Have You Done A Marketing Study?

By Claude Pelanne

Before you decide to begin your marketing campaign you need to choose a product or service. Once you have done that you should begin to define who your customer is and then do more research on the customer profile.

Elements that go into your customer profile are age, sex, economic status, ethnic background; in other words, descriptors that can influence the decision to buy.

Next, you want to find out what need your product or service will satisfy. For that, you want to get an idea of a problem or situation that will drive demand. Does your customer profile make a good target for what you will be offering as an affiliate marketer?

You also need to research the size of your market and what segments of that market are more apt to demand what you have to offer. There could be a revenue stream designed for each clearly defined segment of your target population.

Your research should also look into market size and growth over the near and long term. Is demand going to increase or decrease? If it is going to change over time; how can you best position yourself for future growth?

What system can you develop to get constant feedback in order to stay on top of the changes in demand?

You will also have to get a good idea of the competitive landscape to see who your competition is and how they are serving your target population. For this you will want to do Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat Analysis (or SWOT for short) in order to increase your chances of positioning yourself for greater success. You need to develop a very strong understanding of where your competition is coming from to position your product or service in the marketplace.

If you take the time to follow these steps, you will be better prepared to have your affiliate marketing campaign deliver results and drive your business forward.

Good luck and may your travels be prosperous.

About the author:

Over the past 20 years Claude Pelanne has worked in a series of startup ventures including some of the first commercial webcasts. He is an internet marketer and serial entrepreneur.