Targeted networking is a lot like targeted marketing. I often counsel clients that the reason their marketing is unsuccessful or has a very low return on investment (ROI) is because they aren’t going after their target market.

They often just throw money at whatever all their competitors are doing. This can work when the economy is booming and it really doesn’t matter what kind of marketing you’re doing, because enough people will notice to pay the bills.

But in times like these, you need to do what Online Marketers do. Especially the search engine optimization (SEO) people.

When we look at search engine optimizing a website, the first thing we do is try to figure out exactly what words people are typing into Google, MSN or Yahoo to find our client’s service or product. Not to find their firm, but to find their service or product.

To do that, we need to really know who their target market is.

The same thing applies to small business networking. When I first opened my business, I joined a bunch of “networking groups” like BNI. But what I found was that my only referrals were coming from a small, easily definable group of businesses. Namely, other businesses that were in the same general field I was.

Marketing firms, web design firms, website hosting firms, etc. And not just any and all firms in these areas. Specifically, it was the ones that were hustling and really selling and trying to grow their business by offering my services as an added service to their clients.

What this taught me was that I should be concentrating my time and effort into establishing relationships with these firms and then defining these firm’s characteristics so I could go after other firms that exhibited the same characteristics.

Small business owners simply don’t have the time to spend at random networking groups. They need to spend that time defining who their marketing partners really are and then go after that market like a laser beam.

Figure out where your potential partners hang out, where they go, what they do, what do they like, and what are they looking for. Then concentrate your time and money in those areas. Get to know them and establish relationships. Offer to help them or work with them.

That’s when your return on investment for small business networking with really pay off.

Originally posted 2009-02-19 14:47:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• ROBO — Research Online Buy Offline study by Yahoo ROBO — Research Online Buy Offline is a term coined by Yahoo. They just completed...
• Your Links Page can be a Big Boost to Online Sales Most business people don’t understand the real difference between advertising and a website. All you...
• Why Focus Groups Fail for Test Marketing I just read something about using focus groups to test products for the market that made...

• Benefits Of Internet Marketing – Search Engine Optimization Because the internet has became a staple in the daily...
• Frequency & Monetary Analysis For Subscription Based Services Frequency (F) and Monetary (M) analysis, form together with Recency...
• Frequency & Monetary Analysis For Subscription Based Services Frequency (F) and Monetary (M) analysis, form together with Recency...

Related posts:

1. Improving Your 60 Second Commercial for Networking Groups A lot of business people now belong to networking...
2. Small Business Can’t Afford Exploratory Marketing Research Exploratory marketing research is often used by large companies...
3. Improving Your 60 Second Commercial for Networking Groups – Part Deux Okay. You’ve visited the voice coach, studied some great...
4. Social Media Marketing For Business Social media marketing for business seems to most of...