Where to market? So you've made a critical marketing piece: now where do you put it?
Just like a website without traffic, a report without readers or a video without viewers is a billboard in the desert.
You need multiple places to put your marketing piece, or link people to where it is.
You cannot expect people to arrive out of the blue at your website, and then also be a perfect fit for your product or service! So do not rely upon your webpage with a download link or autoresponder sign up form to do all the work for you. They won't.
I want you to understand that marketing is a job. Part of your job is marketing. Another part is fulfillment. If you think about 100% of your available time as a scale with a slider on it, you can move that slider around and divide the time up depending on what you do.
For example, if you do affiliate marketing you will concentrate almost entirely on marketing and very little on fulfillment. The delivery of the product is already done for you.
But if you are a freelancer, you will see more of a 50/50 split. Perhaps even 70% marketing and 30% fulfillment. So...where to market?
Where to Market: Online Locations
So where else can you find your audience and get your content in front of them? Some possibilities include:
- Kindle
- Forums
- LinkedIn groups
- LinkedIn InMail
- Facebook groups
- Radio & Podcast Interviews
- Quora and other expert platforms
- Prospecting Calls
- Cold Emails.
Let's look at each of these.
Kindle
Kindle is obviously a great potential source of buyers.
However, it is not a panacea. Putting up a Kindle book or report does not guarantee anything. It's a smart idea and one of the best things you can do from a marketing standpoint. Just having a Kindle book gives you marketing power—even if nobody reads the thing!
But do not expect that you will put up your Kindle product and a zillion hungry buyers will pounce on it. Many factors combine to determine your result. I recommend you get a professional Kindle marketing program to show you all the ins and outs. A well-supported KDP giveaway period can bring you great results, for example.
Forums
Forums are useful because they are gathering places for people already interested in your topic. With your genuine enthusiasm, you can quickly make a name for yourself in a relevant forum by posting. A post is when you answer someone's question, or begin a discussion about the topic.
Each forum has its own rules. Some will be more tolerant of self-promotion than others. Look at other posts and see what the general mood is. If others aren't dropping their own videos in threads, for instance, you probably shouldn't, either.
Your signature, which is the area beneath every one of your posts, is the one place where self-promotion is almost universally allowed. Here is the proper place to put your link. Remember to write an action-inducing headline guiding interested readers to click through.
LinkedIn Groups
Similar to forums, LinkedIn groups are available to discuss specific topics. Most are strict about self-promotion, so your aim here is to find people who have questions you can answer. You could then take the next step with the following tool.
LinkedIn InMail
The following is my opinion, based on my experience. Over the past couple years, LinkedIn went from being relatively free of spam to being overrun with it. However...
...a prospect will look at a LI InMail message.
Compared to a regular email message, your InMail message has a much higher chance of reaching its target. The recipient may sigh and delete it, but they will read the opening part of it.
The good news here is that a quality message will be received with happy surprise. You are much more likely to get a response.
I only use InMail to communicate with highly targeted individual prospects. I do not use software to do so because the punishment for abusing the system is shut-down of your account.
Facebook Groups
Public and private Facebook groups exist and can help you connect with other enthusiasts of the topic. Keep in mind, like forums, there are almost assuredly other sellers in there. Try to be polite and not butt heads.
Facebook groups have the personality of their owner/moderators, adjusted by the collective mood of the active participants, and relative to the involvement level the creator/mods have. Some are open and loose, even with instructions to spam the members! Others are locked down and carefully moderated.
In my experience, the wide open ones are pretty worthless because everyone in there is trying to push their “opportunity”.
A tougher group, on the other hand, may require more tip-toe steps, but your connection and sense of value with the other members will end up being stronger.
Many groups are self-policing, with a few active members who are openly hostile to new arrivals. Be ready to “prove your worth”.
Radio & Podcast Interviews
Being interviewed is itself a very powerful marketing collateral piece. The fact that you are being asked for your opinion by someone else puts you on a pedestal. You do not need to prove your expertise—that will come out in your responses.
The only case I can see being interviewed as an unhelpful thing is if you really have zero expertise.
But since you picked a topic in Part 1, you ought to know more than the average person about it. Remember, you don't have to know everything about the subject: just at least a little more than your market does.
Quora and Other Expert Platforms
If you haven't checked out Quora yet, I recommend you do so. It and other expert platforms like Clarity and Maven give professionals the opportunity to connect with a questioning audience.
You are even allowed to promote yourself a little in these places. Read the rules to be sure of what behavior is acceptable and what is not.
Prospecting Calls
When you have a specific industry as a target market, it can be extremely effective and quick to have brief prospecting calls with actual decision makers.
This is a fast way of sorting for buyers and getting sales.
The purpose of your call is to connect with the decision maker and have them allow you to send them your marketing piece. That way, you'll get on their radar and differentiate yourself. Obviously this is the first step of marketing and the road to sales.
Cold Emails
You are walking near the spam line when you do this; however, if you do it competently and with the right intentions, you can get positive responses. As above, your object is to get the email addresses of key decision makers and send them your content.
Ask if they are interested in what they see. Give them the opportunity to gently say they aren't interested...and a next step to talk with you if they are interested.
Key Thoughts About Where to Market
No one ever got mad about receiving information they are interested in.
Make sure every prospect you have an interaction with has the chance to join your autoresponder series. This is an opportunity to continue to market to them.
Notice that your goal is to start conversations, not spam.
You are going after a few targeted people.
Get their attention with the pain points first.
You can show them how you do what you do differently...later.
Right now your objective is to get them to start the conversation with you: stick up their hand and say, “Yes! I have this problem that you fix!”
>> Do you want to have a conversation with Jason about your marketing? Book your call here <<
First marketing piece: how do you write it? This is a big question for most business creators.