Targeting Your Customer’s Preferred Media to Lure Them Online

You know in your gut that you have a great product and that the market for that product is far larger than the few thousand searches it gets in the engines each month. You suspect, rightly, that many potential customers simply don’t know this product is available online.

This holds true especially in the case of e-books. You would be amazed by the number of people out there (and I’m not talking about Internet newbies, either) who have no clue what an e-book is!

These are customers with cash to spend. These are customers who would love the information you have to offer. However, these customers are also the people who half-glance at your Ad Words advertisement thinking “Well, I don’t know why all those little boxes are over there….” – and they eventually log off and start reading a magazine.

Tragic, isn’t it?

Slip Into Their Network.

Here’s where things get really exciting. You do not have to lose that sale! You do, however, need to slip into their network, their preferred media, and educate them.

You begin by taking a second look at your product and at your target market. You know where they surf online, but do you know where they’re hiding everywhere else?

Each market circulates within its own “secret” communications network. Further, each market displays a preferred (often historical) means of information consumption. What does this mean for you and how do you put it into action?

Consider the case of the Arts and Crafts industry. There are millions of potential customers in this industry, and it contains a mind boggling array of niche categories. Professional and amateur artists alike look to the Internet to order supplies and books, and find tutorials. However, a significant portion of this market continues to rely on print magazines and mail order catalogs for the simple fact that they offer more content, more variety, better graphics and easy to follow lessons.

Expressions Art Magazine illustrates this point quite well - (see: http://expressionartmagazine.com ).

According to their reader demographics survey:
• 78% of their readers purchase art supplies through the mail
• 81% purchase their art supplies over the Internet

This is just the tip of the iceberg. But notice how, for art supplies alone, your average Expressions reader is just as likely to purchase offline as they are online. Obviously, the market is comfortable buying their art supplies from an online vendor. Your next question should be: “How likely are they to purchase an art related information product online?”

My guess is that they are very likely to do so, if they are aware that the product is available.

So, we dig deeper into the reader demographics and find that 73% attend classes related to their art. Their thirst for knowledge is high. This is a good thing. At this very moment, these customers are seeking out the type of information you could provide, but they are consuming it via offline classes and via magazines like Expressions.

If you can find it, you really should pick up a copy of this magazine. Flip through to the back of the publication and you will find a plethora of advertisements for mail order art suppliers and book vendors, with a sprinkling of related web sites. Do you see the potential here yet?

This is an ideal offline advertising opportunity. One ad in the back of a publication like this inserts you directly into that previously “hidden” communications network. This is your pipeline to a market of busy, creative folk. They may not take the time to run the kinds of non-traditional searches that would lead to your product online, but I can guarantee you that their natural curiosity will lead them to your web site if they see it advertised in the back of this kind of magazine.

You see, the wonderful thing is that you can capture them in art mode. You capture them in an open frame of mind as they actively pursue their passion. You also get added credibility just by being savvy enough to advertise in their favorite magazine. It’s an exclusive neighborhood, you know.

Lastly, you’ve also set your site up for a truly hands-off, viral traffic machine. Once your ad receives repeated exposure to the 65,000+ readership base of a magazine like Expressions, you can bet your visitors will bookmark your site, pass it along to friends and bring it up with their peers during offline art classes.

And lucky you! You’ve just bypassed 6 months of SEO work and saved at least a couple hundred bucks on pay per click advertising. It’s a beautiful thing, indeed.