How To Conduct A Market Analysis For Your Business

The term "market analysis" is often confusing to entrepreneurs, especially for people who focus on a specific niche or market segment.

In fact, many small business owners don't understand the process or complain that conducting a market analysis is too complicated or too expensive and wonder why or if it is necessary.

What is market analysis?

In the most basic terms, a market analysis is an assessment of:
- A particular problem or opportunity in a market.
- The needs of the target market relating to the problem or opportunity.
- Ideas for marketing a particular product or service that fills the needs of the target market.

When should you conduct a market analysis?

- When you are starting a business.
- When you are entering a new market.
- When you are considering a new product or service.

Why should you conduct a market analysis?

- To minimize business risks.
- To understand the problems and opportunities.
- To identify sales opportunities.
- To plan your marketing/sales approach.

The process of conducting a market analysis can be divided into three parts:

Part 1 - Understanding Market Conditions

This gives you basic information about your entire market -- the size, the competition, the customers.

Part 2 - Identifying Market Opportunities

This gives you more targeted information about potential problems or opportunities in the potential market, and includes information about growth, current and future trends, outside factors and more information about specific competitors.

Part 3 - Developing Market-Driven Strategies

Here is where we get into what market research does for you. It helps you to pinpoint opportunities to grow your business. By understanding the market and knowing what opportunities are available you can create a marketing strategy that leaves your competitors in the dust!

Here are 10 questions that can help you get started:

1. What is the market I want to reach?
- Who are they? (Basic Demographics)
- What is their biggest problem in relation to this market?
- Are their needs being met by the products or services provided in this market?
2. Who is my competition in this market?
- Are they successful in this market?
- Are they marketing a similar product or service?
- What is the market share of the three biggest competitors in this market?
3. Is there room for growth in this market?
4. What is the size of this market?
- Is there room for growth?
- Is the industry growing? Stable? Saturated? Volatile? Declining?
5. How is my product or service different from the competition?
6. How can I reach this market?
- How is my competition currently reaching this market?
- Is it the most effective way?
- What are the alternative ways of reaching this market?
7. What are the business models of my competition in this market?
- Are they effective?
- Is there a way to do it differently or better?
8. What do customers expect from this type of product or service?
- What are the core competencies of this product or service?
- What would make the product "new" "different" or "better" for the customer?
9. How much are customers willing to pay for this product or service?
10. What is our competitive advantage in this market?

Knowing the answers to these questions will not only help you figure out if there is a need for your product or service, it will help you figure out the best ways to reach your customers, price your products or service and ultimately make more sales!

Happy Clients Are The Enemy

Clients who are happy with what they have are your worst enemy.

Happy clients don't complain. Happy clients aren't looking for new solutions. And, happy clients will not spend their money on something they don't need.

'But client satisfaction is the foundation of my business,' you exclaim.

So true! Your client's complete satisfaction should be your ultimate goal. Here is the key question: If a client is satisfied with your product today, will your product meet their changing needs tomorrow?

Change is the only constant in the business universe. Your client's needs change every day and your challenge is to identify those needs that are causing dissatisfaction in their life. Finding and solving these elusive needs will lead to more sales for your business.

Ask yourself, are you searching for new areas of client dissatisfaction for your product or service to solve? Are you focusing your marketing on their needs and desires? Are you positioning yourself as a solution to their problems?

Clients and prospects are always looking to improve their personal condition as they travel through life. It's a natural quality of the human condition. What they currently possess may satisfy them today but that is sure to change. Within this change resides opportunities for you.

Your growth and prosperity will come from the unsatisfied and the needy. These are the people who may or may not know they need a solution. It is your job to uncover their hidden needs and supply the solution.

So you ask, 'If they are satisfied now, I need to create a new dissatisfaction?'

No, you are not necessarily creating the dissatisfaction but uncovering it for them to see. When you think about it, we all live in a state of ignorance throughout our daily lives. We don't realize that we need what we don't have. Simply put, you cannot satisfy a need until you know that you have one in the first place.

For example, not too long ago there was a time when computers did not exist. We were unaware of the influence and benefits that these machines would have on our daily lives. Yet we survived without them in blissful ignorance as we plodded through the workday. Today, you can't run a business without a computer on your desk!

The computer industry uncovered a whole host of reasons that we were dissatisfied: streamlining document processing, efficiently transferring data, communicating instantaneously anywhere in the world, and having vast amounts of information available at the click of a mouse. Indeed, these needs always existed somewhat, but the marketplace didn't know it needed the productivity a computer offered.

The catalyst to discovering these unknown needs are imagination and innovation. You must find the dissatisfaction and creatively communicate your solution to the client. Until you make this discovery, happy clients are not interested in purchasing more from you. Your goal must be to find an offering that fills a need, solves a problem, or improves their condition.

Creating the products and services that put an end to their current dissatisfactions is the best way to insure continued business growth.

Become a leader and innovator within your industry. With this strategy you will position your business as a valuable resource that is trusted and looked on as the best choice in the market. This makes sales much easier, decreases your enemies, and greatly increases your success.

Positioning - Gives YOU The Marketing Edge

Positioning is the best plan that any business can implement.

Positioning is putting yourself in the right place in the eyes of your market. You get your market to know you as an expert that can be trusted. You get looked on as a reliable resource for information.

Positioning is easy to do. Just give free information of interest to your market. Your market is the people who would be likely to buy the services or products you offer.

Let's say your market is people who like to fish. What they buy are reels, poles, lure...things they need to fish with. You could tell them the Best Ways To Fish For Salmon, Bass, Trout...The Fine Art Of Fly-Tying...How To Cast For The Best Catch...How To Find The Best Fishing Spots...Cleaning And Cooking Fish In A Snap.

If you sell reels, poles, lure, etc. - then such reports will attract readership from your target market - the people most likely to buy from you.

Chances are if those readers found something useful in your report, then they would be interested in reading more. Give it to them - have them sign up on your list.

That is how positioning works, and the reward is great. Having a list built up of targeted, loyal, and responsive prospects is the very best thing a business can have.

Not only can you tell them how to catch more fish with the least possible effort, but also how your products can help them to do it even more so. Since you are an expert, it's only natural that you would have the greatest tools and tackle.

There is a special thing about having a list, so treat it special. Consider it for what it will be - the marketing life-blood of your business.

Most businesses, if they keep lists, just have lists of customers who bought from them, and yet do not even send them as much as a Thank You Note or Christmas Card.

The people on your list will have a more connected relationship with you. You are not just a seller to them, and they are not just a customer to you. They will look forward to contact from an expert giving out the latest fishing tips and you will be ready for any questions they might bring you. Your answer will most likely be of interest with your whole list, so share it with all of them.

The more you can make the people feel privileged to be on your list the better. You can give your list exclusive deals, free offers, deep discounts, holiday specials, even the chance to sign-up for a paid subscription service where they get the meanest down and dirty underground secrets of fishing success where the fish don't stand a chance in Neptune.

This works for any marketing niche you happen to be in, not just fish. Positioning is the very best way to 'fish' for prospects in your market. Lure them with the knowledge and service you provide, and soon you have your own stocked pond full of hungry fish that you can catch over and over again.

It pays to know as much about your market as you can. Communicate with your market about the ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages, progress and problems associated with it. Do what they do, read what they read, know their likes and dislikes, search and study resources.

Above all, look for answers and innovations. Then find a way to use them in your marketing and advertising. People will always be interested in new and better things and are drawn to those who have them.

This will not only help in positioning yourself as an expert, but also in finding ways to position your products or service as having unique benefits. You do this by finding unsolved needs and thinking up solutions. Being the first at something also affirms you as an expert par excellence.

If you do these things, you and your business will be positioned. You will have the MARKETING EDGE.

How To Write Ads That Pull In The Money

Before writing the sales copy for your next product, you will have to write a series of ads for the promotion of that product. For example, you might want to promote a new information guide for people who just purchased the Windows Vista software. Here are the main points to consider when you sit down to write ads for your new campaign:

Product Selling Points

1. Write a list of 5 product benefits.

2. Explain in your own words the advantage of owning the product.

3. Write down why your product is different or better than your competition's product.

4. Write down what need your product will satisfy for the user.

5. List your call to action. Describe exactly why the customer should buy your product now.

Putting It All Together

The reason for listing the answers to numbers 1-4 above is to establish a Unique Selling Position (USP). The USP is the basis for the body of your ad and will determine if you capture the interest of your prospects. Think of your product's USP as what makes it different and better than your competitor's product.

Point number 5 is your call to action. This is the line of your ad that will get people to take action and investigate further. This line should clearly tell your prospect what you want them to do next. You will get a higher response rate on your ads if you do this in every ad.

Use This Formula To Write A Good Selling Ad

1. Grab their attention with a hot headline!

2. Keep their interest with a line or two about your USP.

If you are using a short ad format, like Google Adwords, you are limited to a headline and 2 lines of ad description. In a standard ezine ad, you will have more room to make a longer ad. A good rule of thumb is to keep the advertisement simple in nature no matter how much room is allowed for your ad. The eyes of the people on the Internet scan an ad in mere seconds. You never want to clutter the space in your ad with unnecessary words.

3. Build the prospect's desire to know more about your product. Use one line to tell them why they should own the product. Use one of campaign points 2, 3, or 4 mentioned in the Product Selling Points.

4. On the last line of the ad use a strong call to action.

This formula is taught in business colleges as the AIDA method of ad writing. To sum up the parts of the AIDA formula, you first you get the prospect's Attention with a good headline, then develop their Interest in the product, next you give them a reason to Desire the product and then ask them to take a specific Action that leads to the sale.

With practice you can write advertisements that lead to a very high response rate. This will help stretch your advertising budget and increase your ROI. With this simple system in your hands you can now create ads that will bring you the most business for the least cost.

3 Strategies For Increasing Profits

It's a simple yet common question, "How can I make my business more successful?"

Success can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people but when it comes down to it, the success of your business should only be measured by one thing - profit.

At the end of the day, it's not how many people came in to your store or phoned in. It's not even how many widgets you sold. At the end of the day, what truly matters is how much of a profit you made.

It would make sense then that your efforts focus on profit as the end result. With that in mind, there are only three strategies to increase profits for your business.

1) Increase the dollar size of each order
2) Increase the number of times people buy from you
3) Increase the number of people who buy from you

Most likely, your business is already primed to attack each of these three angles and implementing that attack should be fairly easy.

Let's say that you are the owner of Happy Wicks Candle Store. Let your customers know that for every $50 they spend they will receive a free 4-inch candle. When they are eligible for the free candle, offer them the option of upgrading the 4-inch candle to a 6-inch candle for only four dollars.

Implement a customer loyalty program. Whenever a customer spends $200 with your store they receive a 20% discount on their next order. Show loyalty to your customers, too. Create customer-only events and sales, even workshops on how to make candles at home.

Candles are also popular gifts. Be sure to place your contact info on each and every candle. This makes it easy for the gift recipient to purchase from you. Be sure to also use this tactic when co-promoting with similar businesses such as a flower and bath and body shop.

Looking at the example Happy Wicks Candle Store, the tasks of increasing profits was not a difficult one. Truly, it's a matter of putting systems in place that generate increasing profits.

Take a look at your business and examine the systems you have in place. Chances are there's undiscovered profits lying about. Put systems in place to gather those profits and you'll find your business reaching new heights of success.

Five Ways to Make Your Advertising Work Harder

One of the sharpest minds in the direct response marketing business is fond of advising potential advertisers that creativity is not a positive virtue for an advertising copywriter. Whether it is a print, on-line or broadcast ad, the worst response experts say people should give is to think an ad was exceptionally creative. Instead, the person should respond by wanting to buy the product.

Here are five ideas advertising writers may use to help make their ad copy more effective.

1. Proof. Let people know how good your product or service is by offering proof that it stacks up better than its competition, or that it has met or exceeded certain tests or specifications. When stating numbers, such as how much faster one medicine works when compared with another, round numbers are less effective. Therefore, try to use uneven numbers like 23.7% rather than round numbers like 25% and your message will be more believable.

2. Identification. Do not be afraid to let people know who you are, where you are located and what you think and feel. Rather than appearing to hide behind a post office box number, tell people that your office is located at 1234 Elm Street in the red brick Smith Building, which was constructed in 1916. This not only makes you seem more interesting, but also more believable and trustworthy.

3. Guarantee. People will always be more willing to buy from you if they trust you will refund their purchase price if they are not satisfied. Yes, you may have to incur some expenses paying for refunds, but your increased sales will more than make up the difference.


4. Accessibility. Similar to identification, it always is best to be easy to reach, so do not omit your contact information from your ads, especially ads in print and on-line messages. Whether it is your phone number, Internet URL, email address or all three, make sure they are correct and working properly before you publish the ad. For example, if you are publishing a toll-free number that only works from the USA, if you also include your regular telephone number with area code, potential customers from other countries may also buy from you.

5. One more thing. Every sales letter should have a PS following the signature. This part of the letter will most likely be read more closely than some other parts, so utilize it to reinforce your most important point, or offer an extra bonus to motivate the reader to act immediately.

By making sure your advertising message has met the above five criteria, you will ensure the next ad you write will help make your cash register ring even more loudly.