Making money online starts with one thing it doesn't matter if it's Affiliate marketing,
Email marketing, Content marketing, e-commerce, or just normal sales.
You'll be sure to fail if you don't incorporate this one thing into your business.
Customer Research
One of my mentors once told me that:
"...Half the battle of making money online is to find out what your customer wants..."
It can be tempting to start building your product and campaigns right away but there's a lot of unnecessary risk that comes with that.
Customer research makes sure your services and products will be well delivered. It also filters out the people you don't want to do business with.
Think of the website visitors that take up your time, but never intend to do any business with you or the people you woudln't get along with.
You don't want to be the guy that has to put up with this for a few extra dollars.
You want to be the guy who for a select group of people is like a mind reader.
''...How did he even know I needed this kind of product?.."
"...How did he know I needed this before I even did?.."
You want to be that guy!
They trust that guy.
They'll repeatedly buy products from that guy.
The chance of becoming someone like that without knowing your audience
is absolutely zero.
The business that wins is the business that understands its clients better
than anyone else.
You can go around interviewing every client that has ever done business with but if you've never had a client this isn't ideal.
This is why I recommend building a page that only applies to your ideal target audience. So how do you this?
Become more polarizing in your communication using these 4 steps:
1. You start by getting the four most important business questions answered.
2. You create an empathy map for your ideal audience.
3. Create a customer avatar.
4. Communicate with your customer avatar in mind.
The 4 questions that will make or break your business.
To start your endeavor you need to know the answers to four questions.
1. What is the end result your ideal audience is looking for?
2. What are the roadblocks they'll encounter?
3. What can you offer to get them one step closer?
4. What's the fear that holds them back from getting it
In the end, it doesn't matter what type of business you're in.
it's all about being the bridge between where they are now and where they
want to be.
After that, it's just the process of handling their objections and voila you have a satisfied customer.
Create an empathy map
An empathy map is a tool that's used to get a better understanding of the thoughts, words
and actions of your audience.
It's a map comprised of notes about what your audience hears, sees, says, thinks, and feels.
The trick is to leave all the biases you might have out of this to create
a true profile.
Ideally, you should get someone else to also give their feedback on your empathy map so it's less subjective.
Treat everything you put on the empathy map as the thoughts of one or two people
who represent your entire audience.
Give the representative a name. Imagine him in different situations. Examples can be how he acts and thinks at his Job, a family meeting, with his friends etc.
Fill in as much as possible to get a clear view of who your representative is in the most relevant situation.
Here is an example of an empathy map format that can be used.
Just get some post-its and answer the following questions:
What does he hear?
What does he hear in his surroundings?
What does he hear the people around him say?
What does he see?
What does he see in his environment?
What kind of offers is he exposed to on the daily?
What does he think & feel?
What are his thoughts like (especially the stuff he wouldn't say out loud)?
What or who inspires him?
What does he say?
What does he talk about?
What does he say to the people surrounding him?
What are his pains?
What frustrates him?
What roadblocks are in his way?
What are his gains?
What does he want to achieve?
Building your customer avatar
After you've created the empathy map you have a collection of loose
data. This already is a huge advantage compared to the people who just wing it
hoping to succeed.
What you need now is oversight and an easy way of predicting what the representative
would do in different situations.
To do this you'll need to turn the data into a story-based profile.
Why story-based? Because people tend to remember stories easier than
random loose facts.
Go all out and try to make it as emotional as you can. Emotions are a big part
of why your audience does what it does.
Talk about their name, age, job, relationships, children, work everything.
leave nothing out.
Here's an example of a customer avatar I made a few years ago.
Ryan Oakhart is 28 years old, and has a girlfriend named Mikasa Ackermann.
Ryan till some time ago worked at delloite as an accountant.
He earned a lot.
Had a company car and a nice apartment 20 minutes from the firm.
He earns a lot, but he's never felt comfortable working there.
Ryan is an introvert and even though he's not shy he sometimes has what
he calls a people overload.
He puts on a strong face, but secretly he's mentally drained by his situation
and discouraged about the fact that he might be working there for the next
30 years.
He's been researching how to make money online for a while now.
He's saved up a lot of money and he wants to make the jump.
Some people around him are nervous since he wants to quit a job with
a lot of security, but to him, there's no other option.
He wants to get married to Michelle soon. So he doesn't want to be dabbling around
on his own and waste time. He's in search of a mentor or a proven path he can follow.
He not trying to be the next Steve Jobs, but a small business with which he can earn
$15.000/ month seems well within his capabilities.
He's very optimistic, but he knows the money he saved up will run out eventually
so there's a slightly heightened sense of urgency.
And there you have it!
Hope you got something out of this that can help you with
your online business.
Need any help or have questions about this blog just post a comment
and I'll get back to you.
Have a great day!
