Post date: Dec 07, 2010 11:7:43 AM
While it's important to check that people are interested inyour product or service, it's even more important to makesure they are ready to buy it.How much money you can make in any market depends on manyfactors ranging from the quality of your offer to theeffectiveness of your marketing.But you want to put yourself in the strongest positionpossible so you should conduct some research to test thewillingness of the market to pay.Here are some of the ways you can do that:1. Ask your customers: Find out if people who are buyingfrom you already would be interested the price level you arelooking for.2. Use your own experience: Have your own customers
demonstrated that they are willing to buy these products and
services? Are they already purchasing this from another
source? Have many people talked to you about how much they
need what you offer?
3. Look at what the competition are selling: Are there other
people offering products and services similar to yours at
similar prices?
4. Check for other evidence of interest in the issue: Visit
amazon.com and magazines.com and look for several books and
magazines related to the topic. Notice whether there are
many online forums or blogs or social networking sites on
the subject?
5. Tap into all you can learn from a Google search: Google
gives you a lot more than just simple search results. This
is some of the information you can get from a Google search:
- How many searches are done on the topic: this gives an
indication of how much interest there is
- How much advertising runs on search pages: this shows that
people are spending money
- How much competition there is: this indicates the health
of the market
The secret of getting the best information possible from a
Google search is in knowing the most appropriate 'keywords'
to use in your search.
Start by brainstorming relevant keywords that people might
use when doing a search on your topic of interest.
Think about what problems they are trying to solve, what
brand names they would use and what other products or
services they would look for in this area.
Brainstorm as many approaches to the words as you can.
The more specific you can be with your keywords the better.
The term 'keyword' can encompass a phrase as well as a
single word.
Google provides a great tool for finding keywords. It can be
found at:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Here's what to look out for as you search with each keyword:
Notice how many searches are being done on the topic; look
for total monthly search numbers in the thousands for your
keyword choices. But remember that people who search won't
always be buyers.
Look for the paid-for advertising along the top or down the
right of the page when you do a search. If there are several
advertisers, this implies strong demand.
Check out the sites that appear in your results and discover
what people are already buying in this market.
If you can't find evidence that a market already exists
willing to pay the prices you want, consider carefully
whether you need to make changes to your plans.
But if you get clear and positive answers from these
questions, you have a good chance of making money.
About the Author:
Robert Greenshields helps consultants, coaches and other
independent professionals attract more clients and make more
profit by packaging and promoting their expertise as a
high-value product. Download his free Productize Your
Expertise report at http://www.mindpowermarketing.com