Yesterday a colleague and I were talking about our favourite marketing gurus. I mentioned a couple of online people who are rock stars in their niche; they have huge lists, produce great products and make LOTS of money – in at least one case well over a million dollars annually. My colleague had never heard of them. Not one.
He proceeded to talk about his favourites – people he thought of as rock starts. Complete strangers to me.
I was floored – briefly.
Then I got to thinking about what this means. We are both very tech savvy people, well read and online constantly. And yet each of us mentioned widely successful internet marketers the other hadn’t heard of.
It made me realize – there really is enough business to go around. If you provide a quality product or service, have a good marketing plan that targets the right people, and are consistent, you can have a wildly successful business – even if the majority of people have never heard of you.
Even businesses in the same market – competitors if you will – don’t need to have the “you need to fail for me to succeed” mindset. After all, few businesses have exactly the same ideal customer. Each business has its own unique strengths, weaknesses and quirks.
And each business will attract a unique type of customer. This is particularly true for businesses providing a service, where personality match between the customer and the entrepreneur may be just as important as the actual service. You could place two businesses side by side, offering what on the surface appears to be the same service, and yet Business A’s customers would never consider hiring Business B and vice versa.
This is the key to business success. You don’t need to target everyone. You don’t need to be a name every knows – like Bill Gates or McDonald’s. You don’t have to have millions of visitors to your website. You don’t even need to get everyone in your niche.
If you have a well defined target market and your marketing plan is geared towards getting those people’s attention, you can do just fine. And if you provide excellent products or services to your ideal customers, keep marketing to them and create a core of raving fans – people who buy everything you sell and promote you by word of mouth – you can be wildly successful, even if the majority of people have never heard of you.
Andrea J. Stenberg
