5 Things to Know About Market Research

Offering your career services and products based on what you “think” your clients or potential clients may want is cutting back on the amount of business you could be doing. To start off 2016 on a strong note, below are 5 Quick Tips when it comes to market research and attracting ideal clients.

1. Determine what specific services and products you want to offer potential clients and existing clients as their career coach or resume writer. Go beyond the humdrum "I do career coaching" or "I write resumes" as a way to describe and market your service. 2. Avoid being perceived as a “generalist.” Highlight your unique qualities, industry expertise, and being able to meet specific needs of clients who work with you. In other words, don’t try to be everything to everyone. Get clear about what you enjoy doing most, how you can help your clients, and what results clients get from working with you. 3. Test your ideas and retrieve critical input by occasionally sending out a brief survey to your newsletter or special report (free taste) mailing list. If you get negative responses, view them as constructive criticism and chalk it up as a learning opportunity, which is a good thing! SurveyMonkey.com is a well-known survey tool and it's easy to use. You can ask up to 10 questions for their free service or you can upgrade your account for a fee. To motivate people to take your survey, offer them something special to make it worth their while. Everyone’s time is valuable! 4. Follow up with clients after you’ve completed a coaching or writing project and have them share their experience working with you and how your help contributed to their success. Speaking with clients after your work together is done gives you an opportunity to find out if there other services or products you can off that would help them out in the future. 5. Ask for suggestions from your social and personal networks. Talking with people in your network is a great way to brainstorm ideas. Your discussions can potentially lead you to come up with new service offerings or products that job seekers need that you didn't think about offering before because you didn't realize the need for it until talking about it with people in your network.

Truly understanding your target audience can improve how you market your services, attracting ideal clients while at the same time letting potential clients know that you do have a sincere interest in meeting their needs, know what challenges are coming up for them, and how working with you is a solution to their problem. In other words, it’s about connecting, building trust, and being top of mind with people in need of your career coaching or resume writing services.