We live in a world where we have millions of people at our fingertips. Many of us don’t quite realise the magnitude of that. Each and every single one of our posts has the potential to reach the entire world, from north to south, east & west. It doesn’t matter which part of the globe you are targeting there is a way to reach the exact kind of people that will benefit from knowing your business.

The mistake many businesses make is that they don’t actually know  their target audience. Yes, it’s easy to say “women, between 20-45 who work in the financial industry” (for example) but those are just shallow characteristics giving you a shallow understanding.

The secret to successful marketing & conversions is to truly understand the type of people that benefit from your product and flaunt the advantages to them, shamelessly, like Marilyn Monroe on the red-carpet. She knew her worth, she was not afraid to walk it & we all know about it. Look, I am even referencing it in a blog about marketing 80 years later…

What seems to happen is that companies are shooting blank bullets hoping to hook somebody, anybody. Instead of really and truly getting to know the people they are benefiting.

The clients you have at the moment are probably the best place to start. They are the people who find value in your services, so much so that they are investing their hard-earned Dollar (or from where we are writing, Pound) to receive the products and services you are offering.

To get to know your clients, you first have to open up to them yourself. Business is all about relationships and by sending superficial surveys or engaging in superficial telephone “monthly check-ins” will only deliver superficial responses.

Remember the olden days when you used to go to your local grocers and they knew your whole family, all that was going on & sometimes heard the news even before you did?

When I was younger, we used to go to a grocery shop which was actually quite far from our house and was more expensive than the ones we had around. However, my father had developed a relationship with the shop keeper and we chose to go to her shop, see her, catch-up and invest in her business over the business of others.

This has not disappeared just because the digital world has been introduced, our innate longing for connection and care towards those we know closely has not evaporated. What has happened is that we have new methods of connecting with people, and many more of them.

Our products offer a service and benefit to people’s lives. Through interacting & engaging with our clients, we have the opportunity to learn about them, how we are helping them and through that – strengthen our service.

Social media channels can be used to connect – we can speak to anyone, anywhere, at any time of the day. These channels are platforms to really get to know the people who utilise our services and and therefore a simple tool for exposure.

What sells is our interactions and the connections we make is what keeps people coming back.