How To Get In Front Of Your Target Market

A question came up recently in one of the “brainstorming” private membership sites I’m a member of… How To Get In Front Of Your Target Market?

My question is, once we have done the SEO for our site and are doing the content creation consistently, developing backlinks, call to action in each post, have an autoresponder set up to stay in touch, how can we find those who are talking, buzzing, reading, complaining about, asking about, making movies, taking pictures, texting, and buying stuff in our respective areas of interest?

So, where do these peoplde hang out?

What a thoughtful – thought provoking thread! I love discussions like this.

I think this is a two part question:

1. Where can I find people to match my message with?
2. How do I get them to connect with me? (…Or connect with them)

Along with “waiting” for the market to find you… we should be actively seeking places to connect with those that I can serve (help with my message).

This takes more creative thinking and commitment to some time in your day. Right?

You are looking to join communities where they already are at… and see what they are talking about and get some of those “peeps” to KLT (know – like – trust) you enough to start “chatting” about you and find out what you have to offer.

You don’t want to spend a huge amount of time in places that don’t have ton’s of members and lot’s of activity. You need to go to the big cocktail parties (forums) and listen to every conversation that is remotely related to your niche market.

For instance – If you are in the Home and Garden Niche – You would start out at HGTV’s forum. This forum is huge – HUGE – and you can spend days reading. It’s one of the best research tools I’ve ever used! Get involved and start asking questions and start slipping in a bit of advice here and there.

My favorite tool right now to find and get involved with a “community” of like minded “peeps” within a niche is Twitter.

Once I get a “handle” on who the “big dogs” are in my niche on Twitter and Forums – I start hitting their blogs and “helping them” with great useful comments (including some thought provoking questions that might get some responses).

Then – when you’ve started making a “connection” with a few of the “big dogs” (this takes time – you have to work slow and steady)…. then – you could offer to write guest posts – or anything else you can see that might be helpful.

FYI – you can’t go wrong with Twitter. I helped one gal go from NO business to running a full-time VA business in just a few months. All from Twitter!

Now… when you finally get into a big community – and really helping “peeps” – they will want to know where “You Are” online as well.

It happens over time – but “YOU” will eventually become what others perceive as a “big dog” in the community as well.

You will start to get “referenced” and talked about… and your “list” will light up! You will spend hours everyday answering emails and connecting with your target market.

It’s like magic… but it takes time. Slow ans Steady wins the race.