You have a target market in mind—seniors with disposable income who can come in during the day.
Cool.
What’s the first thing you should do to get in front of that audience?
Ten years ago I would’ve said something like put up a flier at the most expensive retirement community nearby.
Going for this mother lode of seniors would be sort of a long shot, right? Especially if I didn’t have any connections to anyone in the retirement community.
Today, I see things differently.
The shortcut to success for finding a target market is not to look into the distance, way beyond my current reach. Instead, it’s to look right under my nose.
Here’s why I say that:
Mark is Schooled In Finding a Target Market
A while back, my wife, Lisa, and I started developing and teaching massage-CE courses.
You’d think that the biggest obstacle to launching a CE course would be creating content. Nope. It’s finding the audience to purchase the courses.
Traditional Options
There are a lot of options to getting a class in front of MTs, like running your class through a massage school, hosting a class yourself and advertising on your own, or connecting with a massage professional organization and teaching at one of their events.
Of course, I didn’t do any of them.
Instead, I went for the home run ball.
Lisa and I met with a big company in the travel industry who owned massage schools.
Here’s the short version of what happened. Our contact person seemed to like our presentation. And we walked away dreaming about how we would travel the world teaching massage in their schools both in the States and abroad.
But there was one small problem.
This big corporation was the wrong audience. They weren’t in the market for what we were offering.
Next thing we knew, a year (or two) had gone by and we had nothing to show for it.
In Retrospect
Here’s what we should’ve initially done and eventually did do: Engage people who were right under our noses.
After our dream fizzled out, we told MT colleagues about our classes. We also reached out to MTs on our email list that we had built over the years via a newsletter.
Slowly but steadily the word spread.
These MTs (under our noses) provided great feedback which allowed us to refine and redesign our classes to meet their needs.
Eventually, business owners and colleagues started seeking us out. Then when a spa owner read an article I wrote, she hired us to travel across the US to teach our CE classes to her employees.
Target Market: Seniors/Money/Daytime
Now, let’s do the same for your hypothetical, target market of well-to-do seniors.
First…
- Start with people you know.
Look through your client contacts. More than likely you’re going to find a client that fits the “senior citizen/available during the daytime” bill.
Let’s pretend Andrew is one of these clients. He’s 80 and loves your massage. You talk to him and find out that some of his friends don’t drive.
Hmm…looks like an on-site massage opportunity to me. You tell Andrew that you go to peoples’ houses to do massage. He tells his friends.
Andrew also plays tennis. You give him some cards to pass out to his tennis buds.
After a while, you start to see that Andrew is pretty good at talking you up. So you read How to Get Someone Else to Sell Your Massage, and you turn Andrew into a selling machine.
One of his friends, Hung, comes in to see you, and you…
- Get a small win.
Hung loves your massage, too. During a conversation with Hung, you find out that he plays golf. Some of his golf friends have back issues.
You tell Hung that you’d be happy to do free, 20-minute demo massages on any of his friends. He tells them, and his friend Jose takes you up on the free demo.
Jose goes to your office, but he’s moving super-slow. You don’t rush him.
Later on, as policy, you decide to allow an extra 15 minutes in your schedule for transitioning whenever you have a senior-citizen client.
Jose comes back to see you. He’s got all the time in world to get on and off the table. and really appreciates you not making him feel old.
Now, you’ve worked on 3 seniors. You’ve gotten great feedback and have adjusted to your target market’s needs. It’s time to…
- Go all in.
Like, seriously go all in.
Why?
You’re in your target market. They love you. Cash is coming in. And you’re getting helpful feedback.
Here’s how I go all in: A Niche Market = More Clients.
Right Under Your Nose
The “right under your nose” strategy is hard work, but, ultimately, it will save you time because you’re testing as you go in your target market.
At some point, there’s nothing wrong with taking a swing for the fence, but it shouldn’t be your first step to finding and growing your target market.
P.S. If you need some help, start by signing up for my email group. I’ll let you know when new videos and articles are out.
Oh, and if you let me know what you need help with when you sign-up, I’ll make sure that you’ll get the material you need:-)
