Not long ago my nephew, Jacob, came to visit me. We had some very interesting talks. An avid student of psychology, Jacob had some insightful ideas on how to win friends and influence people, based on his study of Dale Carnegie.
As he was talking, I realized that applying his strategy to business would create raving fans to a brand! What would it mean to have raving fans, loyal to your business, organization, or artwork? More leads and more sales, of course!
In other words, more success than you can imagine and the achieving of your dreams!
So studying your target market is key in your branding strategy. Here are three questions you need to ask in order to create these raving fans:
1) What are they afraid of?
When you know the answer to this, you can solve your prospect’s problem at its source.
What are your prospects/customers afraid of? Awareness of this fact will help you pinpoint problems at their roots. Then providing a solution to that pain or fear will mean they will be attracted to your product or service naturally. This means you will be making raving fans for your brand!
How do you find out what they’re afraid of? This is where social media marketing is so important. When you become friends with your fans, you can observe over time what their fears are. And by joining groups in Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you will have access to your prospects almost one on one.
Many times while looking through certain groups on Facebook, I have seen posts that ask questions around a problem or a fear. If I have something to contribute or a way to encourage, I will leave a comment, and if appropriate leave my website. Not as spam, but as a gesture of helpfulness.
2) What is their biggest desire?
For most people, this is to feel important. I know for me, I felt very pleased when Sam’s drama teacher acknowledged me in front of a group of parents and grandparents. She publicly thanked me for helping her to start the group. Do you think I might spend some time promoting her group, even though my son isn’t interested in returning? You bet!
How about your target audience? What if you made them feel important? This is huge! If you make a prospect or customer feel important, do you think they might be willing to spend more money with you and ultimately be more loyal?
This is where publishing a weekly newsletter online comes in very handy. You offer your subscribers exclusive discounts and promotions. Make them feel like they are the most important people in the world to you. Really, they should be. Gathering a list of prospects is an invaluable tool in promoting your brand. Because you have a warm audience to expose your business to on a weekly basis, at the very least.
3) Who are the people who influence them?
How powerful would it be to know who influences your target market? Study these influencers and you will understand your audience to an amazing degree.
Online marketing experts suggest becoming Facebook friends with a highly influential person in your target market. Then post interesting and helpful comments again and again. You will find that your own prospects will be asking you to be their friends.
The info section of a friend’s profile is extremely useful for this, too. Find out what books they like to read, movies they like to watch, music they like to listen to. If you know this information, you are going to be more effective at developing and marketing your brand.
You can also ask these three questions in a survey questionnaire to your subscribers. Or, you can set up your opt-in fields to ask these questions before they sign up!
Can you imagine how powerful that will be?
You will create raving fans to your brand!
