How do I successfully market to a target audience?
January 7, 2010 6:35 PM Subscribe
I have a service that targets a small group of businesses. I need to figure out how to market to them, can someone give me some recommendations?
I have a service that targets a specialized industry that I'd like to market to. Unfortunately, it's very hard to actually make contact with members of this industry because many of the sites that the members visit have strict restrictions on membership and the sites won't let you directly/indirectly advertise to their members.
The service that we run is a business-to-business service that allows people in the entertainment industry to manage their finances, sales, and supervise their contracted employees.
Both me and my business partner have attempted to market to this group of people, but we're both programmers, and seem to lack any marketing and advertising skills. With the few people that we have successfully marketed to, we have had a very high conversion rate (11%).
I'd like some suggestions on how to market to specific groups of people. Does anyone have suggestions, like a good book, a good site on how to market to a target audience, or possibly hiring a professional marketer?
I have a service that targets a specialized industry that I'd like to market to. Unfortunately, it's very hard to actually make contact with members of this industry because many of the sites that the members visit have strict restrictions on membership and the sites won't let you directly/indirectly advertise to their members.
The service that we run is a business-to-business service that allows people in the entertainment industry to manage their finances, sales, and supervise their contracted employees.
Both me and my business partner have attempted to market to this group of people, but we're both programmers, and seem to lack any marketing and advertising skills. With the few people that we have successfully marketed to, we have had a very high conversion rate (11%).
I'd like some suggestions on how to market to specific groups of people. Does anyone have suggestions, like a good book, a good site on how to market to a target audience, or possibly hiring a professional marketer?
Response by poster: Yes, we have a well designed easily accessible website. We have a solid 11% conversion on the site on our traffic.
Driving people to site in the first place is the problem.
posted by woolite at 6:49 PM on January 7, 2010
Driving people to site in the first place is the problem.
posted by woolite at 6:49 PM on January 7, 2010
Get a WordPress blog added to your site; try Google AdWords; advertise on blogs in your industry; consider print ads in trade publications; consider exhibiting at an industry conference (be prepared for a big spend here). A professional marketer is not a bad idea here if only because if you engage in any of these things, you want to do it to the highest professional standard so you're not throwing away money - you often need someone to walk you through it the first few times. But at the same time, "professional marketers" are very shark infested waters often commensurate with throwing money away, so take care there.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:42 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by DarlingBri at 7:42 PM on January 7, 2010
Can you be a little more specific about your clientele? By "people in the entertainment industry" do you mean actors? Agents? Movie theater owners? Production companies? Trailer houses?
Is there a place that your potential clients gather, like NABET, ShoWest or Sundance?
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:07 PM on January 7, 2010
Is there a place that your potential clients gather, like NABET, ShoWest or Sundance?
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:07 PM on January 7, 2010
Best answer: I'm not quite clear on what it is your service does, but if it is something that is sold on a SaaS model you might want to check out Repfolio.com. Basically an affiliate network for b2b saas solutions.
Beyond that, think about what websites and publications the industry people read and then contact their ad sales departments. Setup a specific landing page to get their traffic and test the heck out of it.
posted by Elminster24 at 8:41 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Beyond that, think about what websites and publications the industry people read and then contact their ad sales departments. Setup a specific landing page to get their traffic and test the heck out of it.
posted by Elminster24 at 8:41 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Contact the myriad filmmakers who are always trolling for free or cheap help on Craigslist and give them free accounts (might be better if you can limit trials to one project or whatever). You might be able to percolate up through the community this way and maybe one of your triallists will have some success that may garner you some attention. That is, if it's niche project and resource management that could be helpful to those not doing big jobs.
posted by rhizome at 10:06 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by rhizome at 10:06 PM on January 7, 2010
Another dumb question: is google adwords not an option?
posted by mhh5 at 10:41 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by mhh5 at 10:41 PM on January 7, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kylej at 6:42 PM on January 7, 2010