Creating the best products and services based on their skills and knowledge is the focus for many small business owners.
The second thing they focus on is going out and finding people who need or want what they have to offer. Sometimes this works… and they build a successful business around it.
But more often, especially, with small business owners in service or product based businesses, it doesn’t work. They create services/products, that they would want or that they believe other people would need. They also build some structure around these ideas, come up with a marketing message, get a website and then they are off (feeling like they’re going to conquer the world).
Reality then bites. Less people visit their website. And even less contact them about what they have to offer (and, if they don’t get discouraged and give up, they look for a business coach, or take courses in marketing and copy writing). They get sold the idea that if they were just clearer in their marketing message, people would flock to their business.
Now that’s true, in part. The the clearer your messaging and the better your copy writing, the better your overall marketing can be. So it’s not a bad idea to use a coach, or focus on your copy writing. What I mean is that that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to sell more of your services/products and make more money.
What you need to know is your audience.
When taking a good marketing or copy writing course, you should get plenty about identifying the demographics and psychographics of your audience – and that’s excellent. You also get plenty of customer-focused writing – and that’s certainly even better. But the truth is both are premature.
Very few small business owners ask themselves this very important question – what does my target audience know they need? And again, what do they know they need?
That my friends, is the key to successful marketing – finding out what they know they need. Not just what they need, but what they know they need (purposely repeated).
So, are you developing your services/products around what your audience knows they need?
How would meeting your audience where they are change your business?