There are three ways to create offers your audience wants:
- Create what you want, regardless of what people in your audience wants.
- Create what you think the people in your target audience wants.
- Create what the people in your target audience tells you they want.
Well, the first option doesn’t work?
That should be clear. If you just create the offers you want and don’t really think about your audience wants, it’s pretty likely they’re not going to buy what you offer.
The second option can work.
And that’s because guessing does work from time to time. Some times you’ll guess right and people will buy your offers. But maybe just as often, or more, you’ll guess wrong and be disappointed in the results.
The third option works every time.
This only makes sense. Just stop and think for a second. If someone tells you what they want and you create what they want doesn’t it only make sense that they’ll buy what you create?
Yet as clear as the answer to this question is, few small business owners actually positioned their business this way. Most small businesses first figure out what they do. Then they go about marketing what they can do for the people in their target market in hopes that they’ll buy.
This certainly is one way to go. And sometimes you can get lucky in communicating what you do to just the right people in just the right way that your business finds some success.
But the less trodden, yet more successful path is to find out what your target audience knows they need. Notice, I said ‘knows’ they need. Not what they need. But what they know they need. This is an important distinction because people will most often only respond to what they know they need.
For instance, let’s say you found a way to produce the best curry powder in the world. It was grown in the perfect climate, with the right nutrients. It was organically and biodynamically grown and was dried and powered better than any other.
Well, you could broadcast your new curry powder up and down the hillsides of the world and you’ll get some response. Yet you’ll spend a lot of time, effort and money talking in the direction of whole bunch of people who have no need for a better curry powder.
But what if you targeted a specific need inside your market? An example might be chefs at fine restaurants. They would have a need and desire to find ingredients that would make their food that much better. They’d also need less convincing other than taste. Or maybe, since your curry powder was grown biodynamically, you market it to people who eat mostly organic foods. They’d appreciate the specialness of your curry powder.
Either way, you can put your efforts into specific markets where people are looking for a better a better curry powder or healthier foods rather than broadcasting your message to a mass of people, most of which don’t regularly cook.
The point here is that you want to talk to the people who are actively looking to solve a need. Identify who they are and then market your solution directly to them. If others buy, no worry. If you miss you target market but gain business from other group, no worry. The key, though, is to select a target group that identifies that they have a problem to be solved. To do this, simply:
- Know, clearly, who you are and what you do. The clearer you are, the easier it is for others to be clear about it too – including your target audience.
- Know your market – Who are the people that make up your target market?
- Know their need – What do the people in your target market need. Again, not what you think they need, but what they know they need. How do you find out…ask.
- Create a message that solves their problem – If you know what you do and understand the need of the people you do it for, all you have to do is clearly communicate the two to the people who need what you do. It’s really that simple.
- Keep asking, keep learning – Once your message is out there, track the responses. Do so with statistics, surveys and by speaking to people directly. Tracking is vital to success.
- Reposition – Take what you learn and adjust your offering and your message to better meet your audience’s need.
Really, this is how you grow a business. It’s how the big boys do it. And this is how almost all successful little folks do it. So what’s holding you back?
This very helpful because ive been looking into marketing my buiness better and i got a real duh moment when i read it,i just never thought asking what the customer wants it the best way to build your style of marketing and selling.thank you so much for this blog.
first and second opinion might be work but i don’t think that third opinion will be working
Then they go about marketing what they can do for the people in their target market in hopes that they?ll buy.
Of course, the third option is the best for all business. It’s annoying that many of small businesmans come to me and says all kinds of nonsense, such as: “I want to be seen as traditional and innovative firm” or sth like that. They often dont really know, how Their company should communicate with clients. Further more, when I asked them what Your target group want or even who they are? They just stare at me and just look like I killed a cat…
I wish more people read your blog – marketing, products and services in this country would be much better:P
I think Steve Jobs definitely fell into Camp 2—–maybe the biggest outlier example, but still. 🙂
Good info for marketing steps. This is a very important thing to have clear if anybody wants to promote a business and have good customers targets.
Actually, I think Steve Jobs was in a 4th category: Create what the people in your target audience didn’t know they wanted, but now they do. Some products actually open new markets, though that’s certainly rare.
Karush, you are absolutely right! He was a true innovator, creating markets for products that didn’t even exist, then forcing all of his competition to play some serious catch-up. Even years after the introduction of his products, they are still arguably the best of lot compared to the competitive group. Apple however, is an exception and I agree with the post in that #3 is where most of us should be spending the bulk of our time and effort.
This is a very intriguing post, I was looking for this knowledge. Just so you know I found your web site when I was searching for blogs like mine, so please check out my site sometime and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.
No matter what business you are in, or what service you provide, you should follow this advice. In our busienss, we help people not only by using our training and knowledge of the service, but especially by listening. While there is no ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to our business, the nuggets of information you can leaern in one case, can help in another. Great business post, Dawud
Hey I am newbie blogger .In our busienss, we help people not only by using our training and knowledge of the service, but especially by listening. While there is no ?cookie-cutter? approach to our business, the nuggets of information you can leaern in one case, can help in another. its really helpful for me. I like your way of writing Thanks for the great post !!
My advice is get some form of survey software for a email campaign or make a poll post on your website where visitors tend to flow to and simply give them options. In addition, allow for a comment in the poll for the option to allow them to express what they want.
Finally, analyze your data and make the best business decision you can within your budget and resources.
Hi Dawud,
I agree with surveys, but, a lot of people don’t like surveys. They won’t take the time to fill out a survey unless it’s very short. If it’s too short, you can’t find out what you need to know. I have found that going to forums is a good way to find out what people need and want.
This article is certainly food for thought. Thanks for the info and your perspective. I really like knowing how other people feel about subjects in Internet Marketing.
Geri Richmond
Selling what you know your audience thinks it needs always works. However, I believe you should only cater to those “needs” that correspond to your own capabilities. Even though you can hire specialists for your business to address the demand that you are targeting, it is always best that you know what’s going on under the hood so you can manage your business effectively.
I first time know about stepts.
Good marketing is important part of business
Another good system to find out what your prospective customers like is to ask your current customers: “What made you come to us?”, and don’t accept price as an answer. Sometimes you never get to learn about your business from a Customer’s eyes.
Nice post, Dawud.
Dawud you have an excellent blog, l am impressed with your simple language and your design, its operability is excellent…l am still amazed
thanks for the article… Keep asking, keep learning ? Once your message is out there, track the responses. Do so with statistics, surveys and by speaking to people directly. Tracking is vital to success. i liked this tip a lot and from now on i will always follow this instruction…
This is awesome! I’ve been approaching my marketing in terms of casting a wide net and pulling it in with my fingers crossed. For such a simple idea, it’s funny how easy it is to overlook. I mean… Target your target market.
I love this approach because it forces you to have a much closer interaction with your customers. If you ask them what it is they really want, they tell you, and then you deliver on it, that builds an excellent customer relationship. People will always come back if they know you?re the one that will always get them what they really want and need.
The internet is full of business people struggling and striving to be noticed. People with knowledge, skills, expertise to share, but not gaining the recognition they deserve. Does this sound familiar?
People start blogging for their businesses every day. They find their blogs flounder, the traffic does not come, they find it hard to generate business, they attract few comments and fewer subscribers.
The third option is better and easier to make money from because the audience know what they want. While the first and second option can still make you more, as long as you can make them see value in the product you are offering.
Thank you very much for sharing! I’ve been looking into that subject myself seeing as for a long time I stuck to the second option. Just as you said, at times i managed to guess the right answer, but more often i failed and my business went through hard times.
Thanks for sharing. I’d agree with Severiano, I find running monthly customer surveys provide a wealth of data and information, not just how we can be better but also coming up with new solutions and new products to sell to customers. Engage and build relationships with your prospects and existing customers.
About point 3 – when it comes to product research I find that it is much better to target niches people dont know they need.
Like Facebook – who knew people needed such a platform in the era of MySpace and co ?
Who knew anyone needed Google before even idea existed?
Check out the theory of 5 senses, it’s on a TED talk on YouTube. The basic principle is to make your audience incorporate their 5 senses when they consume your product. Might be a little tough to try and smell a website but if you can incorporate it somehow, let us know as well!
Great points. I would like to incorporate all 3 options when possible. Finding what your audience needs in your niche will keep them coming back to your site over and over again. Also, keeping things fresh and new is key.
I’ve always started out with step 2 then move onto step 3.. “Create what you want, regardless of what people in your audience wants” never usually works for me unless I’m very lucky. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it.
I think it all comes down to focusing on your clients because more often than not they will tell you want they want and need. It’s a waste to ignore the clients because they are actually telling you what they are likely to buy so why waste time guessing or building something that you THINK would work.
It has been said that,”it is not a money problem but an idea problem”, “Ideas rule the world”.
The central thing is always, find a problem,sole the problem and the money will flow. People are willing to pay anything to fix their problems so you who has the solution to their problems make all the money.
The hard work is always how to find the problem. That where i think we should focus.
Keep asking, keep learning ? Once your message is out there, track the responses. Do so with statistics, surveys and by speaking to people directly. Tracking is vital to success. I am totally agree that tracking is so important thing for success and also with tracking it will be very fast to reach best success.
“Know, clearly, who you are and what you do. ” This is the truth! If you do not know which way to steer the ship before setting sail, it will be a difficult journey for captain and crew.
I think you try to expose three good opinions. I think each and every businesses are depend on the above factors. Thank you very much !
for me i “m so interested to follow those advice because they can help me when ever i go… they are really a great one i like them so much more than that i find them in the right way that make any one do the best things in their life… so thanks so much for sharing this with us…
Understanding your audience is crucial to creating (offers, content, landing pages, etc) value for your clients. When meeting with a new client, I always try to put myself in their shoes, and more importantly, the mindset of their customers. Become an expert on your client’s industry. Study up. Do your homework. You can’t lose with good, old-fashioned preparation.
“The point here is that you want to talk to the people who are actively looking to solve a need. Identify who they are and then market your solution directly to them. If others buy, no worry. If you miss you target market but gain business from other group, no worry.”
Your general point is well taken – thanks for making it.
I’d just add that, in the final analysis, *talking to people* will only take you so far. The’ll tell you that they could really use X, Y, Z. They’d love to have it etc.
However, it is only when they put money down on the table that you know they aren’t BS’ing you. So yes, talk to them. But just realize that you don’t *really* know what they want before they have put money behind the talking.
Thanks again!
Best
Chris
This is excellent advice for businesses in any genre. While it is always easiest to begin building your company around your own preferences, listening to your customers (or potential customers) is the only way to thrive in a long term market.
Nice post. A continual search on how to package your idea is important. Your customers only can do this for me
The only problem with option three is that if you are building software then a lot of the time people tell you that you really need to build this or that killer feature and then they will buy your software, its not always true. These people often like to tick the boxes on a feature comparison chart but when it comes to opening their wallet then its a different story.
Indeed, it?s all about to really listen to your audience. Too bad not that many of us have this skill 😉 Thanks for sharing the ideas.
It is, indeed very important to take into consideration the audience, unfortunately i know big businesses that do not count on people’s opinion and ideas but create their own products and ‘offers’ and ‘feed’ the audience with fake promises. Your ideas count a lot, hope many more people understand your point!
Great tips after I just finished watching Jeff Walkers product launch formula blog. This is very true and something Jeff pointed out was, do the research and create the products to solve real problems and people will buy the products.
Thanks for the tips and knowledge.
It sounds so easy to attract your own audience, but so many businesses don’t know where their marekt is. Very good Post, Dawud
One way to leverage social media interaction is to really listen to what people are saying on those platforms and then letting them know they’ve been heard. It’s surprisingly easy to ignore the audience needs when you either think you know better or you simply have your blinders up. But if people are talking about your business, you need to be listening and adjusting your product or service accordingly. It’s the best direction you’ll ever get. Great post!
Finding exact matches for your product or service is easier than you think. Google helps you through their Search Parameters, and you can easily think of new ideas as your search grows. Too many entrepreneurs simply spray their message, without looking at who their possible market is. Great Post, Dawud.
Whenever we read an article about attracting your targeted audience it always looks so easy. In reality it’s a bit difficult to have such huge numbers of audience all the business in the world are looking for lead generators. Well written article and thanks for sharing it with your readers.
Thanks for sharing,great post,i agree with you about “audience tells you they want” but every company must have their special product.Even if it is restaurant.i don’t say “do whatever costumers want”.Companies must research,observe then create product.
How would you go about asking the customer what he wants from you? Especially for new bloggers who don’t have such a large following on their own site.
Facebook? Twitter? A thread on a forum?
This post is a few months old, and there is a promise on the Home Page that you will be back ‘soon’. Are you still posting?
If you can find what you audience needs, wants and are willing to buy the work is half done already !! That’s why market research is always a better option than starting a business or product or services !
Very good post !
Hi!
Thanks for such a great post! It?s so true, we have to offer what people want. Only then we?ll succeed! And it is so important to keep asking people about their preferences and wants, because every day something changes and we should keep up with the times.