July/Aug 2006

3 questions for getting deeper into your target markets
Dear GetMoreCustomers Reader:

Today, with competitors' information instantly available to your prospects via the Internet, it's easy to miss the fact that your customer may be calling other people for solutions you can provide--because your marketing isn't adequately reflecting how comprehensive your services are.

With SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click), personalized email, targeted keywords, and so on, you have new ways to get to prospects. With such power in your hands, it only makes sense to show your target audience members everything you can do for them, right?

But if you're like most small to medium-size business owners, you maybe haven't thought too much about all the other things you could be doing...

Vertical targeting is similar to niche marketing, but it's about more than just picking an industry.
It means planning your strategies around people--people and their concerns/challenges/problems. Instead of just narrowing your focus, you realign your approaches and create new verticals based on other sets of criteria.

While this isn't brand-new thinking, it does take on new importance as technology facilitates today's more sophisticated marketing. In a recent BtoB article some of the big guys revealed how they review their vertical strategies each year. General Electric, for example, evaluates opportunities by country, by project, by event, and by industry. What does that mean? Well, here's a by-project example:

GE has a relationship with the NFL (National Football League). When they think "project," they think, hey, we get involved when NFL members are building new football stadiums. Okay. So let's leverage our relationship so that they'll give us firsthand notice about potential new stadium projects as soon as they're put on the agenda.

Then, instead of going to the football-stadium developer to sell "electric" solutions--and then later, approaching them separately about the wiring, the water, the security, financial, and other issues--GE sends in a single team with experts from each area. That way, the developer views GE upfront as a provider of solutions for a whole host of challenges. An ideal position.

To start thinking like this for your own business, ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Who are the people you serve? Who do they serve? What drives their business decisions? Where are they trying to go? What are their dreams? Their frustrations?
   
2. What relevant areas/related industries are growing? How is technology affecting the answers in Question #1? An example: mobile communications is in explosive-growth mode right now. What, if anything, might that mean to your customers?
   
3. What's good about your products and services? What can you add/extend that will address the new needs being generated by those growth trends?
   

Now brainstorm about the answers you came up with, and like IBM, look in the "white spaces" for opportunities. Focus your imagination on the gaps and dream how your product/service might be able to fill those in. And then, let people know with creative sales and marketing.

In short, make it a regular business practice to move your vision away from what has been and onto what could be. "All you can be" isn't a static concept--make sure your marketing and sales efforts reflect that.

Sincerely,
Barbara

P.S. Oh, and when you're ready to do the brainstorming, work with a
really good writer/branding consultant to help you capture and convey the spirit of the new you! Questions?
Email me.