I want to share with you four strategies for marketing online. They all end up in the same place and neither is “better” than the other necessarily.
Persona first. (This has been all the rage in 2010).
The idea behind a persona is to imagine your ideal customer. You probably already have a vague idea of the market you want to promote stuff into. But your starting point for the real work is getting into the head of the buyer.
The nice thing about persona based marketing is that it is targeted while at the same time lets you naturally extend into multiple (even only semi-related) markets.
Sometimes you don’t literally start with the persona. You see a product with a nice landing page and affiliate program (let’s say) and you ask yourself, “hmmm… who’s gonna buy this?”
If you flesh out the answer – that’s a persona.
Facebook is the ultimate persona marketing engine. Targeting 35-50 year old married women interested in yoga or pilates in the US, UK, and AU is a nice starting point example.
But you want to take it from there? WHY does she do yoga? For how long? How many kids does she have? Houseowner? Into organic foods and green products? Smoker? yada yada.
Market first (big brand advertising)
Markets are big things. Entire major segments of the buying population. What separates a market from a niche is pretty much up to the eye of the beholder. But the idea is that markets are HUGE.
When you take a market-first approach you’re usually trying to brand your property. An ecommerce store selling golf supplies, a self-help blog intended to be an authority site. That sort of thing.
Because markets are big, markets need BIG traffic. This isn’t bad – but it’s something you need to know going in. Sending 100 people a day to you “everything golf” site is probably not the way to make a lot of money.
The classic big markets in the CPA world are debt, diet, and (make) money. Really big, really broad. Running a media campaign of banners on a new diet pill is a broad market kind of thing.
Niche first (class internet marketing approach)
Find a market and the segment it down to a specific group of people with a common pain or a common passion. Now offer that segment a (perceived) solution. That’s niche marketing.
Golf is a market. Left handed putters is a (product) niche.
Too often people worry about niches being too small. This is a valid concern but is often overblown. What’s most important is whether there are buyers in the niche. Most real niches have 1000s of visitors a day online. What you need to look at is where do you find them? And are they inclined to feed their passion or try and solve their problem?
The thing you need to be wary of is the distinction between a niche and an opportunity. “Herbal remedies” is a niche. “How To Stop Snoring” is an opportunity.
An opportunity is a one-time thing in the mind of the buyer. So you have to work to get them presold on your value (what you have to offer them) and THEN you have to work again to get them somewhere else – to some other interests they have.
A niche defines a group of repeat buyers.
Transactional Opportunity first
We just talked about this. This is basically a one-shot sale. In order to get additional sales – unless it’s a continuity program – you have to figure out what else the buyer is interested in.
Sometimes this is pretty easy. If I have a product that remove cat pee from the carpet I can pretty much guess that my buyer has cats. So I can later sell them later products related to cats.
But what about insomnia? I actually am having this issue RIGHT NOW. I have a small, growing list of people that are having sleeping problems. I have a classic lead capture page and give them a free report. Then I email market various sleep aids.
Do you see the problem? What if they get better? If the “pain” is removed what purpose does them being on the list have?
It’s sad in a lot of self help markets that this isn’t really a problem. The pain stays. Whether this is biological or whether this is the psychological condition I don’t know. But it’s a fact and why there can be 100 good diet books available at any one time.
So back to my insomnia opportunity. My goal is to help them with their sleep problem and get them somewhere else. Could be about diet, sleep apnea, food alergies, stress manaement, yoga, exercise, etc. SOMEWHERE else.
That’s the typical path you have to take with any kind of “opportunity”. Even something like wedding favors. Great, you’re getting married and buy $500 of trinkets from me for the tables…
Now what? I need to get you to wedding planners, honeymoons, vacation, insurance (for the house, apartment, ring, etc.) you name it.
Of course, I really don’t *need* to do this. I could just treat each transaction – each opportunity – as a one shot thing. The world doesn’t collapse and the IM police don’t come and get you for this.
But getting a customer to buy the first time is a lot more expense than getting someone to buy from you again (and again).
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant stuff Dave.
After reading your Niche Funnels Report, (NFR) I find myself looking for Personas that plug into it. What about our persona (spokesperson) as it relates to the market persona that we are engaging with? That’s been bugging me .. and I sure would welcome your take. Different pen name for each niche and email strategy?
I’m wondering how high we can raise the BS meter. Our persona has to be an empathetic and likable authority – in every niche. In my humble opinion, your strategy in the NFR is the best marketing in existence. Nothing else can or will compare. Doesn’t success lie in crafting a persona for the target persona?
David, I wrote a long reply to this and realized it’s better as a blog post! See http://0toCash.com/more-thoughts-on-persona-marketing/
“A niche defines a group of repeat buyers.” I need to think more this idea as most of my stuff appears to be transactional.
What about physical products like wheelchairs or wood furnaces? They are a one time purchase. Accept them as a one shot thing or where can I take them next?
If I was doing lead gen for Roofers, once they have the roof fixed, they are done. But they have an entire house left. Is that the way to think about it?
There’s nothing wrong with transactional offers. The problem is that unlike a brick and mortar store that has an anchor point (the physical location), a website doesn’t without investing in some form of branding for the site’s URL and name. So getting repeat buyers is difficult without a list and/or some perception of authority.
Now, if you’re doing leadgen or any form of e-commerce you can develop a “buyer’s list” from the transactions and keep them informed of offers that have affinity. With the roofer example you’re gathering the lead and the visitor knows you’ll be connecting them up with a third part. If you’re worried about getting acused of spamming for contacting them again you can send them a thank you email (or a physical thank you) that includes a gift. Some form of free report like “the top 10 inexpensive improvement you can make to your home this month to increase your property value by 11%” – or something like that. (I just made that report name up by the way. Don’t expect miracles, lol)
The report can include an invitation to your list. Or you send them the report in exchange for an opt-in. YES – you already have their email address but you are sublisting them.
Or you can be simple about it and just disclaim that when they fill out the roofing form they will receive your home improvement newsletter and gift at no charge with NO obligation.
What you can’t do is send them offers to rent a Marriott properties condo in Florida. Not without some form of bridge that gets them to opt-in to the condo offer.
Now, when I say “you can’t” what I really mean is that it would be sleazy to do this. Technically if you disclaim the original leadgen you can email them just about anything (I think). But we should all use a little courtesy and common sense.
Oops… forgot about the wheel chair and wood furnace!
Again, it’s up to you. There is NOTHING wrong with being the #1 online destination for wheel chairs. It can be an e-commerce or a review site. And you can leave it at that OR you can expand it. Simplest idea that comes to mind is with a newsletter for an e-commerce site and some form of “thank you” offer for an affiliate review site. Again, the idea is to deliver them the main product (the wheel chair) and then start an interaction where you learn more about WHY they are in the chair and what they might be interested in.
It’s the same for wood furnace’s. Maybe here you send a follow up thank you email with a survey for an instant $10 cash back. Or you send a free report on insulation and cutting their heating bills. The point being that you treat the transaction (if you want) as the point of engagement and then you keep the conversation going.
Brilliant stuff Dave. After reading your Niche Funnels Report, (NFR) I find myself looking for Personas that plug into it. What about our persona (spokesperson) as it relates to the market persona that we are engaging with? That’s been bugging me .. and I sure would welcome your take. Different pen name for each niche and email strategy? I’m wondering how high we can raise the BS meter. Our persona has to be an empathetic and likable authority – in every niche. In my humble opinion, your strategy in the NFR is the best marketing in existence. Nothing else can or will compare. Doesn’t success lie in crafting a persona for the target persona?
{ 3 trackbacks }