Over the course of starting a business and replacing my income, one of the things I learned was how to get customers without an audience of my own. This is a vital skill to have when you have a product or service, but no one to sell to.
One of our guitar classes
I did this by first identifying my target market. In my case with the music school, my target market is parents with children ages 7 to 13. I would then think of ways to help others who had an audience with this same target market.
I discovered local libraries had the same target market as me. They were also an organization with a large established audience (their patrons). I just had to figure out how to help them.
The solution ended up being pretty easy. Much of the funding for libraries has been cut so they’ve had to scale their programming way back. I realized I could provide quality programming to their patrons by offering free introduction to guitar classes.
By doing this, I was able to create a win-win-win:
1. A win for the library. I helped the libraries out by providing free programming for them.
2. A win for my target market. I helped my target market out by providing a no-risk solution for their child to try out a new instrument.
3. A win for me. It helped me out by getting me in front of my target market. I was then able to build trust and rapport with a group of potential students and build an audience of my own.
Do you have a product or service you’d like to sell?
Answer these two questions:
1. Who has a large audience and the same target market as me?
2. How can I get in front of their audience by helping them out?
Question: Who is your target market? Do you know of anyone who has the same audience as you? Leave your reply in the comments of the post.
That’s a great way to build your audience Michael. Way to think outside of the box.
Thanks, Joe. I really had no choice!
That’s outstanding Michael! As I am working on building my coaching business and also the Beyond Organic food business I feel like women and particularly moms with children are my target audience – they prepare the food and care for the family (usually) and would be the ones who make the decisions about meals, food and diet. Because my book is definitely Christian the local library has a problem with that. Beyond Organic is a company based and run on Christian principles. I am thinking about finding some church and mom’s groups – prayer groups, etc. and seeing if I could either do a talk, demo or tasting.
Sounds like a great idea, Ann. Reminds me of what Chris Peek and his wife Karen are doing with her cookbook. They’re going around to churches and Curves giving cooking demonstrations and talks.
That’s awesome!
Ann, I think your idea about finding moms’ groups is great. I know that if there was an opportunity near me that provided a demo by someone who shows they truly care about helping busy mom’s find healthy, easy solutions to eating more healthily, I would definitely try to attend.
Jody – thank you for that encouragement! I’m hoping there are like minded moms up here!
Excellent, practical post! And love the element of free/giving.
Mike, thanks. Everyone loves free!
Perfect! Excellent method for building your audience… Thanks Michael…
Rob,
Glad you enjoyed it!
this is great, simple, and a wonderful example, Michael!
Hey thanks, Dave and Christina!
Jody, this went into spam for some reason and I just saw it now.
Love that idea of getting involved as an expert in forums. In know there are many coaches that positioned themselves as experts and got many clients though 48days.net, for example. I think it would work the same for triathletes. Great idea!
I did listen to that podcast. Blew my mind! I thought what Dane had to say about solving other’s problems was really good. Made me want to develop software!