Referral marketing comes down to getting other people to tell their online networks about your business. You can let that happen organically (the slow way) or you can be strategic and partner with people that can help you build a solid referral marketing engine. I have a secret that has worked for me and I’m confident it will work for your business too. But first…

Referral marketing

In the modern economy you need to partner up. Going alone sets you up for failure. The Internet is the perfect space to quickly build and develop business connections.

Trust is obviously a very important aspect of all this. You need to fully trust the people you partner up with. If you can’t refer your mother to them, then they are not worth referring your customers and clients.

Let’s assume you already have an idea of who you’d like to partner with online. What’s the secret to connecting with them so that referral marketing can happen?

SECRET: Start doing referral marketing for other people first

Other people are the major reason you will have business in the new economy. Your ability to connect and build relationships will be one of the biggest factors in how financially successful you are in the future.

It’s important that you find people in your industry or other complimentary businesses to partner with. These people are going to be your power team. You are going to invest heavily in helping them grow their businesses and they will do the same for you. Engaging with these people takes some time and effort.

I have created something I call the “target 10.” These are ten people that I target for a period of time (about 90 days) and behave as if I’m on their marketing staff. I don’t ever ask for anything in return, but I make comments on their blog posts, tweet about them, share their Facebook content and look for any way I can to promote new products and services that they release. I become their biggest fan and advocate.

The key is to genuinely become a referral marketing engine for others…

A few ideas to make this system work for your business:

• Don’t keep score. I learned this from Keith Ferrazzi’s book Never Eat Alone. If you keep score you won’t be freely able to help other people without expecting anything in return.
• Target people who have influence. Even though we aren’t keeping score, when you are starting out it’s important to think about the potential reach your actions can bring. So don’t target someone with 100 Twitter followers. Spend the time researching folks who have larger audiences. (Side Note: Don’t ignore people with small numbers – they are still people and you still need to be nice. I’m simply suggesting you spend a lot of time with people with large audiences when you’re starting out).
• Put yourself on their marketing team I (virtually). Mentally place yourself in the position of responsibility for their online sales and success. If they have an affiliate program feel free to sign up for that – but don’t do it for your own sake. Look to genuinely make them successful.

If you will do this for the next 90 days, I promise you will see some amazing results. You really can’t go wrong by promoting others.

How to partner up for referral marketing success

As you begin to develop relationships with others, here are a few ideas on how you can partner online to build your power team or referrals.

• Create a united front. The best example of this is the Mexican drug cartel. The top dogs always work together to stamp out competition and help each other sell more. A rising tide raises all ships.
• Fan swap and follower swap. Be willing to follow each other on Twitter and “like” each other on Facebook.
• Offer to email your list if they’ll email theirs. This is a great way to help each other out and build both of your lists.

Today’s Action Steps

First, find ten connectors and begin to target them for a relationship. Follow them on Twitter, like their page on Facebook, subscribe to their blog, connect with them on LinkedIn, etc. After you’ve followed – liked – and connected… start retweeting their tweets, sharing their blog post and looking for any way to publicly promote them. After a while they will take notice.

Second, comment below and sketch out your target 10 plan immediately.

Finally, if you found this post useful, please share it via your social media of choice.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by bigoteetoe

Personal branding does not mean that you should act like a company. Personal branding also doesn’t mean that a company should act like a person. It means being yourself – being conscience of who you are – and knowing what you stand for. It’s also important to become a person of value.

Personal branding

The goal of personal branding is to be seen as a person who adds something to others. Sounds simple but let me tell you a story.

I was in Best Buy ready to buy a hard drive a few months ago. I was out of storage space and because I shoot a lot of video I needed extra space for my files. The sales guy was showing me a few models on the shelves. As I asked him some questions he realized that I needed a drive that could write video files more quickly. He made a recommendation of the type of drive I should get. I agreed and asked where I could purchase.

“We don’t sell them here,” was the response. I was confused. Why would he tell me about a drive they didn’t carry. He went on to explain where I could find the product online and even wrote down the web address for me. He was hurting his own business by recommending a drive they didn’t carry. But he became someone of value to me.

Contrast this example with the slimy salesperson who doesn’t have your best interest in mind. You can tell from the outset that they only want to “sell” you. How does that make you feel?

Pretty awful. But when someone offers legitimate value – you feel grateful.

Your personal brand should set you apart and get people talking

When you are a person of value, you set yourself apart from your competition. We already talked about knowing your stuff. Now become the person who gives freely.

There is no limit to how much you can give. Seth Godin writes about becoming a person of value in his book Linchpin. It’s a great book about making yourself indispensable. Of course I think it’s a book that cuts to the heart of personal branding.

When you become a person of value you get people talking. Word of mouth referrals can be a huge indicator of your future success in business. People that know you have value to offer will freely recommend you to friends and colleagues.

So how does this all apply to Internet marketing and social media?

Business is tough these days. You have to find ways to leverage your resources and make them go further than ever before. Here’s a few tips when growing the value of your personal brand:

• Give away helpful advice – Literally give away some of your best stuff. Seek out people to help and give, give, give. The internet makes this easy to do
• Connect people – regardless if it will directly benefit you or not. Be the connection point between people. When someone mentions that they are looking for a product or service, offer to connect them with someone you know who provides it. Use your social networks to scale this.
• Increase your own value – by reading, studying, learning and experimenting. Look to better yourself and become a person who has so much value that you’re in demand.

Think about the person who adds the most value to your life. What is it about them that’s valuable? Do they make you feel empowered and confident? What can you learn from them and apply to your own business?

Today’s action step

Practice giving of yourself. Seek out ways to help three clients or prospects this week. Even small gestures of value can make a huge impact on your personal brand.

Here are a few ideas…

• Clip a magazine article that pertains to a prospect’s business and send it to them with a written note.
• Make a connection between two of your clients or customers. Introduce them and suggest they do business together.
• Offer to write a recommendation for a few of your customers or clients. You could even do this on LinkedIn.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by masochismtango

Personal branding starts with trust. You need to become a trusted adviser for your prospects and customers. Trust comes from having integrity, but also from knowing how to get results.

Becoming a VCR programmer

A trusted adviser is someone people can lean on when they need advice. Let me tell you a story…

When I was a kid I was a huge photo/video nerd. I knew way more than the average teenager about cameras, lenses and video editing. As a result, family members were always bugging asking me to help them with this or that when it came to video or photography.

I helped and it got worse. More people would come and “ask” me to do random stuff that I wasn’t even that good at (program a VCR, hook up a new radio, or try to fix their computer).

The point I’m making here is that by having some knowledge in one area made me a trusted adviser. I created a little internal family “brand” that projected itself onto other areas.

The same can be said for your personal brand. If you become a trusted adviser in one area, people will associate your business with getting results.

“Trusted adviser” is the baseline of personal brand

When you spend the time building up trust:

• You become the go-to person and in turn the go-to business.
• Your income will go up because you are now the top of your game.
• Once you have some trust from a small group of people it’s easy to leverage them to help you gain more trust with a wider audience. This is referred to as social proof.

How to become a trusted adviser

When gaining trust from prospects and customers it really boils down to two things

1) Know your stuff
If you read about your business, industry and customers for two hours per day you’ll become an expert. It’s that simple. But I will caution you that experts aren’t all that important. Colleges and Universities are full of experts who make measly salaries. Knowing a lot is good, but you need more. One idea is to use Netvibes to read all the major blogs and articles in your industry.

2) Practice your stuff
Take what you learn from reading two hours a day and implement them as fast as possible. Get some feedback and then adjust accordingly. You need to gain experience. Without implementation there is no real learning. But if you actually put into practice what you learn – your trust level in your own abilities will skyrocket and in turn your prospects will trust you even more.

What if you were the go-to person?

Do this simple exercise with me. Close your eyes and imagine yourself as the go-to person in your industry. Feel the power you have when you really know your stuff (from actual experience). Spend time feeling good about how you are turning yourself into an expert.

A word of caution: becoming a trusted adviser expert should not create a false sense of pride or arrogance. Stay humble. Realize that there is much you don’t know and always be willing to learn more.

Today’s Action Step

Put something into practice in the next three hours. Because you are reading this, your already building up your knowledge and value. So spend time putting one thing into use that you’ve learned this week. Make it specific to your business and brand that will help you become an experienced adviser people trust.

For example, let’s say you’re a personal fitness coach and have been reading about the health benefits of training with kettlebells. Go get yourself some kettlebells and test out what you’ve learned. Only then can you speak with the authority of a trusted adviser.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by bschmove

Personal branding seems to be the hot topic these days. If you are a small business owner or a sole entrepreneur, personal branding can be very powerful for you.

Personal Branding

This concept of personal branding started with a guy by the name of Tom Peters who wrote about “Brand You.” He argued that employees need to see the new economy in terms of developing themselves as a brand just like Donald Trump, Tiger Woods and Oprah.

The goal is not to become as big as Oprah with your own media empire (although that would be nice). Instead, you want to become a rockstar in your industry or business sector. You literally create a persona that attracts people by becoming a “personality” rather than just another product or service provider.

I’m not talking about branding your business. I don’t have much use for branding when it comes to small businesses. Unless you have millions of dollars to spend on Superbowl ads and expensive icons (think Geico), you should avoid general branding like the plague. For your business focus on direct response marketing instead.

Although I’m down on small business branding I do recommend personal branding. It is something that you can do little by little each day. In my mind branding yourself comes down to consistency. Consistency in what you stand for AND consistency in doing the activities that will morph you into a brand.

Why personal branding is so powerful

For those who slave away at a desk job, personal branding is important because NO ONE that you work for or with is looking out for your best interest. When you leave your job (or get laid off) having a strong personal brand will be the bridge that helps you land your next gig.

If you are working in your own small business, you have to differentiate yourself from your competition. You may not have more money, a bigger ad campaign or even better sales people working for you. But you can develop and cultivate a personal brand that will “rub off” on your small business and employees causing you to rise above your competition.

If you are still not convinced, consider this… you are being Googled. Potential cusotmers, potential employers, even potential lovers are entering your name in Google and finding out about you in advance. So your online personal brand is your first impression.

My question is …what kind of first impression are you making?

How To Take Control Of Your Personal Brand

Become a trusted adviser and expert by knowing your subject matter. You must know your industry. A simple Google search can yield thousands of news articles, websites and resources that will allow you to stay in the know.

I recommend setting up a free Netvibes account to keep on top of it all. You need substance more than style. But more importantly, after you are in the know, you should become a curator of content and the go to source for others.

Become a person of value by giving away value to prospects and customers. By freely giving away value, you are building up goodwill with those people who are starting to see you as a rockstar. Learn to influence others by giving of yourself.

Become a rockstar and command the attention of your industry and your customers. This comes from other people giving you social proof. By cultivating even a small following you are laying the framework for a larger following. In order to do this you need to be visible.

Imagine your brand

What would your business look like if you actually worked on developing your personal brand? Imagine being able to walk into a room and command the attention of people in your industry. Imagine your online article or blog posts being read by potential customers making them hungry to do business with you. Building your personal brand can be the difference between struggling in business and achieving amazing success.

Today’s Action Step

As you begin to develop your personal brand – take out a piece of paper and spend the next 10-20 minutes answering these questions.

• What makes you different from other people who might have a similar background?
• What is it that makes people what to work with you? (What attitudes, knowledge, skills and abilities do you already have or are developing)
• List out the value that you can create and give away to others. Be specific and list three things.
• At the end of the day – what gets you excited and fulfils you? What type of person do you imagine yourself being?

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by stefano principato

Inbound marketing can make a big difference in your business and sales. It’s the difference between having to pick up the phone and make sales calls and having your prospects and customers CALL YOU.

The goal when marketing your business is not to get your business name “out there,” it’s to get your customer’s name “in here.” This is called inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing

Traditional marketing is sometimes referred to as “interruption marketing.” You literally interrupt people with your message.

Imagine this scenario…

You’re at a cookout talking with some friends, flipping burgers and chatting away. A new neighbor comes up to you and starts pitching you on a spatula his business sells. He demonstrates how superior his product when grilling burgers. And it’s true.

But he just jumps right into the middle of the conversation and begins to INTERRUPT you with his message.

You’re peeved right? How dare he start in like that.

Now consider this scenario…

You’re tasked with grilling for your cookout. You head to the local grocery store looking for charcoal, matches and hamburgers. On your way down the charcoal isle you strike up a conversation with the exact same neighbor. He finds out that you are grilling today and recommends his spatula. You get excited at all the benefits and order one from his website later that night.

The first scenario is an example of interruption marketing. You already know this style very well. Every TV show, radio channel and freeway billboard uses this method of advertising. They literally interrupt to force feed you advertisements.

Inbound marketing turns traditional interruption advertising on it’s head

In the new economy, smart marketers and small business owners need to find better ways to reach people. Inbound marketing offers an excellent solution. Interruption marketing is like hunting, while inbound marketing is more like fishing.

“Fishing” with a wide content net

If we continue with the fishing metaphor, you need to find a “hook” to get your audience to bite. We saw the hook approach in the second scenario above. You were already buying related products for grilling and along came your neighbor with some INFORMATION that showed you a better way to cook burgers. You got excited and ordered the product that night.

But to push the metaphor even further, he was only using a hook. It was a on-to-one marketing process and would not scale well for your business. Instead we should really be fishing with a large net. We will snag more prospects this way.

What is the marketing equivalent of a large net?

Online content.

Inbound marketing relies on an Internet content net to draw in prospects and customers. Content is what makes the Internet tick. The major online sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google use content to fuel their sites.

We also see the need for content on portable devices. With the recent uptick in sales of the iPhone and iPad – there is a vacuum for mass amounts of quality video, audio, text and photos to share on these devices.

As a small business owner, you already have the tools to reach people who are already actively searching for content online. For the cost of a laptop you can begin creating a publishing operation for your small business that rivals your local newspaper.

How to use inbound marketing to get customers to call you

First, start publishing now. Become a consistent publishing source of value and information. There are thousands of opportunities for you to add value to your prospects via video, audio or text. Start using the tools available and start now.

Second, give away massive value. Look for ways to improve the lives of your prospects and customers. Use your publishing platform to INVEST in them. This is critical to attracting prospects to your business.

Finally, speak to people’s emotions. Don’t think, write or act logically. Instead focus on the emotions of your prospects. It’s important to stir up their emotional brain and get them excited about doing business with you.

Think about how powerful inbound marketing can be

What if you could turn your marketing on it’s head and get customers and prospects to call you? How would that impact your bottom line? Would you sleep better at night?

That’s exactly what you can do when you start using inbound marketing. You cast a wide content net and begin attracting customers without picking up the phone to make a sales call.

Today’s Action Step

Set up a blog for your business. You need a place to publish … a home base. Your blog is the first step to turning your business into a publishing force. I recommend you use Wordpress as a platform. Stay tuned for more…

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

Okay gentlemen – most of the women reading this will nod their heads in agreement when I say…

Commitment is good

Now before all the guys out there panic and start running – let me clarify what I’m talking about. In the world of marketing and business it is a good thing to get your prospects to commit.

The goal is to entice prospects to give you their contact information. One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask for an email address.

Getting a visitor’s email is the single most important goal for your website

I keep talking about email capture again and again because it is THAT important to your social media and online marketing. When you get a prospect’s email, you get control and permission.

An email address gives you control of the marketing relationship. If you are relying on prospects to return to your website later on their own – you’re delusional.

In defense of prospects world-wide, it’s not their fault. They simply can’t keep up with the fire hose of information coming at them every day. Most people will welcome relevant and helpful emails targeted to meet their needs. Deep down, prospects want you to have control of the marketing relationship so they don’t have to think.

An email address also gives you permission to follow up. Each time a prospect subscribes to your email list – image them standing in a crowd raising their hand and saying… “I’m interested in your products and services.” They are giving you permission to market to them.

A few tips on getting emails from your prospects

• Be sure to have an email capture form on your website. The solution we use is Aweber. I’ve written a lot about using email opt in forms here and here.
• When using an email capture form – be clear on the value that you will provide in return for a prospect email address. Offer to give them a free report, video, download, coupon, etc.
• Many smart marketing professionals create print ads that send prospects to landing pages with email opt in forms on them. This is a great idea. The problem is – when prospects visit the web page many won’t enter their name into your email list. A better option is to provide an email address that prospects respond to that will automatically subscribe them to your list. This will result in 100% opt ins.

Imagine your business as a lead capture machine

Imagine the cycle of success you will create by inviting prospects to commit by giving you their email address – which in turn gives you permission and control in the marketing process.

With a solid email list you can alert people (who have already committed to you that they are interested) with new products and services.

Just think of the cost savings! By building an email list you are building a future database of potential customers.

Don’t forget that people value their emails. You can’t abuse the relationship with your prospect. Continually offer value in your emails. Look to improve the lives and businesses of your potential customers.

Today’s Action Step

Get signed up for an email service provider and place an email capture form on your website or blog. Make it enticing for prospects to give you their email address by giving away something free in return for the address.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo By Pacopus

Direct response marketing is the solution to small business marketing challenges.

Good morning class. Let’s start with an easy question… what’s wrong with this advertisement?

… (insert Jeopardy music here) ….

If you answered that it is pointless – worthless – stupid and well designed…

You would be right.

• It’s pointless because it’s not clear. What does “checkmate” mean when we are talking about cars?
• It’s worthless because it adds zero value to the anyone.
• It’s stupid because it is a waste of money for BMW and won’t directly translate to more sales.
• It’s well designed and laid out nicely by a very good graphic designer.

This ad is the quintessential example of what NOT TO DO when designing your small business advertising. BMW has millions of dollars to waste on these type of campaigns. You don’t. So don’t even try to compete.

Instead, focus on finding ways to advertise your small business that will DIRECTLY TRANSLATE to more SALES. This is often called “response marketing,” “direct marketing” or “direct response marketing.”

Direct response marketing is the magic bullet for your business

When using direct response marketing, the goal is to get people to take action when they see your ad. Ultimately you’d like to have prospects buy your products and services – but getting them to opt in to an email list or call for more information is great too.

The idea is to get a response from your audience. It doesn’t matter if they see a billboard, watch a TV ad, listen to a radio spot or read a classified newspaper listing – your goal is the same. Get people to pick up the phone, write you, subscribe to your email list or buy something.

Why direct response marketing works

Your business can’t afford to do big brand advertising. You don’t have the millions of dollars like Coke, Microsoft, Doritos and BMW. You may not have much of an ad or marketing budget at all. Because of this you’ll need to recoup any investment you make in advertising immediately.

You can’t wait the months and sometimes years for a general branding campaign to pay off. If your business spends a dollar you need to get two dollars back in the form of sales.

Fortunately for you, direct response marketing is more powerful now than ever before. In the past all we had were traditional media channels. Now we have the Internet, email and social media that can not only reach people directly, but leverage the power of their friends using social proof.

How to start using direct response marketing in your small business

I want you to burn this into your brain….

EVERY time you create an ad, write a sales letter, produce an TV spot … always have a clear call to action. Be direct in asking people to make some sort of effort to download something, call a number or subscribe.

This ad is getting better. At least they have a website listed on the billboard. It would be better if they had a clear call to action. Something like “Visit Cars.com to download your $300 voucher for a new car.”

Don’t ignore branding – make it serve you

In the process don’t ignore branding. Instead make branding part of response process. Name your products and services with “brand” names that can help to sell. For example when we were initially designing Customers While You Sleep we first had the idea to call it Small Business Social Media And Marketing Training. But in developing a brand we chose Customers While You Sleep instead. We now can use this to continue to develop products and services around this “brand.”

If you’ve been following along with how we promoted CWYS, you’ll notice that you didn’t see big banner ads all over the internet. Instead I sent out text based emails to pre-qualified prospects and customers who I knew wanted 100 or more new leads each month for their small business. I gave a clear call to action inviting people to join the site. And it worked – people joined and I was able to “brand” the name Customers While You Sleep in the process.

Exploding your business

Imagine that everything you do in your marketing focuses on getting prospects to click, call, subscribe, sign up or buy. What would this do to your bottom line? You aren’t simply putting your marketing message out in the universe and hoping customers take action – you are asking them to take action directly. Try doing this for the next six months and watch your profits skyrocket.

Today’s Action Step

Brainstorm five call to action items that you can put in your various marketing messages. Make a list and begin using them immediately in your business marketing.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

I learned a simple three question test from my mentor Eben Pagan when choosing an internet business niche. It was so simple and straightforward – yet so powerful at the same time.

Before I give you the “secret sauce” … a story…

When I was a kid I decided to set up a “store” in my front yard at my house. I’ve always had the entrepreneur gene in my blood and I wanted to make a little extra money. You’d think I would have noticed the hot summer day outside and decided to sell lemonade. No – despite my mother’s urging otherwise – I decided to sell what I thought people wanted to buy.

I went int the driveway and scooped up a few bucket fulls of gravel. My mother reluctantly helped to put up a card table in the front yard and I carefully displayed my rocks on the table along side a small “rocks for sale” sign.

I didn’t make one sale all day.

In the late afternoon I was so discouraged. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have customers. Luckily my father pulled up on his way home from work and bought some rocks from my little store. My little six-year-old entrepreneur spirit wasn’t crushed after all.

About a month later I noticed some neighbor kids had set up a lemonade stand across the street and they were raking in the money. I was peeved that they were getting all this business and I didn’t. But I learned a VERY important lesson…

You will make money in business to the degree that you solve people’s immediate perceived problems.

It wasn’t that the rocks weren’t valuable – my dad probably paid several hundred dollars for that gravel to be installed in our driveway. But rocks weren’t valuable to the people driving past my house that hot summer day.

Before you laugh at this little story let me ask you… are you selling rocks in your business?

Choosing what to sell and who to sell it to

Eben Pagan came up with an excellent system that involves three questions to find out if a business, product or service idea is valid. It is a great way to determine if there is a market that will buy what you are selling.

Here are the three magic questions:

Question 1 – Is my prospect experiencing pain and urgency or an irrational passion?

People only want to spend money when they want to relive pain. Here are some great examples of “pain” points.

• “How can I make more money?”
• “How can I get out of debt?”
• “How can I get rid of this extra fat?”
• “I want to get more dates with the opposite sex.”
• “My spouse has separated from me – how can I get back together with him.”

Question 2 – Is my prospect proactively looking for a solution?

It is far easier to sell to people who are looking for a solution than to find people and convince them they need a solution. Figure out what customers are already searching for online by doing some keyword research, surveys and investigation.

Question 3 – Does my prospect have few or no perceived options?

The less options that your prospect has the better. In fact if you can create a new category and become the first player in that space, even better. Steve Jobs did this when he created the iPhone. He took the concept of a smart phone and made it better. With no other touchscreen options for phones in 2007, Apple computer dominated the market.

Today’s Action Step

Choose an idea, run it through the three question test and see if you get three yeses. If you do then you have a very strong internet business niche that you owe to yourself and business to try.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

As a small business marketer you need to know your customers as well as you know yourself. In this article I’m going to share some practical steps that you can take to learn about the people your business serves. But first a story…

One day in the 1950s Walt Disney strode into a Disneyland staff meeting with some of his top level managers and berated them for going off site for lunch every day. The managers looked like deer caught in headlights. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the boss. Why was he so passionate about this? And furthermore, was he expecting that they skip lunch?

Disney answered their silent questions when he demanded that they eat their lunch at the concession stands INSIDE Disneyland. He reasoned that they would be able to see what guests see. They would gain insights that could only come from actual experience.

Know your customer and remove the guesswork

It is so important to actually know about your customer’s wants, needs and desires. With this information you can create high value products and services and charge higher prices for them. If you don’t know the deep needs of your customers, you’ll spend your time doing guesswork while creating products and services that don’t sell and aren’t valued.

How to figure out your customer’s wants and needs

To figure out what our customers need -  follow the example of Walt Disney. Disney practiced three principles and encouraged his staff to do the same.

1) Ask your customers directly

The actor Kurt Russell tells a story about Walt Disney asking him questions about Disneyland. He grilled Russell for quite some time about the rides, what he liked or disliked about the park and other general questions.

Russell was very impressed with how much personal interest Walt took in him. But then Disney ended the questions and moved on for the day. Only then did Russell realized that Disney was actually using him for market research. He wanted to find out what people thought about the park – so he asked them. And he would act on the feedback people gave him to make things better.

2) Listen for what people want and give it to them

On one occasion some managers came to Disney complaining that guests kept taking a shortcut at on spot in the park  by walking on the grass. The managers proposed a barrier to protect the grass and eliminate the shortcut. Disney had a different perspective. He told his managers to give the guests what they wanted and PAVE the shortcut.

He had spent enough time on grounds to see first hand how people liked to walk around his park and he wanted to make sure his guests remained happy while they were there.

3) Become your client and walk in their shoes

Disney himself could often be seen roaming the inside of Disneyland wearing sunglasses and a hat to disguise himself from autograph seekers. He would spend his time wandering through the park, buying the food, inspecting the lines, watching people and observing how they shopped, ate and moved. You can do the same in your business.

Your business on steroids

Imagine your business being completely focused on what your customers actually want and need. Think about the feeling you will have as you provide your customers with a high valued product or service that SOLVES their pressing need.

Do you think they will have any problem paying you a tidy sum for this? Nope. As you get closer to your customer’s needs – you are getting closer to wealth and success for your business.

Today’s Action Step

Start with a survey. It’s time to ask your customers directly what they want. This is not a area for shortcuts. Spend time getting inside your customer’s head by getting feedback.

Ask them…

• What is your current biggest need?
• What problems are being caused by this need going unmet in your life?
• If this need was addressed – what would that mean to you personally? How would your life change?
• What do you feel is the solution to your problem or need?

If you ask your customers these questions, you will gain insight into the products and services that you can provide them immediately. This is powerful.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

Gary Halbert told this classic story in his high-priced subscription only newsletter. He challenged any business person to a hypothetical hamburger selling duel. Here’s how the rules would go…

Gary and the entrepreneur would each set up a hypothetical hamburger stand across the street from each other. Each would get to choose ONE advantage to have with his hamburger stand. The entrepreneur got to pick first. Usually he would pick great hamburger meat with superior quality. Smart entrepreneurs would copy the McDonald’s model and choose a system of cooking and serving the food as their advantage. This would obviously allow the entrepreneur to cook more burgers and sell a larger quantity.

After the entrepreneur carefully chose his advantage Gary would announce his choice. He would boldly announce that he didn’t care about food quality, systems, or any other “important” factors. The ONLY advantage Gary asked for was…

A Starving crowd.

Think about the wisdom in this. If you are standing in front of a starving crowd and you have hamburgers for sale – you are going to make a LOT of money in a very short time. If your crowd is starving they don’t care about all the “features” you offer with your burgers. They want food in their belly. They are looking for a solution to their “hunger problem.”

Your starving crowd

Who is your “starving crowd?” In dentistry it is the person with a broken tooth. If you are a roofer – your starving crowd are people with leaks in their roof.

I had my own staving crowd moment a few years back when my basement flooded. The sewer line was broken and the system was backing up into the house. At the time I didn’t have an extra $3500 laying around – but I made a way. I had to. I was “starving” for a solution.

Your goal is to pick products and services for your business that you know are in high demand. This means that you start by finding a “starving crowd” and feed them.

Most small business owners start with the idea of a great product or service then try to find customers. For example, I recently spoke with a lady who was making creative and beautiful gift baskets. I’m sure she sold a few here and there – but she wasn’t really solving a specific “starving need.” Furthermore, she had to go out and find people who wanted to buy.

The better way to approach this – the way to guarantee your path to business and financial success – is to go where there are desperate people for a solution. I’m baffled time and time again by small business owners who shy away from selling to a “starving crowd.” For some reason they feel it is beneath them to sell to customer’s needs.

How to find your starving crowd

You need to shift from a product and service mindset to dwell on finding groups of people who need solutions. It should be your primary work to obsess over finding people who need solutions. Only then can you offer solutions that customers actually need and want. Which in turn will make you very successful.

This idea of selling to needs really sunk in recently as I watched an episode of the Emmy Award winning show Breaking Bad. The show is about a high school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, teams up with a former student to cook and sell enough methamphetamine to pay his medical bills and leave his family in good financial standing after he dies. In one scene the former student is attending a NA Meeting with the sole intention of selling former junkies meth.

Obviously this is a bad career choice and NOT the type of starving crowd your business should be seeking. But the principle is sound. I can hear Gary Halbert saying “right on” when I say…

“I want to be a bottle water salesmen in the desert – a boat captain with an island full of stranded tourists – or a meth dealer with a group of NA members meeting in a church basement.”

When choosing which business to get into – you’ll need to do some testing and research. You want to be certain  that you have a good and hungry group of people BEFORE you start selling your products and services.

Think about how powerful it would be to have a starving crowd falling all over themselves to buy what you’re selling. Imagine your businesses doubling year after year as you become better and better at your marketing.

Today’s Action Step

Determine your starving crowd. If you already have a product or service you will be at a slight disadvantage. It is far easier to find a crowd and sell to them then to already have a product and try to find a crowd.

Here’s the big question – what pressing need or desire do lots of people have that your product or service solves? If you don’t have a clear, strong answer to this question you may need to reconsider your current business.

Now go take action.

This article is part of the Internet Marketing Basics series where we cover the fundamentals of internet marketing and social media.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by Adam Kuban