remember about Web 2.0 is now more than ever you must have a well-researched and written marketing plan. No longer can anyone afford to let this critical document lie dormant in a drawer or revisit it on a quarterly or even on a monthly basis. Your marketing efforts can no longer be guided with a "spraying and praying mentality" with the hope that something will stick for this now spells economic doom. Weekly monitoring is required to ensure that your marketing web remains strong, broken threads are quickly repaired and you track all sales leads.

For more resources on marketing, click here.

Leanne Hoagland Smith
		About the author:
		Leanne Haogland-Smith has over 25 years in sales. Her true joy is selling and helping clients unlock the results that they want. She holds a core belief that the majority of answers are within each individual or organization and, sometimes, people just need an outside perspective to help them discover those answers. Leanne has written more than 1000 articles on sales and process improvement. Learn more about Leanne at www.processspecialist.com .