How To Know What Your Target Customers Really Want!
Podcast Audio
Transcript
00:00 Okay. So there’s really three big areas that I talk about that you want to look or that you want to invest some time and energy. And number one is that you want to ask existing customers or clients, talk to them, ask them a question. And so you’re going to be asking them questions about what are the biggest problems or frustrations that they’re trying to solve in their life and especially as it relates to your product or service. So you can do this in different ways. One, you can survey them. So if you have a mailing list or an email list is even better. There are some survey tools out there like survey monkey and other things like that where you can actually send out a survey, uh, by email and get folks to walk through that survey and answer the questions. If you’re going to do an online survey with your existing clients or your buyers, I would highly suggest that you offer them some kind of an ethical bribe.
00:53 What does that mean? Reward them for their time? Give them something, give them a gift card, give them one of your products. Or services, give them tickets to something, something. It doesn’t have to be super expensive, but give them something that rewards them for their time because the information that you’re going to be getting back from them is super valuable. So, uh, conducting a survey is a great way to get more information. Number two, I really like these. It’s conducting actual interviews with them by phone or by video conference. The way that we produced this, um, there you can do it in person and when you’re at an event, if you’re out there and maybe get all of your clients together, if you’re a local business owner, you’re going to invite them all to a dinner or a coffee or a lunch and learn or something, some kind of a, you’re gonna invite them to some kind of a reception and that would give them a chance to interact with you.
01:44 And then while you’re interacting with them, you can ask them your questions and interview them. Just picking up the phone and talking to them is going to make you extremely powerful because you’re going to get it right from their mouth and they’re going to articulate things in a way that you hadn’t even thought of. The words that they say are actually the words that you’ll begin using in your advertising or marketing messages, whenever you get to the next step of putting together your messaging. The third way that you can ask them questions is during pre-existing contact with them. What I mean by that, if you already have a coaching call scheduled with people, if you already have some sort of a strategy session scheduled, if you already have a service call when you’re going out and meeting with your clients on a regular basis, if you run the, the route, you know, or run the traps or whatever and you’re constantly seeing your clients and you’ve already got time on your schedule with them, integrate this Q and A process into those contacts with them.
02:45 So the second way you can research a target buyer is on the Internet. It’s such a powerful tool because we have the ability to search and find things very, very quickly and we have the ability to sort of ease drop on people’s conversations. How do you do that? Well, you can go to websites and look and see what are people doing, what are they commenting? What are they saying? What are the questions that they’re asking? Whenever you look at a blog for example, and there’s comments down below the blog post, what are the things that people are saying? Because if it’s an active blog or an active blog post, you can be able to gather insights from them because they literally sat there and with their own emotions and feelings typed out what they were thinking related to that information. So find articles that are related to your topic that are related to your product that are related to the problem that these people are trying to solve and then see what kind of comments that they put down below that and also find out what kind of questions that they ask in there.
03:46 Another great place online to look is in forums. Now, in the old days we had lots of forums and forums still exist so you can look up like if you’re, whatever your business is, put that in and then forum. So if you are a person that targets copywriters, you can type copywriting forum. If you’re a person that goes after attorneys, you’d type Attorney Forum and you’ll find these on the internet. What are they? They’re communities where people go in and ask questions and then the peers share their answers to those questions. A new variation of that is groups, so on Facebook we have groups. In Linkedin, we have groups and you can go in there. You don’t even initially need to go in there and start answering questions or asking questions or posting. Certainly don’t go in there and start pitching their product or service.
04:36 Go into those groups and just be a fly on the wall. Watch the kind of questions people are asking. Watch the kind of answers that are given? Watch their reactions to those questions that are asked and the answers that are given. Watch what peers answer and additional questions that are asked, that are spun off of that, and you can get entire books of content of understanding into your markets, mean remember we talked about their psychographics, how they word their problems, what they’re wanting, their expectations or dreams, their hopes, their aspirations. You can find out what they’re interested in, what they’re reading, because they’ll say, I was reading such and such book and that it came up and this is now my question and I’m trying to solve this problem, and you’re going to, boom, there’s an author. That’s a name I could target in my marketing. So looking inside those, those groups, super powerful.
Overcoming Adversity Podcast Episode With Guest JP Maroney
Self-described as a serial business-builder, JP Maroney started his first venture at age 19. Soon after marrying, JP and his wife, Tonya, launched an advertising and marketing agency that created print media and eventually ventured into radio marketing campaigns.
At age 22, JP and Tonya created their first magazine, a travel-oriented publication called Escape Magazine. That led to JP buying a weekly classifieds marketing newspaper.
At age 25, JP Maroney lost everything — went bankrupt, and had to scramble to survive — working as a waiter, shoe salesman and pizza deliveryman. But, his fortune changed when he started publishing another magazine, then sold it in 1999.
Then JP launched yet another business as a speaker, author and publisher of training programs. Today, as co-founder and Chairman of Harbor City Capital Group, JP controls ventures in publishing, media, training, consulting and internet commerce.
A thorough researcher, writer and best-selling author, JP is the author or co-author of more than 30 books and audio/video learning systems. His articles and columns appear in dozens of print and online publications throughout the US and Internationally. He has also collaborated, organized and published business and self-improvement books with more than 70 other speakers, trainers and consultants.
A frequent keynote and seminar speaker, JP has lived through what most speakers can only “talk” about. He teaches proven principles, ideas and strategies that have been hammered out on the anvil of experience.
Advanced Email Marketing Tips with JP Maroney
JP Maroney returns to the Coachzing show to discuss advanced email marketing tips that will help you grow your business.JP Maroney – Founder and CEO of Marocom Group
JP Maroney is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist with more than 25-years experience starting, building, buying, and selling companies in publishing, media, advertising, software, ecommerce, textiles, training, real estate, and consulting.
Most recently, JP Maroney founded Harbor City Capital Management, a private, boutique investment fund specializing in Digital Marketing Arbitrage. Since it’s inception in December 2013, the fund has returned better than 60% ROI.
In This Episode You’ll Discover:
- Why email marketing is critical to your business
- How do you generate leads for your email business
- How often to email your list
- How to develop great content for your email
Tips From the Episode:
- You want to keep your list “clean”
- Google knows if many people are your list are opening and clicking on your links
- You want to treat your list well so they will stay with you
- You need to make sure that offer good value to your prospects
