MaineBusiness.com

Find Your Customers Online

If I told you that you could listen unobtrusively to your best prospects talk about their biggest problems, hurdles and concerns would you be interested?

That at any time you could join the conversation and offer helpful advice, establishing yourself as an expert in the eyes of your target audience.

That by providing this help you could also increase the number of incoming links to your Web site and help raise your search engine rank.

It's all possible. Your best prospects are sharing their concerns with each other all over the Web in discussion forums, also known as bulletin board systems (BBS).

The first step is find these discussion groups. A quick Google on your target audience + BBS or discussion forum should bring up a list of these sites. For example, are you targeting dog owners? Parents of twins or multiples? Entrepreneurs? All these groups and more are talking online.

The second step is to listen. Coming on too strong or having a marketing message that's too overt can alienate the very people you want to start talking to. Read over previous posts and see what the tone of the conversation is.

The third step is to respond accordingly. After you've been trolling for a while you may read some questions or requests for help where you can be of help. You'll come off as especially helpful if your answer isn't "buy my stuff and that will clear right up." However, if you give them a helpful answer and then provide a link (maybe even to your own Web site) for additional information, you'll start to prove yourself as a resource and perhaps even an expert.

In your posts you'll usually be able to include a signature file with a link back to your Web site, and perhaps even with a call to action. Some discussion forums don't let you link to your site, but you can still include a non-clickable URL (Web site address).

For example, when I've read the posts of small business owners who I work with, my posts end:

Rich Brooks
flyte new media
Web design and Internet Marketing
http://www.flyte.biz
http://www.flyteblog.com

If I've provided good info, people who read my post are likely to click through to my Web site or blog to see what else I might have to say.

So, spend a few minutes this weekend and check out what your prospects are talking about. You might get some great ideas for your next product or service as well.

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