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.
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.
