By
Rhonda Campbell

If you’re like me, you thought that there was something to the fact that millions of people were on the internet. Pros operating software, companies or social networks hailed how easy it was to market to the world. It didn’t matter if you used giveaways, affiliate websites, newsletters or press releases to market your products or services with.

Numbers were on your side.

Remember those millions of people on the internet?

What I’ve Learned After 15 Years

More than 15 years in, I know that numbers are not necessarily that big of a deal. Besides, if numbers is the most important factor when it comes to the effectiveness of a marketing technique, then it would make better sense to market to the 7 billion folks offline.

To successfully market, you have to go where the people who want your products or services are. Finding these folks is more important than finding out how many people are on the internet, in your town or in a club or association that you are affiliated with.

Demographic reports are a good start. Magazines, newspapers and websites that accept advertisements, often know the demographics of the people who read their periodicals or visit their websites. Ask for this demographic data before you pay for ads. If websites, magazines or newspapers don’t pull in your target audience, move on. Other doors are waiting for you to knock on them.

Easy Ways to Market to the Right Buyers

Although that’s not one of the five ways to market, it’s a must first step. You must know your target audience. You must know how and where to find your target audience. If you’re the type of person who buys the types of products or services that you make, think about the places where you hang out and the places that the people you are close to frequent.

See if you can hang flyers or stack giveaways or postcards at these places. Get approval before you start to market at other businesses. If your target audience visits or attends colleges, universities, restaurants or libraries, ask if you can speak at these locations or offer freebies or giveaways.

Consider working with ethical companies that develop software that pushes graphic sales pieces, including book covers and CD covers, out to hundreds or thousands of people in a matter of minutes. If you use content marketing platforms like Outbrain, Percolate or Contently, review reports and analytics, ensuring that traffic to your websites mainly comes from your target audience.

More Ways to Market

Add your websites to relevant directories, online and offline. To get in print directories, you may have to pay a small fee. An advantage that print directories have over online directories is that, unless recipients toss the directories in the garbage or shoves them in a drawer, the directories stay in eyesight. Get on the front or back flap of a directory, and your business could get repeated attention.

Organizers of festivals, vendor market days and cultural events create directories that you could add your products, services and website URLs into. You can get into some directories for $10 to $25.

There are also free online directories that you can add your business to. Make sure that you include your website URL.

Reach out to colleges, local organizations and associations. Ask if you can speak about important topics that tie into your products or services, topics that can benefit people who attend the colleges, organizations or association events.

Start interviewing on radio stations, both online and offline. Gebbie Press lists radio stations and the types of information that the stations focus on. Your local radio stations are great places to start as well. Don’t assume that local radio stations won’t want to interview you. Stations want and thrive on great, engaging guests.

Another way  to market include writing and distributing press releases. Data to add to your press releases include pictures of your products, your website URL and keywords that your target audience uses to search for products and services like yours.

Stay consistent. You may not always realize the results that you want. But, if you stop, you’re almost guaranteed to generate zero results and if you’re serious about reaching your target market, zero results is not an option.