Affiliates know their markets like the back of their hands. They know what motivates members of their target market, where they live, how much money they make, their gender, their ethnicity, what sets their soul on fire and what sends them to the depths of despair. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Knowing all this and more about your target market helps you in two ways. First, you know what sort of products and services your market is already buying. You see, the simplest way to make money online is to find out what a group of people are already buying, and put it in front of them.
The average affiliate marketer tends to do this process backwards. They find a product first, perhaps choosing it based on high commission pay outs. After they find the product, only then do they go looking for a market.
Problem is, there might not be a market. Or the product may be positioned in such a way that you can’t attract the right market. In other words, just because a product exists doesn’t mean it’s selling. The vendor may have made the same mistake of creating the product first and then trying to figure out who might want to buy it.
Knowing your market is also beneficial to you in another way: namely, because you can create sales materials that attract your ideal customer. When you know someone’s pains and pleasures, you can speak to them one-on-one as if speaking to a friend. When you know what’s important to someone, all communications (from your newsletters to your blog posts) can address those issues.
As an example, consider the political candidate who’s campaigning at various special-interest group meetings. Let’s suppose in one day he finds himself before the UAWA (United Auto Workers Association labor union) and in front of the AARP (American Association of Retired persons).
If this candidate stands before AARP and promises that he’ll encourage new jobs in the country, and make sure their old jobs are secure, he’ll likely get a blank look. After all, AARP members are retired. Getting or securing a job is no longer important to them.
Likewise, what if the candidate then went to the UAWA meeting and promised the members that he would bring down the cost of prescription medicine for seniors. Again, blank looks. A few people may be interested because they’re nearing retirement age or because they’re thinking of their elderly parents, but for the most part a spiel on prescription drugs just isn’t going to get votes from a labor union.
And the same goes for your target market. If you don’t know what’s important to them, then you will never connect with them and get a nod from them when they vote with their wallets. If you can’t speak their language and talk about issues that interest and impact them, they’ll find someone else who will.
Sure enough, there’s another affiliate a click or two away just waiting to snatch this potential customer from you.
So how do you get to know your market?
It’s easiest of course if you’re already a part of the market. You can look to yourself to see what motivates you. For example, what sort of advertisements really attract you? Once you’ve figured that out, ask yourself why they attract you?
If you’re a member of the target market, then you also likely know other members of the target market. That means you can ask them what their fears and hopes are. What are their problems in the niche? What sort of solutions, products and services would they like?
If you aren’t currently part of the niche, get out there and start talking to members of your target market. For example, if your target market includes amateur golfers, then get out on the golf course and talk to them. Visit the forums where they hang out, read the newsletters they read, etc.
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