How do I determine my online target market?

11 replies
Hello All,

I am a long time speaker, coach, and blogger in the area of personal and professional development. As such I am working to significantly build my online presence...but of course, my first order of business is to determine my target market. Problem is personal/professional development applies to anyone and everyone.

I would deeply appreciate any tips, techniques, and/or best practices that will help me narrow down and determine my target market.

Much appreciated.

Kev
#determine #market #online #target
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  • Profile picture of the author echelon
    Are there personalities in the personal development industry that you somewhat identify with? If there are and if they have a massive following, you may use Facebook Audience Insights for example to see the demographics of their followers, the pages their followers tend to like, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    Reverse-engineer your competition, Kevin. You'll soon find out where your audience hangs out.

    Cheers,

    Tom
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    I Coach: Learn More | My Latest WF Thread: Dead Domains/ Passive Traffic

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  • Profile picture of the author iamludwing
    Banned
    you need to understand what you are going to teach, it is always a sub markets inside yours.
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    Though professional development applies to anyone,

    But you are a long-time speaker, coach and blogger. Which means, you've had clients. Which means you can review what type of people they were, what problems you helped them with, which of those problems you still find interesting, which of this type of people you want to spend time with.

    Once you do that, you'll know who to target.

    The question really is: What do you want to do (as in what would you like to be doing that pays you whatever amount you want to get paid)? Odds are good, you've already done it.

    If none of your past clients excited you and paid enough, you look at what your competitors are doing and find something you'll want to do, as suggested before.

    Originally Posted by Kevin McNulty View Post

    Hello All,

    I am a long time speaker, coach, and blogger in the area of personal and professional development. As such I am working to significantly build my online presence...but of course, my first order of business is to determine my target market. Problem is personal/professional development applies to anyone and everyone.

    I would deeply appreciate any tips, techniques, and/or best practices that will help me narrow down and determine my target market.

    Much appreciated.

    Kev
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by Kevin McNulty View Post

    Problem is personal/professional development applies to anyone and everyone.

    That may be true, however . . .

    It doesn't mean that you shouldn't drill down and identify a specific or specialized group that you can best help. You don't need everyone on the planet to be in your audience - you couldn't serve them all even if you wanted to!

    One of the reasons to niche down is to solve the exact confusion you're having: you need to find a like-minded group so that you know where you can contact online. Don't worry about finding a large enough pool of your chosen audience - most global audiences are huge.

    Surely you have some experience/expertise in working with certain groups, ages, professions, etc, that you can focus on. You said you were a long-time speaker and coach. Who have you been helping? Think about those you've already assisted positively. What do they have in common? If you asked ten clients or students to give you a letter of recommendation, what would they all have in common?

    Choose a homogeneous group (maybe it's simply a target group that you most enjoy working with) as your initial market and get started. You can always branch out later.

    Choose with a purpose. Choose a group where you already have advantages and understand their challenges.

    Good luck to you,

    Steve
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    Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by Kevin McNulty View Post

    I am a long time speaker, coach, and blogger in the area of personal and professional development. As such I am working to significantly build my online presence...but of course, my first order of business is to determine my target market.
    How did you get in front of people as a speaker and coach...and to your blog? Have you tried a simple test based on keywords - on Bing Ads, AdWords, Facebook, and LinkedIn? These are the most simplest ways to get started.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
    Consider opening up your Notepad.doc and just start typing everything and anything that you can provide People. Just type, type, and type ... And keep going until you don't have anything left.

    Then, with all this information, which People/Market would benefit from it most?

    HTH.
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    "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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  • Profile picture of the author GordonJ
    Originally Posted by Kevin McNulty View Post

    Hello All,

    I am a long time speaker, coach, and blogger in the area of personal and professional development. As such I am working to significantly build my online presence...but of course, my first order of business is to determine my target market. Problem is personal/professional development applies to anyone and everyone.

    I would deeply appreciate any tips, techniques, and/or best practices that will help me narrow down and determine my target market.

    Much appreciated.

    Kev
    Real life case study. A family member is a speaker, she now specializes in training WALL ST. executives in doing humorous talks. Four hour trainings, which they pay 1500 bux for.

    This after a couple of years of speaking on professional development, I told her to find a market with the kind of money to spend, and to ask for higher prices. At 1500, she is underpriced.

    So, what sort of market do you want?

    The low end strugglers with no money to spend on anything?

    OR premium customers who gladly give you what you ask? And if this is your choice, now define them, where they hang out and how to best reach them.

    Don't "bargain with life for a penny" (I'm sure you are familar with the poem in TAGR).

    ASK and you shall receive.

    GordonJ
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  • Profile picture of the author extrememan
    Let's see if I can help!

    So, your in the personal development niche. First off... This niche is huge and profitable, so there is plenty of room to grow.

    I would use the google keyword tool and start with personal development and see what comes up?

    Next I would search amazon to see if there is plenty of books in different subjects to get ideas. After I would search on ClickBank, or JV Zoo and see what is being promoted.

    Lastly, I would use Facebook's Insight platform to dig deep.

    If you need more help - just let me know?
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