| Hello Name. Over this and the next two mails, you're going to learn about the five pillars of internet marketing strategy. In this mail we'll talk about how to identify your niche market, what you need to know and where to get products you easily sell online.
---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Identifying your niche market Niche marketing – appealing to a group defined by behavioural, attitudinal or demographic characteristics – is the key to success on the internet. Partly because of the way search engines work and partly because of the nature of the net itself. Search engines are designed to serve up sources of information about specified subjects. So the narrower your subject, the better chances you have of achieving a prominent presence in the engines. And the internet is an interactive medium. People who are interested in a product, subject, hobby etc actually want to contribute to debates (through bulletin boards or forums) and surveys. Look at Amazon – it encourages people to write their own reviews of books, CDs etc – achieving two objectives simultaneously; greater customer involvement So with niche marketing you have a much better chance of online success. Your customers will want to find your site, and you can get closer to them and build a real understanding of what they want through email, forums and surveys. The opposite is offering something for everyone and disappointing them all – which is what Boo.com did – and look what happened to them. They “dot bombed”. However, it's not enough to identify a niche market - there must be an online demand for what you're proposing to sell. Ideally, there should be little competition too or an opportunity to cover an aspect of that niche which is unfulfilled. As in any offline marketing strategy it's critically important to understand your target niche market because everything that you communicate and offer on your site, and in your promotions, should be focused on your customers' needs and aspirations. By appealing to their emotions you'll be able to relate as individuals and sell to them, again and again. What do you need to know? The days of defining customers through simple demographics are gone. Have you noticed how age groups are often split so that they finish at 45+? As if a 46 year old is the same as a 58 year old who, in turn, is likely to have very different priorities to a 72 year old. It's crazy. To develop a deeper understanding of your customers takes time and dialogue. But, with a website, you don't have to spend a fortune on marketing research. If you collect customer data and communicate through your own newsletter Then you find or create a product or service that fills their needs.This way, you ensure your product has a market before it's even created. Another low cost and very valuable tactic is to use forums to identify what people in a particular market are looking for. There are discussion forums for virtually any subject you can name on the internet. Try Yahoo groups to start with and take part in online discussions. Over time you can build a reputation as an expert in these forums and drive traffic to your site too. For the best ways to find what your market wants and the latest strategies to profit from them, see the 2005 version of Corey Rudl's 'Insider Secrets to Because of my strong relationship with Corey and his company, The Internet Marketing Center - I'm currently being mentored by him - he's agreed to give
To make sure you appreciate the enormous value of this, I I know these strategies are going to make my business tons of extra money in 2005 and as my subscriber I want to make sure you experience the same rewards, so go to this site . Need a product to sell online? If you need a product to sell and you don't want to go through the hassle of creating or sourcing one yourself, here's how you can get trading quickly. You'll probably know about affiliate marketing. You promote other people's products and get a 5%-50% commission on any sales. You direct people to And the really good ones provide entire websites and automated marketing. If you want to explore that kind of easy-start approach, have a look here. That's it for now. Before the next lesson, write down your plan for identifying a profitable niche and explore the easy start options too. In your next lesson we'll discuss how you make sure you adapt your business to the unique world of the internet or 'net culture'. You must know what people expect online and what NOT to do. All the best for now, Paul paullock@incisecomms.co.uk NOTES 1. Please forward this course to anyone you think
might find it useful, whether they're just considering
starting an online business or already running one. To get the email, they can sign up in less than 10 seconds at 2. As a reader of my course, you're my most important critic and commentator. I welcome all reader feedback. Emailme anytime at paullock@incisecomms.co.uk 3. If you really don't find the course useful, then reply to this email with the subject field 'unsubscribe'. Any feedback would be much appreciated 4. Lastly, I've taken every care to check the information and advice I give. However, I can'tbe responsible for any loss that you may suffer as a resultof the advice or from any omission or inaccuracy. This disclaimer also applies to 3rd party adverts and links. © Paul Lock 2005. All rights reserved. No copying or extraction without permission from service@incisecomms.co.uk |