How to Locate Your Ideal Customers on the Internet

How to Locate Your Ideal Customers on the Internet

Is your bait in the water where the fish are? Even though the solution may seem apparent, I'm often surprised by how many business owners search in the wrong locations for their ideal customers. Still worse is the business owner, who sees "everyone" as a potential customer base. How difficult do you think it is to market to the general public? The truth is that your product or service is probably not necessary or a good fit for every person on the planet.

Who you're trying to reach is the first problem to fix. What sex are they? For what age bracket are we looking? Which sector?  In what class do you find yourself? Much of your marketing work will be wasted until you first refine your target audience.

You must learn more about your intended audience after you have narrowed it down. Here are some of the questions I pose to clients when we discuss their intended audience: Where do they congregate both online and offline? Tell me about the books they read. Which organizations do they participate in (both offline and online), both personally and professionally? What is their salary like? Is it within their price range to purchase your wares?

There are some excellent resources accessible online that can help you learn more about your target audience. The top seven are as follows:

1. Join a professional organization; the American Society of Association Executives (http://www.asaenet.org) is popular among executives at respected trade groups. Access the Gateway of Associations at the following address: http://www.asaecenter.org/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm?navItemNumber=16581 to conduct your search. You can search for groups near you or far away using the Gateway. When you've zeroed in on the right group(s), it's time to see if they have a local chapter that meets in your region and if you should join. It should be possible to discover the national office's website by retracing your steps if a search in this directory initially brings you to a local branch.

Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations is another option for finding relevant organizations. Due to its price, you'll likely want to access this item in person at your local library, where it can be found in the reference section. Some libraries have access to GaleNet (http://www.galenet.com), an online database, and can provide you with a login and password to use it.

Lastly, you can try searching for "industry" (replace with the name of your desired industry) and "professional association" in a web browser. When conducting a search, it is recommended that you use quotation marks.

Find the trade or consumer group to which your audience belongs, and then contact them via their professional membership publication and/or newsletter. It's possible to get the magazine without joining the group that publishes it.

You can find a directory of newspapers and business and consumer magazines in the media guide published by Gebbie Press (http://www.gebbieinc.com). Newspaper/Magazine Directory and Radio/TV/Cable Directory are just two of the many media guides published by Bacon's (http://www.bacons.com). Similar to Gale's Directory, this resource is so pricey that you'll likely need to visit your local library in order to access it.

Thirdly, I would recommend joining online discussion forums and mailing lists, since many of my clients have told me they have gained new clients and newsletter subscribers through these mediums. At http://www.un-marketing.com/index.php?p=u, Scott Stratten compiles a comprehensive directory of excellent online communities dedicated to professional discourse. Discussion forums and mailing lists are often hosted by professional organizations. Another extensive list may be found at QuintCareers.com (http://www.quintcareers.com/Internet_networking_sources.html), in addition to the Yahoo Groups Directory (http://groups.yahoo.com), Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/), Forum Haven (http://forumhaven.com), and so on.

4. Online networking: There are virtual communities whose primary mission is to facilitate professional networking. Some of the more well-known ones are largely social, such as Facebook and MySpace. The commercially oriented ones frequently feature what Ryze terms "networks" (communities of people united by a shared interest or objective). It's often possible to set up your own system of communication. Scott Allen and David Teten wrote a fantastic book together titled The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, and Allen maintains a thorough directory of online networking groups available at http://thevirtualhandshake.com/directory.html.

5. Blogs: Not only is it smart to create your own blog to promote your business, but it's also a good idea to leave comments on other blogs read by your target market. There is a plethora of blogs out there, and it can be difficult to sift through them all to identify the ones that are read by your target market and cover topics of interest to them. You can begin your blog search at Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com/), Feedster (http://www.feedster), or Robin Goode's directory of blog submission sites (http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/).

You can learn a lot about your target audience's common concerns and challenges by reading and contributing to ezines that are popular among that audience. The most visited directories are listed at http://ezines.nettop20.com/.

7. Income: The purchasing power of your prospective customers is a key factor in setting a reasonable selling price. You may find salary ranges by city and state on Salary.com (http://www.salary.com). For a price, you can get access to more in-depth reports.

It will save you a lot of time, effort, and stress if you take the time to investigate your potential customers in advance. If you know your audience and promote your strategy, you can increase your online clientele.