What audience is he playing to?

Would you have shown up at CBGB for a show?

Are your marketing materials diverse enough for the group you are trying to target?  We will get back to that…now to the music part of my post!

I started off my morning drive to work jamming out to the Ramones and ended it with Robbie Robertson.  Diverse, huh? I bet both, the Ramones and Robbie Robertson, marketed themselves in very different ways and to different audiences.  Different genres all together, but ultimately selling the same product.  What are you trying to sell and who is your customer?

In my short little commute, I thought about how lucky I was to have been born in the late 1970’s and all of the music trends I got to experience because of this.  I would like to claim to have been a child of the 70’s, but I was a little too late for that.   Luckily, I had musically inclined parents who exposed me to the music of the 60’s and 70’s, which in my opinion are two of the greatest decades ever for music.  I was a child of the 80’s…New Wave, then Grunge in the 1990’s. I still love Grunge to this day, and claim it as my own.  I am a child of angst, flannel shirts and Doc Martens.  But what were we so angry about?  The 1980’s and 1990’s were pretty great decades for this country.  But I sure enjoyed being disdainful and angry, right along with everyone else who ascribed to the Grunge persona in the 90’s.  I am not quite sure what musical period experts would say we are in now, but I would call it the stagnant period.  But I will leave those musings for another post…I am supposed to be talking about printing!

It is often hard to figure out who your audience is; who do I need to be marketing to?  Who is my target market?  Are my product offerings varied enough to attract more than a just a niche group?  Am I offering a service or trying to sell a product, or is it a little of both.  These questions are sometimes the hardest to wrap your brain around.  For instance, I would say that I am selling a product but I would also like to think that I am offering a service to my customers.  My product would be printed materials and my service would be helping you market your brand or company.  Is it better to offer many products to the masses or find one product to a smaller group?  When you start your business these are some of the decisions you need to make before launching.  None of these decisions have to be the end all and be all, as most businesses try to diversify along the way.  What is that old saying, “It’s like trying to sell ice cream to an Eskimo”?  I am sure that Eskimos like ice cream, but don’t we all tend to eat more ice cream in the summer?

What materials will I need to market my business?  Business cards, brochures, maybe even a website.  We offer all of those products at USA Printing Online.  Be on the lookout for more information regarding our website builds and marketing materials for small business entrepreneurs, or checkout our ad currently running on Facebook.

In closing, figure out what you  want to embody as a business first then go out and find those who would most benefit from your product or services.

Until next time,

Jess