I have recently read the book, “How to Market to People Not Like You”, by Kelly McDonald. This is not your traditional, ho-hum book on marketing. Rather, it is an eye-opening read that changes the marketing paradigm with an approach that is both fresh and exciting.

McDonald focuses on the importance of identifying the “unlikely” customer – those customers who are not like you – how to tap into those customer segments with confidence and how to avoid mistakes and pitfalls when marketing to new customer groups. She has distilled this process into what she calls the “seven steps for selling to new and unfamiliar customers”.

McDonald asserts that, who you are is not defined by the color of your skin or the shape of your eyes or what generation you belong to; it’s about values. It’s about understanding that different groups have differing values. Traditional marketing approaches focus on demographics like gender, race, age, lifestyle and socio-economic groupings. To these, McDonald offers less conventional examples to the mix, including:

• Rural vs. metro
• Military vs. civilian
• Stay-at-home Moms vs. working Moms
• Home schooled children vs. children who attend public schools
• Foreign-born residents vs. U.S. born residents
• Political views and religious beliefs
• Vegans vs. meat-eaters

Each group has a set of values that is different from their counterparts. As a marketer, if you can recognize and understand these key values, and their differences amongst groups, you can then design effective marketing messages to reach the members of those groups, thus creating the opportunity for expanding both your customer base and market share.

I especially like the discussion about the differing values that each generation (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, etc.) have, and how marketing messages must be tailored to each group in order to be effective.

Using real-world examples from successful business owners and managers, “How to Market to People Not Like You” demonstrates how to create a deep, emotional connection between your products and new customer groups. The book is full of examples of successful – and not so successful – ads and marketing tactics from companies such as Toyota, BMW, Harley Davidson, AT&T, Apple, and many others.

The latest Census numbers are going to show that the U.S. population is the most diverse that is has ever been. As such, thinking about diversity will be more important than ever. Whether you are a niche marketer, a mass marketer, or somewhere in between, this book will provide you with insights into reaching new customer pools by tapping into the values of these consumer groups. By doing so, you’ll reach their hearts and minds and, ultimately, their wallets and purses.

This 209-page book is an easy to read, step by step guide, loaded with tactics that can be implemented just as easily by the owner of a local retail shop or the V.P. of Marketing of a Fortune 500 business.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is responsible for expanding their sales base and attracting customers unlike the ones they already have.

(Please note that the above link is an “affiliate link”. If you purchase the book using the above link, I will receive a commission on that purchase. If that bothers you, do not purchase through the above link. Rather, go straight to your favorite on-line book seller and purchase the book directly).

Technorati Tags: Baby Boom Generation, Generation X, Generation Y, How to Market to People Not Like You, Kelly McDonald, Marketing strategy, niche marketing

At the recent SES NY, Microsoft announced some new updates to Bing. During his keynote, Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president, Online Audience Business, announced the updates which include an update the the Bing interface as well as several mapping applications designed to integrate services such as Twitter and Foursquare.

You can view Mr. Mehdi’s keynote address here:

The user interface update will adapt the search results page based upon the intent of the query.  Functionality  on the left side of the page will soon include query-specific options to help refine users’ questions and help Bing better understand user intent.

This new user interface will be rolled out starting this week and will become available to approximately 5% of customers.

In the coming weeks, Bing will roll out a new search experience for autos. This new feature pulls together disconnected content from across the web for what Bing calls a “one-stop-shop.”

In addition, Bing will be offering a new Foursquare map app for Bing Maps. This feature will allow Bing searchers to see Foursquare check-ins, badges, and mayorships from within Bing Maps.

When asked about how businesses can monetize the new opportunities presented by Bing, Mehdi said they can provide different kind of ads and find out more about user intent. “Signals of data have helped us understand user intent,” Mehdi said.

The rolling out of these new features begins this week and will be rolled out to all customers later this spring and summer.

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• Microsoft adds Foursquare to Bing Maps (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Foursquare, top tabs come to Bing Maps (seattlepi.com)
• Bing Updates UI, Improves Search Results & Adds Foursquare to Maps (seroundtable.com)
• Bing Maps launching Foursquare app (lostremote.com)
• Bing Adds Foursquare Data to Maps (mashable.com)
• Foursquare comes to Bing Maps (news.cnet.com)
• Bing in Spring (liveside.net)

Technorati Tags: Bing, Bing Map, Foursquare, Microsoft, Yusuf Mehdi

This video comes to us from the folks at SmartConsumersGuide.com, and reviews the main features of Micro Niche Finder. The narrator walks through the steps involving in identifying a profitable niche. He provides key numbers for “exact phrase count”, “OCI”, and “strength of competition” metrics.

If you need help finding marketing software out on the Internett and are looking for reviews and tutorial videos on how to use the software, then stop by SmartConsumersGuide.com

Duration : 0:9:43

Technorati Tags: marketing niches, Micro Niche Finder, niche market software, niche marketing research, niche marketing strategy

By now you know that the secret to successful online marketing lies in selecting a set of keywords that are closely associated with your niche. The tighter the relationship between the keywords which you are optimizing for, and the niche market you are in, the more targeted the traffic will be that arrives at your site or blog.

Picking the correct keywords is part science and part art; and there are many keyword research tools available to assist you in making your decision. I have written about keyword research tools in other posts, so I won’t take up your time with a review of them here.

Today’s post looks at a slightly different aspect of keyword research and selection: picking the “buying” keywords.

It is estimated that upwards of 85% of search keywords are for “information gathering” purposes only; that is, the user is not looking to make a purchase at the moment. Maybe they are still deciding on the topic, the product, or the brand. Maybe they are just interested in the information for more academic purposes. Whatever the reason, to be a successful Internet marketer, you’ll have to discover, and then focus your efforts upon, the remaining 15% of the search terms; what we will call the “buying” keywords.

This can be a daunting task; one that will take several hours to get through. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Mike Mograbi, Mike Chambers, and “Matt”, have developed a product called Buyer Keywords Generator. This product is designed to search out and identify targeted buyer keywords for your niche. This is a well designed and efficient product that will save you hours of work. I could go on and on telling you the benefits of owning this software – but, that isn’t the purposes of this post. If you want to learn more about Buyer Keywords Generator, click on the following link:

Buyer Keywords Generator

What I do want to share with you today is a set of 90+ short videos, named Buyer Keyword Profits Exposed, which is also offered by the Buyer Keywords Generator team. This FREE set of videos discusses such topics as: the three phases of the buying cycle, how to identify buyer keywords, expanding your buyer keywords, how to find buyer keywords, where to find buyer keywords, where to find the best niche sites, how to generate buyer keywords from the search engines, and much more.

You don’t have to purchase the software to gain access to this set of videos; although, you might find it more efficient to spend a little money in order to save a lot of time. Either way, the choice is yours.

Here is the link to sign-up for the free set of Buyer Keyword Profits Exposed videos:

Buyer Keyword Profits Exposed Videos

Scott

Technorati Tags: Buyer Keywords Profits Exposed Review, niche market product reviews, niche marketing tools

OK, so you are interested in niche marketing and you have read over and over about how important it is to find a profitable niche. But, where do you start? Many of my clients get stuck right there: they can not seem to zero in on a profitable niche.

The truth of the matter is that profitable niches are to be found all over; and ideas for locating them are just as plentiful. Yahoo Answers, eBay, and Amazon are good places to start looking. So are the search engines of Google, Yahoo, and Bing. But, with so many choices, it is easy to get overwhelmed.

Here’s one answer that will make niche finding easier for you. Internet marketer, Cindy Battye, has developed a web site named Daily Niche Idea. Each day of the week, she offers up a researched niche that fits in with the week’s theme (e.g. the weekly theme might be “babies”, and each daily niche idea will then be related to the baby niche).

Each daily niche idea includes estimated search traffic and pay-per-click (PPC) bid pricing. Each niche idea also includes an affiliate product, the home site for that product, and the commission paid (in U.S. dollars).

So, you get a weekly niche theme, daily niche ideas, and affiliate information. By the way, did I mention that all of this is FREE? So, how can she do this, you ask? Well, she also sells an upgraded membership where you can receive increased commissions, full re-branding rights, and more.

But – and here’s the important part – you do not have to take her up on her paid program. If you choose, you can remain a free member and just take advantage of the free daily niche ideas.

So there you have it. No more reasons to be stuck not knowing what niche to go after, and no more excuses about not having the money to do niche research.

Here’s the link to Cindy’s site:

==> Daily Niche Idea

Scott

Technorati Tags: Cindy Battye, Daily Niche Idea, niche marketing, niche marketing tools

Self proclaimed “super affiliate” Jeff Johnson runs a blog named Underground Training Lab. Jeff mostly writes about affiliate strategies and SEO techniques, offering quality content and tips that any niche marketer can use immediately.

Jeff combines both text and video, giving the reader delivery options. As with most quality blogs, Jeff also offers RSS feeds so that you can stay up with his latest postings. If you like what you see, you can also follow Jeff via Facebook and Twitter.

While you’ll find a sprinkling of offers on this blog, most of the content on the front page is free for the reader. This is a good source of information for affiliate marketers who want to learn new techniques and maybe pick up some extra sales.

You can find the Underground Training Lab blog at the following link:

==> Underground Training Lab

Scott

Technorati Tags: niche marketing, niche marketing tools, Underground Training Lab, Underground Training Lab review

Aussie Internet Marketer Michael Cobb recently released a new collection of 23 instructional video tutorials called “Internet Business Tutorials”. This series of step-by-step video tutorials teach you the right way to set up each aspect of an Internet business.

And the best part is… they are FREE.

Of course, Michael also has a set of special offers for you to consider purchasing – and you are free to do so if you wish – but the full set of Internet Business Tutorials really are free. No catches. No gimmicks.

The 23 videos contain lots of useful information including:

·        Setting up your domain

·        Setting up a hosting account

·        Using Clickbank

·        Using PayPal

·        Adding video and audio to your site

·        Setting up an autoresponder

·        Creating a re-direct page

If you’re struggling to make your Internet business profitable because you just don’t know how to perform some of the “techy” stuff, these 23 videos will be a HUGE benefit to you.

Even if you already have a thriving Internet marketing business, these tutorials will help you push onward, and may even increase your profits.

I don’t know how long Michael will leave these free videos up, so stop by today and get your Internet business going. You will be able to view the videos online or download them for later viewing as soon as you have activated your free membership. You can sign up for your video tutorials here:

=> Internet Business Tutorials

Scott

Technorati Tags: Internet Busienss Tutorials, niche market product reviews, niche marketing tools

Ed Dale and friends are at it again. Beginning August 1st of each year, the “wonders from down under” produce one of the finest niche marketing courses on the Internet; and this year is no different.

This free, self-guided marketing course takes you through the four main stages of successful Internet marketing: market research, traffic building, sales conversion, and product creation. Each day of the 30 Day Challenge offers one to five short videos, along with PDF transcripts, dedicated to a particular topic.

The team discusses cutting edge marketing tools including (this year): Market Samurai, Traffic Bug. Word Press Direct, and a host of tools offered up by Google.

The objecting of the challenge is to bring the new Internet marketer from concept, to their first sale, within 30 days. The kicker is that they pull this off using tools that are free, or in the case of domain registration and hosting, low priced.

This is the second year that I have followed along in the challenge. I have learned enumerable lessons, and have been introduced to tools and techniques that save me hours each day in my own consulting business.

Do they offer hope? Yes. Is it hype? No. Is there work involved to become successful, even with this training? Of course there is. The only Internet marketer that wouldn’t benefit from this training is the one that isn’t motivated to actually do the work.

August is over, but the training is still available on-line. If you are serious about improving your Internet marketing skills, stop by the 30 Day Challenge and sign up for your free lessons.

You’ll be glad you did.

30-Day Challenge 2009

Scott

Technorati Tags: 30 Day Challenge, 30 Day Challenge review, market research, niche marketing tools