So often, salespeople and small business owners trying to do their own sales, waste so much time and money pitching their services to the wrong market. We’ve met countless people who say their social media content isn’t getting any traction, no one is responding to their emails or LinkedIn messages, or no one responds to their ads in the local papers.
Before you waste your time and money attempting any lead generation or marketing, you need to first ask yourself: WHO, WHERE and HOW.
WHO: First and foremost, you need to clearly define WHO is your ideal client.
You may think you already know the answer to this question, but really spend some time on this. If you’re B2B will you be working with procurers, HR execs, etc. If you’re B2C is Mom making the buying decisions for the family, or will the kids be asking their parents to purchase?
We suggest that you create personas for your ideal client. By really getting to know them, understanding where they spend their time online and in the world, you’ll have a better idea of how to get them to notice your product or service.
WHERE: Think about where they are, and think big.
What countries, what cities or regions. Even if you don’t plan on expanding your sales at the moment, understanding where your potential clients live will help you to better understand their nature, as well as how to find them.
Also, think broad: which industries can they be found? Say you have a cyber security company, you’ll want to target IT teams for the private sector, but you may also want to bid on contracts for schools, hospitals and universities.
HOW: Finally, you can begin to address How to reach your target audience.
Here we will go back to the who to understand demographics and consider which marketing channels to use.
Now that you know what industries your potential clients work in, you’ll know which industry-specific magazines, websites, etc. to advertise in. Say for example that your target audience works in banking or finance. It would make sense, depending on your budget, to put ads in the WSJ or Financial Times, online or in print.
In terms of social media, if you are a B2B business then you want to be on LinkedIn, and will know what kind of content to create based on what your potential clients are looking for, or what parameters to set for paid ads.
If you are B2C then you’ll know what Facebook groups to be active in and again, how to target your paid ads
Because you know where your potential client lives and shops, you’ll be able to put up billboards in the right places or advertise in relevant circulars and local newspapers.
These may seem like obvious steps to take, but too often new businesses make assumptions about who their end user is and build Go To Marketing campaigns around that, without going over these questions with a qualified business development or sales consultant (assuming that they don’t already have one in-house). Don’t make that mistake yourself! Contact us for a GTM Strategy consultation.
