By Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage

I hope that everyone gained something from last week’s fishing lesson. It was all about focusing on online marketing along with a few other tips from virtual assistant Jackie Nees. It’s the perfect segue into this weeks lesson. A mistake that many new virtual assistants and other small business owners make is fishing for clients in a market the size of the ocean.

I’m going to use the virtual assistance field as an example in this post, but if you own some other type of small business, you can easily apply it to your field as well. When a VA first starts thinking about marketing, they may immediately think , GREAT! every business person out there needs administrative assistance. So they define their target market as other businesses. A nice big target market. Huge. Limitless. An ocean of possibilities. They get excited thinking that with all of those potential clients, they’ll be turning clients away in no time. It most generally gives way to discouragement and disappointment as months go by without that first big fish taking the bait. The problem with fishing in the ocean is two-fold.

Number one, the ‘fish’ are spread out over a vast area with tons of other ‘fishermen’ casting their lines as well. The chances of that client being in the exact right spot at the right time to need your services are slim. With so much bait dangling out there, its more likely they’ll never even notice yours. The second problem with ocean fishing is this. Let’s say your perfect fish is a trout. Trout are freshwater fish, you’re never going to find them in the ocean. See where I’m going with this fishing analogy?

As a VA or small business owner, the FIRST marketing step you need to make is to narrow your market. Think about who your ideal client would be. Be precise. Don’t just think, my target market is overwhelmed small business owners. That’s still too large. Keep narrowing. The narrower you make your target market, the more precise your description of your perfect client, the better. Let’s say your perfect target market is : Home office moms who are having a difficult time balancing parenthood and work life, need assistance with calendaring, customer contact and online marketing in order to free up time to be room mom, PTA chair and present at their children’s activities. You could even narrow it a bit further if you’d like by adding a location, what industry their home business is in , etc. But you get the idea. Visualize your perfect client, right down to imagining how they spend their day and what their biggest frustrations may be. The more specific you get, the better.

I can sense your panic already. That’s too narrow!! Stop thinking that way. Go back to the fishing analogy. Sure, there may be fewer fish in that small pond that your casting into, but they are concentrated in a smaller area, there are fewer fishermen and the majority of the fish in the pond are trout. You can use bait known to attract trout in particular. See what I’m saying? Although you’ve made your market smaller, you can speak to specific individuals in your marketing materials. You can address needs that are specific to that demographic. You can find online forums and groups made up of just your target market to hang out in.  All of which gives you a higher probability of actually signing the perfect client. Even though it seems like focusing on fewer potential clients would give you less of a chance, it actually does the opposite, raising the probability of you connecting with that perfect client, just when they are in need of exactly what you’re offering.

If you’re throwing your marketing line into an ocean of possibilities, maybe it’s time you find a new, smaller fishing hole.

Next weeks Fishing Lesson #3: Becoming an “Expert” Angler . I’m still hoping more of our readers will send in marketing tips that have worked for them. If you share your ‘fishing tip’ with me at tmariehilton@clericaladvantage.net, I’ll include your name, tip and link to your site.