If confusion and overwhelm was an outfit, I would tell you to take it off, because it doesn’t look good on you. If it’s old, worn out and faded, then let it go.
What you wear should enhance what you have instead of playing up your weakness. In fashion, the goal is to wear what looks good on you. I’m saying clarity and balance looks good, so wear it well and wear it often. But how?
In “What Not to Do: The Most Important Decision You’ll Make,” John Mariotti says, “Refocus your time, talent and money on the important things, the big things, that will make a difference.” Sometimes that’s easier said than done, but here are two things worth your time—profiling your profitable passions and your ideal customers.
The goal is to understand your passion and your customers.
Profile your profitable passions
What do you want to do and can it pay for your lifestyle?
Ivana Taylor shows you how to find your passion and turn it into a profitable business. But it takes effort. You not only need to discover what you are interested in, but you must also find the market who would buy the product or service and the language that would get their attention, using tools like Google, eBay and Amazon.
And after you find the right niche, then it’s time to put more effort into clearly identifying your clients.
Profile your ideal customers
Who do you serve, what do you they want, where are they now and how do you reach them?
The last three questions become much easier to answer when you figure out the first one.
Ivana says:
“When you narrow your message…to a group who values what you are selling, then the rest of your marketing system becomes obvious and easy to implement.”
I spent a lot of time confused and it didn’t look good (or feel good) on me either. To profile my target client I used 3 of the 8 creative ways to profile ideal customers that Ivana mentions—complaints, Web traffic and character descriptions.
Understanding what my clients complain about and the types of people visiting my site based on my Alexa.com profile made it easier to create a character sketch of my target audience. And when you understand what your target audience looks like, then you can figure out where they shop, what they read, where they go to have fun, etc. All that knowledge creates opportunities to meet, market and serve them.
Now that’s a good use of time. Get clear and then get busy.
Confusion Photo via Shutterstock
Martin Lindeskog
Jamillah,
Could you tell us more on how you use Alexa.com in order to create a target for your audience?
My site EgoSoleTrader has the following search data on Alexa:
Keywords: sole elliptical, calendar widget, banner, social media moderator, social media
More Searches
sole trader news
sole trader
trader news
hot tepin pepper
scaffolding
cellulari
フォリフォリ
homes for rent
手袋
health insurance
The top queries driving traffic to egosoletrader.com from search engines. Updated monthly.
Query Percent of Search Traffic
1 squarespace calendar widget 18.21%
2 bizsugar banner 15.54%
3 is startupday worth the money 14.66%
4 bizsugar template 14.34%
5 faq sole elliptical 12.53%
6 soletrader.com 9.41%
7 social media moderator 5.58%
8 webcoast 2.47%
9 1 ego 2.36%
10 bizsugar 1.14%
Martin Smith
Great post Jamillah.
Most people’s strengths reside in the area that most interests them. Focusing on these areas of expertise will give you a competitive edge in that niche. It is only thanks to the internet that niche markets have flourished with such a sustainable customer base to support them.