Whether you are writing articles, offering classes or teleseminars, coaching or consulting, selling physical products, posting to a blog, or writing an eBook, you must determine early on who it is that you are selling to. This is your ideal client, the person who represents the group of people in your niche who you are trying to reach out to on the internet.
Your ideal client is part of your traget market. Know what they drive, read, eat, and worry about. Where and how do they live, vacation, spend their free time and money? Once you can define your ideal client, you will find the entire process of building a business online to be a much simpler process.
The example I like to use is the handyman I have been marketing for during the past year and a half. He initially told me that his target market was everyone, but that was not working very well for him. He was working 50-60 hours each week, driving more than 30 miles for some jobs, and not happy with the entire situation. We have since determined that his ideal client is a woman, over the age of 50, who owns her own single-story home that is more than 20 years old, lives no more than 12 miles from his office, has no husband or other male relative who is able to fix things around the home, and vacations out of state at least 4 weeks each year. This is who he now markets to and the change has been dramatic.
The result? He has doubled his income and works 25% less than he did two years ago. This works in any niche, for any market, during any economic period, and for anyone who offers a product or service to others.
Excellent points that are good reminders for me. The example you used of the handyman gave me a specific example that really drove the home the point and gave me specific ideas of how to implement the principle. Thank you!