Knowing Your Target Market, Bob Dylan-style

Bob Dylan sure knows his audience!

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/25/retirement/bob-dylan-free-album/index.html?source=yahoo_hosted

I saw the article referenced here by CNN Money and thought I would talk about it from the target market point of view.

At the time of this writing, Bob Dylan is 73 years old, and his target market, is in that same age range, plus or minus 20 years. That group grew up with vinyl and easily made the transition to using CDs. Many of us even re-bought most of our favorite albums in that platform.

Dylan’s “Shadows in the Night” album (his first since 2012) is a “gift” arriving by mail to a random selection of 50,000 of AARP’s 35 million subscribers.

As long as Dylan continues to tour, this is a great way to A) let his audience know he has a new album out, B) generate interest in seeing him live, and C) generate album sales to those who read articles about the giveaway and know it exists.

Why would you give away your product to your target market? Because sometimes it makes good sense. I have given free marketing plans to non-profits referred to me through different networking groups to which I belong. This has not only made me feel good, but it generates business for me from people who want to support what I do for non-profits. In the case of Dylan, he gave away 50,000 albums to people in his target market, and others in that target market now know it is time to go buy a new Dylan album. It is also safe to say that many of those 50,000 will be listening to their first Dylan album and become fans.

As a way of introducing yourself to new clients, creating content that shows off your skill set and entices potential clients to want to work with you is one of the best things you can do. We use our Small Business Breakthrough Bootcamp and dozens of free 90-minute master classes as a way of highlighting our small business private coaching programs.

The front page of your website is a great place to offer these programs. This opt-in is a better lead magnet than asking prospects to register for your newsletter. We use a variety of programs that we rotate as a way of keeping our website fresh.

Let’s take an inventory of the products and services you offer. Is there some way or product that YOU can offer to a limited section of your target market that will benefit you through publicity? If there is, make sure you do not keep it a secret. This is when public relations directed at your target market can come in handy. Need help? We can put a program together for you! We would like to offer you a Free Marketing Consultation. Most small business owners that take advantage of this conversation report back to us that this success call was worth at least $10,000 in increased sales and savings to their bottom line. Let’s begin our conversation by increasing your profits. Go now to www.FreeMarketingConsultation.com. You can also contact us at 800-705-4265.

By the way,  if I liked Dylan, I might have added the story of how we went to see Dylan play at the Fair in Lancaster and none of us in the group, even the 3 who said they were HUGE Dylan fans, understood ANY of the first 5 songs.