Focus On Your Market Segment
If you have been in business for even a short amount of time, you probably have some idea as to what your typical customer should look like. Chances are, you first came up with a product or service, and then ran it by a potential customer. I was watching the Shark Tank the other night when two women that had started a business selling balls that you mail to other people in the mail that had a congratulatory comment on the ball. These women knew exactly who their customers were; it was just producing the product that seemed to be the challenge in their case. Of course once they got the production side of the business solved, reaching more clients would then become their largest obstacle. The only way they could hope to achieve their goals would be via the internet. Thus getting the word out via inbound driven traffic as a result of SEO efforts. But first they should profile their clients, narrow down a target segment of the market so they could easily identify how they’re going to go after the target niche. Determining the niche allows you to direct your efforts towards the business to business verses the business to consumer segment. Keep in mind, the B2B niche is a much slower SEO success curve than B2C. The Search Engine efforts may take 2 or 3 times as much time and effort, and the customers will require a deal more nurturing than consumers. You may also want to weigh the balance between the two market segments prior to launch so you fully understand the ramifications of the market launch delay curve if you are going B2B. Of course the advantage of the B2B niche may be bigger orders from a single source, or repeat orders if you can become a distribution channel. If your service happens to be SEO consulting, you may want to take the same approach. Too often we hope that we can become a since source deliverer, i.e.; we can do it all for everybody. And unfortunately it is nearly impossible to convey the right message when you are trying to cover all bases. Because the B2C arena is so huge, you may have to actually carve a niche out of the marketplace in order to satisfy your sales funnel. So when thinking about your market, try to carve the niche by understanding who your customer really is. Dale Carnegie said it best, “If you see Jim Jones through Jim Jones eyes, you’ll sell Jim Jones what Jim Jones buys.”