On Tuesday, I taught a class on how to market your Toastmasters club. Basically, I was sharing my general online marketing knowledge as it applied to attracting new and retaining current members for a club. What I shared, however, can work regardless of what you happen to be marketing.

But the interesting thing is this: there were several question asked that boiled down to the same answer. And that answer is, you need to know who you are talking to. In the case of a Toastmasters’ club, you need to know who your ideal member is. Who would be the best fit for your club’s personality?

When marketing a book, authors need to know who their ideal readers are. Who would be the best fit for the book? Who would be most likely to pick it up at a bookstore and buy it? Who would be most likely to be searching on Amazon for it?

When marketing your business, you need to know who your ideal clients are. Who would best fit what you have to offer? Who would be most likely to have the combination of need and want, and therefore be most likely to not only open their wallet and buy from you … but to actually benefit from what you have to offer?

Your target audience needs to be specific. It needs to easy to define and to describe. “Everyone” is not a target market. And, neither are “entrepreneurs” or “business owners” or “swimmers.” You need to more precise than that … or your marketing will be ineffective and you won’t get the results you’re looking for.

I’m not the only person preaching the “get your target market down” message. In fact, next year, I’m partnering with another marketing expert to offer a webinar on honing your target market … so stay tuned for more info. Also, no sooner had I written the first draft of the post when I found this article called “9 Reasons Why Running a Popular Blog is Like Hosting an Awesome Party.” The first reason focuses on target market!

Earlier this week, I came upon SlideShare’s Zeitgeist for 2013, and I think it has some information that can help you not only narrow your niche, but communicate more effectively with them, as well.

For one, they’ve found that presentations have not only gotten shorter … but much more visual. This is just another piece of information that emphasizes the importance of visual communication. If you are not using images and video in your marketing, you are leaving money on the table. Period.

An interesting aside: As you can see from the picture above, I was following their advice regarding slides … before I ever read the article. My slide deck had no words beyond the title. Each slide was pretty much one big image.

On top of that, you need to be able to communicate your message via mobile devices … especially smart phones.

You can find the full article here and, when you have a moment, peruse the slide show that shares the zeitgeist findings in more detail. I’m sure you’ll find some golden nugget in there that will help you communicate your message more effectively as you head in to the new year.