TARGETED NICHE MARKETING
The Point of Access for Affiliates
Throughout Affiliate Max Cash you have been encouraged to focus your
attention on the keywords that apply to the products or services that you have
to offer on your website.
"Targeted Niche Marketing is all about finding SPECIFIC solutions
to the problems of a SPECIFIC customer base"
When your website is geared to delivering a clear understanding of what
benefits your customer is looking to receive from a product or service, then it
is easier to connect the dots to the product that provides the solution to the
problem they are facing.
As simple as this may sound, there are thousands of online businesses that
have yet to grasp the importance of this one principle. No matter how great your
product may be, the focus must always be on what the customer wants from that
product; how it will enhance their lives and give them what they want.
It is essential for individual affiliates to thoroughly research the concept
of targeted niche marketing – where the idea is to be one thing to one group
of people instead of the shotgun approach that is responsible for the failure of
most affiliate marketers - trying to be "all things to all people."
Your Niche Market Customer Base
Just as we linked keywords from your domain name, to your search engine
information in your website design, to the website content, giveaways and
promotions, the same approach holds true for identifying your target niche
market. It is not enough to simply offer a product that solves a specific
problem. In a marketplace as large as the Internet, generalization is the
fastest road to oblivion.
Connecting the dots from your product or service to its prospective users is
important in order to get their attention, present a solution to their problem
and a means to take action. Using the advanced technology that is available to
affiliate marketers to find their customer base, there is no reason why you
cannot take advantage of these resources for the success of your online
business.
The sharper your focus, the easier it is to hit the bull's eye of the target.
Keep in mind that the attention span of Internet shoppers is short and your
affiliate marketing competition is growing everyday.
Keys to Unlock Your Customers Wallet
Start your quest for your targeted customers by using demographics, the
information about the basic qualities and characteristics of your market, such
as age, gender, culture, employment, industry, income level, marital status, and
location. For example, does your product cater uniquely to men? Is it more
useful to people in a certain profession? What you need to know is; who buys the
type of product or service you have to offer?
Affiliate marketers as well as other types businesses shoot themselves in the
foot by assuming that what they have to offer will appeal to everyone. Resist
the temptation to fall into this pattern of thinking. Even if the product or
service you have to offer is used by a diverse market, there are many different
factors that you can use to identify who is the perfect customer for you and
create your promotional material.
Another valuable tool to use in targeted niche marketing is called
psychographics.
There is a tremendous amount of research available on the emotional and
behavioral characteristics of your target market that cover everything from the
thinking process behind the purchase decision, the rationales that are used to
their buying histories of a certain type of product or service.
This data is collected from their areas of interest, the organizations they
join, the types of products that they have consumed or the type of services they
have used. Even the history of their loyalty to a certain company is tracked,
from their initial contact with a company to the end of their relationship.
Where demographics profile those who need a certain product, psychographics
define where the product is wanted as well. Starting with the question of who is
your perfect customer you can use these tools to fill in the blanks.
Market Research Information in Action
For example, using demographic information, acne medicine manufacturers
typically cater to teenagers who are most likely to experience this problem. In
other words, teenagers specifically are potential customers because they need
clearer skin.
Now let’s make the focus sharper using psychographics. In this example, not
only do the targeted customers need clearer skin, but they want clearer skin as
well.
This is an important fact, for there are some teenagers with acne who may
need clearer skin, but it is not important enough to them to really want it -
all of this is based around what are the priorities of the person, much like the
other choices we make, from the type of work we perform to the style of clothes
we wear.
The bottom line for the manufacturers of the acne medicine who wants to
target this specific market as accurately as possible to generate higher quality
leads, is that they must use the psychographic profile of their potential buyers
along with demographic information.
With this information in hand, they can locate the websites that their
potential customer visits and present their information about the benefits of
using their products.
The most important rule of thumb in targeted niche marketing for your
affiliate business on line is that less is more.
If you want to increase your earnings, decrease the customer base you are
trying to reach until you have the most likely audience defined and then
concentrate your efforts on satisfying these potential customers.
Making the Niche Marketing Connection
The other advantage in taking the targeted niche market approach is that is
affords you the opportunity to link to high traffic websites that will generate
traffic for your site.
The traffic at these sites will vary, but regardless of the amount of traffic
they receive, whether it is 10,000 or 100,000 visitors per year, the important
thing to remember is that by linking to you or recommending your products and
services you are sharing their website visitor traffic.
This is a powerful strategy and one that takes time to accomplish. The reward
of securing a quality link from a high traffic site to your own website is that
once in place it will stay in place working around the clock and sending traffic
to your website, day after day.
Be aware that there are different types of links along with linking
strategies. The two most common links are:
- In-Bound Links – Are where another website points TO your website. This
link has been found to be the most important.
- Out-Bound Links – Are where the link points AWAY from your website. This
link has an impact on your website ranking as well, but they are not as
desirable as inbound links.
Keep Your Linking Strategies Legal
In regards to linking strategies, there are many different theories floating
around on the Internet, so you need to be careful. Here are five basic points to
remember when you are considering a linking strategy:
- Consider the links you want to make with other websites carefully.
Remember is it not the quantity of links located on or pointing to your site
that will enhance your Page Rank, but the quality of the link that has the
most impact. The links on your site should be considered as part of the
resources that you make available to your visitors.
- Find and apply different types of linking strategies that adhere to the
guidelines of the major search engines. Be aware of the power that is
inherent in NATURAL LINKING to your site and work diligently to increase it.
- Steer clear of programs that promise you hundreds of incoming links
overnight. More likely than not, a link scheme will adversely affect your
search engine page ranking.
- Be aware that offers to sell you incoming links from sites with high Page
Rank is completely against Google Guidelines and can result in the site
being banned from being listed in Google for participating in this scheme.
- When creating an outbound link, avoid using automated linking programs. In
many cases, this type of software prevents the other site from receiving
"credit" for the incoming link. How can you tell if this is true
or not? Place your cursor over the link and hold it there. Then take a look
at the status bar at the bottom of your monitor screen.
- If you see their link showing in the display, your software program is a
winner, if a longer URL appears, there is no benefit being received by the
site you are linking to.
Innovations in Affiliate Marketing Strategies
As an affiliate marketer, you have to constantly be alert to the
ever-changing influences that determine where the income opportunities are in
the marketplace. Unfortunately, there are many who believe that there is a
"secret formula" that will map out a fail-proof road to success, when
no such formula exists.
The attitude that will serve your affiliate marketing business the best is to
be proactive, constantly study your target audience and keep abreast of the
marketing practices that are used by work in harmony with the realities of
operating a business online.
While there is no substitute for dedicated hard work that is motivated by a
strong commitment to a goal, there are new developments in affiliate marketing
techniques that can extend your reach, improve your response rate or make the
process of keeping your affiliate marketing business organized easier.
New Age Affiliate Marketing
There are many new affiliate marketers who have decided to approach their
business as customers instead of sellers to earn their income. This may not
sound revolutionary, but some are surprised that a concept so simple and obvious
for earning additional profits is also a risk-free strategy.
To understand "Customer Reciprocation" you need to turn your
perspective around about how money is made. The saying; "it takes money to
make money" is applied well in this technique, where you become the
customer of an affiliate by purchasing their product or service and in return,
they become a customer of yours.
When affiliates marketers network in this way, everyone wins. There is no
pressure to purchase products and services that you do not have a need for; it
is a risk-free method of customer acquisition that is gaining strength as an
operational method for affiliate marketers.
Operating through a network structure of affiliates, the Customer Acquisition
Exchange tracks the affiliates who earn commission from your normal day-today
online shopping, and then awards your affiliated merchant a customer (you have
just earned a commission) in return for every online purchase you make.
In reality, you just earned a commission that you would not otherwise have
earned. You can consider this as a rebate on the purchase that you would have
made anyway. Customer Acquisition Exchanges help affiliates increase their
commissionable sales through customer reciprocation much in the same way as the
reputable link exchanges help related websites increase traffic through
reciprocal linking.
It makes sense and requires little additional effort. It is simply a change
in mindset from being solely an online promoter to also an online buyer. You can
use that fact as leverage and have access to take advantage of commissions you
would have missed.
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