How to identify with your prospective customer.

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Hi there,

How are you today?

Hi again. This is JJ interrupting himself. He’s going to drone on for a couple of paragraphs about some of the mildly unfortunate things that happened to him today, using naively constructed metaphors involving the wet bits of fish. Skip to the bit marked AIMLESS SELF-INDULGENT RAMBLING STOPS HERE if you could care less. Thanks.

I woke up in a foul mood today.

I think it might have been the rain that did it.

It had been such a sunny weekend, and I woke up early this morning to rain.

Then… when I left the house I discovered I had a hole in my shoe.

Then… as I squelched my way up the escalator and out of the tube station, I realized I had left my umbrella on the seat.

By the time I arrived at my destination I was as wet as the very wettest bits of a wet fish.

Under other circumstances I may have found this funny. I may even have done a little dance in the rain – Dick Van Dyke style.

But not today… Today I was a big grumpy grumpyhead.

Why am I telling you all this?

To be honest, I’m not sure. You are not my therapist and I’m rapidly talking my way into a blogging black hole.

HOWEVER…

Do not be too quick to write off this post just yet, because I’m putting aside my petty grudges against the unfortunate practicalities of the day and pulling something TOTALLY AWESOME out of my box of tricks.

Sometimes I like to mention how brilliant my Jalopy Gang newsletter is.

(Totally, is the answer, by the way. It’s totally brilliant.)

Well… I’m getting lots of few new subscribers these days. (Hi new subscribers! I love you!) And one of the things that makes me a little sad, is think that these awesome new folk have missed out on some of the really cool stuff I’ve downloaded into your head in my previous newsletter.

So today I’m going to share this with you. It’s an answer to a lovely reader’s question about how she can identify with her prospective customer. It’s not the best-written thing I’ve ever produced, but it’s jam-packed with useful information. Awesome.

Let’s go…

It rained. It's over. Let's go.

==> AIMLESS SELF-INDULGENT RAMBLING STOPS HERE

A question from a reader:

JJ. I’ve picked a niche market to target, and I’ve created a simple representation of my average customer as you suggested, but I’m having trouble identifying with my customer. Do you have any tips on how I can get inside my prospective customer’s head?

This is a great question!

I realise now that it’s something I glossed over somewhat when we discussed this in the context of my business.

It is relatively easy to identify with your niche if you are already involved in that niche. It is even easier if your prospective customer is essentially a past version of you, before you solved some of your own problems.

But what if you are new to the niche? How can you identify with something you have never experienced yourself?

Well, thankfully, there are some great tools you can use to help you understand your prospective customer, before you immerse yourself in that niche.

What are people searching for?

When someone has a problem, or they want information on a subject, they go to Google (or a similar search engine) and they search for information, advice, or people with similar stories or experiences.

And they don’t censor what they type in. It might be embarrassing to ask your Mom, but it’s not so embarrassing to ask Google!

Google knows everything.

And Google will happily tell you what people in your niche are searching for! You can find out what they’re worried about, what they’re looking for, what is on their mind.

This is amazing.

Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in a search term describing your niche.

If your niche is women trying to come to terms with their husband’s infidelity then type “cheating husband” into the keyword tool and see what comes up.

Google will tell you exactly what they’re looking for!

Spend some real quality time with this tool. All the information you need to use it effectively can be found on the Google website.

Do it. I can’t overemphasize how important this is!

What are people talking about on Internet groups?

One of the great things about the internet is that there is a community for everything. No matter how bizarre your area of interest, there will be an online community for it.

Lizard racing?

Underwater scrabble?

Whatever your area of interest you will be able to find someone else who is also interested in that thing, and you will be able to chat to them online.

Your mission is to find the online communities related to your niche market and find out what people are talking about and the questions they are asking.

So where can you find these:

Popular group sites:

http://groups.google.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.live.com/

Social Networking Sites:

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.myspace.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/

Use directory sites (dmoz.org, yahoo directory etc) to find the most popular forums in your niche:

http://www.dmoz.org/

http://dir.yahoo.com/

http://specials.msn.com/

What questions are people asking on the Internet?

Question and Answer websites are an absolute goldmine for niche research.

Sites like Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers etc. allow people to post questions, which are then answered by experts and Internet busybodies alike.

http://answers.yahoo.com/

http://wiki.answers.com/

Search these sites for questions relevant to your niche. It’ll tell you exactly the questions people are asking, and what they’re having trouble finding out by other means.

Find a popular question people are struggling to get answered anywhere else on the Internet, and you have just discovered yourself a potential goldmine!

NOTE: This is a massively awesome tip. You should do this. And then you can thank me by telling all your friends how brilliant I am. And why not suggest that they too subscribe to my newsletter so we can all play together in a giant bubble of love, and take over the world.

Ask people yourself!

My final suggestion is to do some good, old-fashioned market research. Find people who represent your niche and ask them what they’re worried about, elicit their values, find out what makes them feel good and what their dreams are.

You can create a survey online at www.surveymonkey.com.

If you’re a respected member of a popular forum then you could make a post on the forum, linking to your survey. This will be especially effective if you offer a small incentive for filling in the survey. A small downloadable report might be good.

If you’re not an already respected forum member then this will probably be regarded as spam. It is best to build up a reputation as a value-giver before you ask for anything in return.

Please let me know how you get on with your research. And please share any magic bullets of your own!

See? That rocked in the end, didn’t it?

Well done me.

See you tomorrow for more fun and games!

JJ Jalopy.

P.S. I’m thinking about simplifying the look of the website. It’s a bit busy, I think. I want it to look cleaner and more fun. And I want bigger text, so it’s easier for you to read. Let me know if you think it’s a good idea.

Which reminds me… I should really update my contacts page…

You can contact me on:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jjjalopy

Facebook: Just search for me. Not many people have my name. Except one guy who’s into cuckoldry. Mrs. Jalopy would probably appreciate me pointing out that this is not me.

Email… jj at jjjalopy dot com

Other stuff, but I can’t be bothered to type any more right now. G’night!

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