This article overlaps a little with our earlier article about finding a suitable topic to use for marketing your online information products. This time, though, well go into how to go about marketing to a specific group of people.

First, though, why do people buy information online? Why would someone shell out their hard-earned dollars for your product? When you start your advertising campaign, youve got to think about that. This brings up the question: Why do people buy any kind of information, or for that matter, why do they buy anything at all? Think about that for a few minutes before continuing to the next paragraph.

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Got it? Have you figured out what makes people buy stuff? The answer, in its most basic form, is that people buy stuff in order to solve a problem. Their problem can be real or merely perceived to be real. It doesnt really matter from the point of view of the seller. People will be interested in your information only if you can solve a problem for them or provide some unique or new information that they would like to have.

When you figure out what problem it is youre going to solve, you can then sell your solution to your target audience. You must be creative and open to seeing solutions. Evaluate if theyre willing to pay for info. Maybe your info is available for free, but the problem is that its scattered all over the Internet and not available in any one concise location. People will pay for the convenience of not having to assemble all of the info themselves, because it saves them time, even if the free info is available elsewhere.

A great example of this kind of info repackaging can be found in the Linux movement. Linux is a Unix-based PC operating system that many people are using instead of Microsoft Windows. Linux was developed by a multitude of programmers all sharing their efforts with each other online. Their sources are completely open to the public, but unless youre a serious hacker it still requires a lot of effort to successfully install and set up a Linux PC correctly. Along comes a company called Red Hat (there are others, too), that took all that free, open-source stuff and packaged it on a CD in a way that made it convenient for the general public to be able to buy and install Linux. The draw is that its way, way cheaper than buying Microsoft Windows. While most people still prefer Windows, there is still a large enough market to make Red Hats free information product profitable. (By the way, Im not in ANY way connected to Red Hat, and yes I still prefer Windows!)

Most likely you will have come up with a topic that is only of interest to a rather small group of people. Here we use the word small in a relative way. There could still be a very large number of potential customers in your target group, but compared to the entire population in general, it is a very small percentage. For example, lets say you are going to sell information on how to create a profitable jewelry-making business. You probably wouldnt want to advertise to hot-rod car building enthusiasts.

Selling to your targeted group might not be as hard as you think. You simply have to find out where they already go for information and start advertising there. How do you find them? Once again, your best bet is to start with the Internet. Find out where they hang out online. Yahoo groups would be a start. Join some forums or email lists and listen in on where they go for their info. Some forums will let you do a little bit of self-promotion as long as youre not overbearing about it. Keep in mind these people are there to learn and exchange information with each other, not to be subjected to lots of advertising. If you can provide some meaningful discussion along with your self-promotion you will gain their respect and build credibility for yourself.

If you have a quality product, this group will do your advertising for you by word of mouth. This is especially important when youre first starting out and your resources are slim and you need to build your revenue base.

Dont limit yourself to advertising exclusively online, either. There are many, many print publications that cater to increasingly smaller target audiences. These can be a great source of additional advertising for you. This type of ad will probably be more expensive than advertising online, but since many people hang onto these publications, your ad will be in front of them a lot longer than your web page will be. Since it usually takes more than one exposure to your product before someone buys, this can be a big help to you. There are other ways to ensure multiple exposures of your products to your customers, but thats a big subject for another day!

So, till next timeSuccess to you!

-Ted