Part 2: You Have to Choose

We talked last time about focusing your business. One of the first steps in that direction is researching your market.

You need to be looking for new & better prospects, and finding new places where you can meet with the people who are in a position to engage your services.

Where do you start?

I recommend beginning by exploring 2-3 areas or industries.

Ideally, you’re looking at areas in which you already have a strong combination of experience, connections & examples of work to show.

As you explore, look and listen for the specific needs and challenges of the people and the organizations in those markets. That information will become the substance of your marketing.

Here’s how:

Video: How to Research Your Best Prospects

First, look at the markets.

A successful business is centered on the needs of the market, not around the business owner’s personal wishes and desires.

Don’t start with “Who do I want to work with?” Instead, ask, “What does the market need and how can I satisfy that need while doing something I love?”

How do you find out what the market needs? You do that by following business trends in the news and watching where investors and the government are investing.

Ideally, your desires will overlap with the needs of the market in a Venn diagram of sorts that will lead you to an effective positioning.

Look next at what you know.

Whenever possible, don’t start from scratch. The foundation of your business should be rooted strongly in something you know well and in which you already have some experience and connections.

Even if you’re just starting out, you’ll get further faster by building on past career experiences, a recent pro bono or freelance project, or even an extracurricular passion or hobby.

You must be able to confidently say to your prospects, “I understand your challenges and can help you.”

Look at the industries you’ve served in the past.

Your clients need to know that you not only understand the specific challenges they face, but also that you have explicit experience that will help them.

For example, if you have done a lot of work for hospitals and medical practices, although they’re both in the broad “healthcare” world, you should target each market with a slightly different message that emphasizes your direct experience, perhaps even with a competitor.

Choose growing markets.

Don’t focus on markets that are on the wane, no matter how much you love them. Look for the growth, whether in the markets you know or in ancillary areas.

For example, the publishing world continues to be in flux but is unlikely to disappear altogether. How is it changing? Where are the growth areas that you could move into, even if it involves learning something new? (Hint: think e-books and interactive publishing.)

Choose markets with money to spend.

Most creative professionals who rely on word-of-mouth also seem to get a lot of prospects with little-to-no budget to spend or tiny budgets coming directly out of the business owner’s pocket.

If this is fine with you and satisfies your needs, then build your marketing plan on those same markets and you’ll do well, as those clients are easy to find.

But if you want to grow and find better clients, look for markets with budgets to spend–and not their own money. If they can’t pay what you need to charge, don’t even put them on your short list.

How do you tell if a market has money to spend? You can usually tell pretty quickly by looking at the web sites and marketing materials of a range of companies in that market. If they value your type of service, they will invest money in it, and it will show.

Also, as part of your research, go to a trade show and collect marketing materials. Take that opportunity to chat with the people, because the best way to really find out if a market has money to spend is to ask the actual people directly.

Remember, this is research, not sales at this point. So you can ask, “What are your budgets for X or Y?” This type of research can also be done online where your prospects gather or are members, especially in LinkedIn Groups.

Once you’ve chosen a few markets to explore, here’s what else you need to find out:

There may be data available from a trade association to help answer these questions; you may have to ask questions of people in the markets and you may be able to deduce certain facts from what you see.

For example, you may find that the healthcare technology market has thousands of prospects nationwide, average projects with healthy budgets and a regular need for promotional materials, which makes it a very promising market.

On the other hand, if a local industry has no more than 15 companies that only need updates to their web site (and 13 of the 15 clearly show no evidence of valuing web design, steer clear.

Make sense?

Let it sink in a bit.