Using a shotgun to drive customers to your website, might be a bit over the top! What I'm talking about is the shot gun splatter approach to analyzing your market. I recently saw a video that demonstrated this technique to me and I found it very useful, but a little difficult to understand using the shot gun analogy. So here's a way analyzing your market that I feel more comfortable with. Look at your target market as a commercial eco system. Everything is related and in some way reliant on each other in one way or another. For example: If I am assessing wether to get into the English Language education market. I should look at the eco system surrounding the particular environment. I could look at the teachers, who need students, the students who need books, the teachers who need books, the book manufacturers who need teachers and students, the book manufacturers, students', and teachers who need stationary. You get the picture? When assessing a market we should always look for other related products and services that would interest people in the particular market we are assessing. Sometimes we'll notice an overlap this is good because it can allow us to expand across the different markets and eventually break into completely different markets all together. We can do this relatively easily because when we advertise to our existing clients we can also advertise other products and services that they might be interested in or someone they know, (like teachers who know book manufacturers) might be interested in. This will give us income from a variety of different sources so that if one of them "dries" up, we can continue on with the income from the other markets we have established ourselves in. So to summarize, it's important to look at your potential markets in regards to how they can be expanded and developed into other allied markets. This is a great way to help secure a long term income using the power of the internet and some planning strategies. I sincerely wish you good luck and happiness Bill Boyd |
