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Home::Online Promotion
Targeted Marketing For Your E-Book Business
Author : Ted Lewis
This article overlaps a little with our earlier article about
finding a suitable topic to use for marketing your online
information products. This time, though, we'll go into how to go
about marketing to a specific group of people.
First, though, why do people buy information online? Why would
someone shell out their hard-earned dollars for your product?
When you start your advertising campaign, you've got to think
about that. This brings up the question: Why do people buy any
kind of information, or for that matter, why do they buy
anything at all? Think about that for a few minutes before
continuing to the next paragraph.
Think...think...think...think...think...
Got it? Have you figured out what makes people buy stuff? The
answer, in its most basic form, is that people buy stuff in
order to solve a problem. Their problem can be real or merely
perceived to be real. It doesn't really matter from the point of
view of the seller. People will be interested in your
information only if you can solve a problem for them or provide
some unique or new information that they would like to have.
When you figure out what problem it is you're going to solve,
you can then sell your solution to your target audience. You
must be creative and open to seeing solutions. Evaluate if
they're willing to pay for info. Maybe your info is available
for free, but the problem is that it's scattered all over the
Internet and not available in any one concise location. People
will pay for the convenience of not having to assemble all of
the info themselves, because it saves them time, even if the
free info is available elsewhere.
A great example of this kind of info repackaging can be found in
the Linux movement. Linux is a Unix-based PC operating system
that many people are using instead of Microsoft Windows. Linux
was developed by a multitude of programmers all sharing their
efforts with each other online. Their sources are completely
open to the public, but unless you're a serious hacker it still
requires a lot of effort to successfully install and set up a
Linux PC correctly. Along comes a company called Red Hat (there
are others, too), that took all that free, open-source stuff and
packaged it on a CD in a way that made it convenient for the
general public to be able to buy and install Linux. The draw is
that it's way, way cheaper than buying Microsoft Windows. While
most people still prefer Windows, there is still a large enough
market to make Red Hat's "free" information product profitable.
(By the way, I'm not in ANY way connected to Red Hat, and yes I
still prefer Windows!)
Most likely you will have come up with a topic that is only of
interest to a rather small group of people. Here we use the word
small in a relative way. There could still be a very large
number of potential customers in your target group, but compared
to the entire population in general, it is a very small
percentage. For example, let's say you are going to sell
information on how to create a profitable jewelry-making
business. You probably wouldn't want to advertise to hot-rod car
building enthusiasts.
Selling to your targeted group might not be as hard as you
think. You simply have to find out where they already go for
information and start advertising there. How do you find them?
Once again, your best bet is to start with the Internet. Find
out where they hang out online. Yahoo groups would be a start.
Join some forums or email lists and listen in on where they go
for their info. Some forums will let you do a little bit of
self-promotion as long as you're not overbearing about it. Keep
in mind these people are there to learn and exchange information
with each other, not to be subjected to lots of advertising. If
you can provide some meaningful discussion along with your
self-promotion you will gain their respect and build credibility
for yourself.
If you have a quality product, this group will do your
advertising for you by word of mouth. This is especially
important when you're first starting out and your resources are
slim and you need to build your revenue base.
Don't limit yourself to advertising exclusively online, either.
There are many, many print publications that cater to
increasingly smaller target audiences. These can be a great
source of additional advertising for you. This type of ad will
probably be more expensive than advertising online, but since
many people hang onto these publications, your ad will be in
front of them a lot longer than your web page will be. Since it
usually takes more than one exposure to your product before
someone buys, this can be a big help to you. There are other
ways to ensure multiple exposures of your products to your
customers, but that's a big subject for another day!
So, till next time...Success to you!
-Ted
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