More and more small business owners are feeling the lure of the internet to promote and sell their products and services. In fact these days, the Internet is often the first place budding entrepreneurs set up their fledgling businesses. Why ? Because it is relatively cheap… cheap to setup and cheap to market.
The great thing about the internet is that it is usually very cheap to reach your target market. The problem is, that it is also cheap for everyone else as well.
So how does a small business hope to compete online, when there are some many other businesses – small, large and very large – already competing for their customers. The answer is remarkably simple – Focus !
How do you sell plasma televisions if everyone sells them? How do you attract searchers for that broad a term? If you need to appear on the first page of search results to get sales, how do you do that as a small business?
The small businesses that are succeeding online are marketing very targeted offerings—extremely specialised products and services. That way, they take advantage of the “Long Tail”
the customer with what they do best.
But it means that you must specialise, you must focus on a niche. What is unique about your products? Or your business? Or the way you sell them? What is it that makes you better than everyone else for a certain specific target segment? When you answer that question, you’ll know how to market yourself on the Web. You’ll know what that segment is looking for and you’ll know how to attract them with the right message.
A small business must specialise to succeed on the Web. What’s your specialty?