DEFINE YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER OR ELSE.....

I am going to make this short and sweet, lately I have been hit over the head with requests from newbies to work with them and take them on as clients. ( Not from this forum, Just Organic Engine Traffic )

Now none of these requests even hit my desk as they have been vetted by my staff before they ever get to me, but here is the number one rule you need to understand if you are going to be getting involved with business online.

:!: :!: :!: DEFINE YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER :!: :!: :!:

Now i understand many people on here do not come from a business background, I personally have only ever been involved in business and have never collected a paycheck from anyone but myself so my view s may be a bit biased and may even be a bit shocking...

I see this mistake over and over, and its the kiss of death for so many reasons.

Now this might seem a little mean, but we looked at it as social engineering and understanding to some point,

I had my staff compile all the decent quality requests for service over the last 40 days to be given to me, then staff had to do a follow up with each lead and see if they were still interested. If so they were told that a senior search specialist would get back to them in the next 48 hours.

Now i just finished up with that list and bottom-line no one really knew what they wanted, they needed to be held by the hand. I call this the North American Syndrome as It rarely happens anywhere else, even other first world countries within Europe.

Now for example my target customers know what they want, they may not know where or how to start but they know exactly what it is they wish to receive. They are not just looking for a service they want a result and are willing to pay for it.

To be taken on as a full service client with myself requires the following

A 1 hour telephone interview with the potential client to fully immerse myself in their needs and understand where they currently are with their business. The client pays for this first consult and it will range from $300 - $1000 for that first hour depending on the scope of involement.

So yes technically I am interviewing those that are wanting to work with me, ( sort of the opposite of how you would think business works )

If a client and I would be a good fit, and I feel that we're able to fulfill the clients expectation I will speak to the client about where they currently stand within the search engines and what it will take to get them to the next step.

My rates for full-time service starts at $15,000 per month and can go up to $50,000 depending on exactly what needs to be performed.

Bottomline Define your target customer and save yourself from yourself...

Even if all your doing is selling an ebook online, or running a small membership ship Define your target customer.

Now you might ask how are you supposed to do that when all your doing is running a website and you never talk to your customers and rarely receive emails.

Its Easy, Run the numbers...

Go through your server logs, go through your analytics and go through the organic incoming links your site has earned to date without your intervention or solicitation. How relevant are they to what you feel your trying to do or target...

With your server logs and analytics, determine the following

Actually first rule:

Never base anything on Page Views or Visitors, they are completely useless metrics unless your running your own advertising network.

- Check which keywords are driving the majority of your traffic (75%) and above

- Which search engines are those keywords ranking in ? and what is the average position for each keyword across each of the targeted countries multiple data-centers for each engine.

- What is the landing page for each of those keywords

- What is the bounce rate ?

- Have you installed heatmap tracking on the page, if not and its a "money page" why not ??? Use Crazy Egg for a cheap solution, there are better more expensive options but you don't need them.

- Are you running Split Tests ? Now that you have CrazyEgg installed you better be... Use Google Website Optimizer, its free, easy to use and you will most likely never outgrow it...

Anyways those are some of the very basics to helping you understand your customers, now you may ask what kind of difference does all of this make?

Well it will depend on your market and your level of input..

But just for an example a customer that I took on a year ago wanted to set up a basic ebook for lead capture ( paid ) and wanted to finally covert that list into their membership site that was not built yet...

They were online for 3 years before I took them on and had revenue of less than $5000 per month on average, its been a year now, they receive well over 250,000 unique visitors every month on average and are doing $175,000 - $200,000 on any given month while traveling around the world and learning a greater appreciation of what this world has to offer.

Regardless, the most important thing to understand about effective online business is this... Money is the byproduct of effective systems and utilization of business fundamentals... Lifestyle design and implementation is not a mistake or goal, its a realization of doing the opposite of most people around you.

So to bring this round full circle you can see what my target customer is, they are someone that understands spending a large amount of capital on quality and experience is a wise investment for a return of far greater capital and freedom...


Best of luck everyone and now back to work.....