The Geographic Marketing “Beach”
The other day I made post in the forum pertaining to my old job as a Oyster Picker. Yeah, yeah…enough chuckles!
Anyways, within that post I mentioned that there were 4 aspects (the beach, the shell, the meat, the pearl) to a successful oyster business, and I tied them into their extremely close relation to Internet marketing. (You can read my original post here)
Today I am going to elaborate on the beach, or the geographic marketing epicenter of a successful campaign. This is post 1 or a 4 post series…and in the following posts I make I am going to be discussing the other components of an oyster (in terms of marketing) and hopefully it will give you a very strong grasp of how to market online.
“When you look for a beach you need to really analyze all of components of that area. You need to understand the true demographics of it. Is is easy to deliver product from that area…are the winds so high they will blow away your oysters, is it an area known for “red tide” in which there are seasonal times you cannot sell your poisonous oysters.”
The same goes for geographic locations for your marketing campaigns. Geography can make all the difference between a successful campaign and one that is really struggling.
In order to sell something online, you need to be in the right market.
Have you ever been at work and so darn hungry that you just went to the cafe next door? You see, the food doesn’t even need to be the best for this company to succeed if the office staff next door is large enough. A lot of people will have the same idea as you and because of the cafes geographic location, they are positioned to succeed.
Put this same cafe down a dark alley and watch it be out of business in a month. Conversely, if you have the best food in town but are in a jurisdiction that is difficult to travel to or where people are worried about crime, you are not going to be successful.
The exact same thing happens within the online marketing world. If you have a product you are promoting to a certain geographic area and these people can’t actually BUY that product from that area (due to credit card processing restrictions), you are wasting your damn time and money on getting traffic.
Think Clickbank (CB), one of the largest affiliate networks out there. Many people don’t realize that when they are getting traffic to promote Clickbank products, that some of it is wasted traffic…by that I mean they can’t buy ANY CB products due to the country they are in.
Paypal only allows payments from certain countries as well. If you are promoting a product that only accepts Paypal payment, then you may want to look into which countries are on the “safe list”.
https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/
And what about the “rich versus poor”. If you try to promote a 1980 Ford Pinto online to people that are billionaires you are wasting your money. Same goes for putting a Maserati ad in front of people who have a lower income. You might get some “looky loo’ers”, but you would not be anywhere near a successful campaign.
My recent case study:
I recently ran a test for the “make money online” promotion of an pure “squeeze page” the other day and ran it within all Countries & Territories. My goal was to simply get people to opt-in to a mailing list…at which time I could build a relationship with them, one that was ideally strong enough that they would purchase based on my recommendations.
The results:
80% of all my traffic came from India & Nigeria
The problem:
Most of these people were willing to join a list (that is free), but next to none of them could afford to buy anything. Sure these geographic regions would be great if you had a “free system” that you wanted to attract new people to…and they were willing to work hard, however they did not have adequate funds to make this campaign profitable.
The solution:
Target only countries that fit the geographic profile that would allow them to buy your product based on the demographics.
I edited the campaigns settings so that it would only show within countries with the purchasing power that I felt necessary to sell the products that I had within my back-end sequence. The results were as anticipated, much better. The pay-per-click price actually went up slightly, but the quality of lead was much more qualified. Conversions also increased drastically from the opt-in to sale ratio.
So in conclusion, the beach you choose is VERY important. You want to seek out the following criteria through research before promoting to a certain jurisdiction:
(a) Do they have the money to buy your product?
(b) Do they need money to buy your product?
(c) Do they want your product?
(d) Do they need your product?
(e) Are they capable of making the transaction you require?
(f) Do you run the risk of fraud?
If you can accurately assess each of these items, you will be much more successful with your promotions.
That’s all for today. I will complete part 2, 3, and 4 in the coming weeks.
Take care,
Kyle
Wealthy Affiliate
Well, I think owners with an offline business are the ones with the better chances to make it online geographically speaking. The thing is that the majority of them have an average age of 40 and up. Thats where lies my efforts in to make their life easier and you are right the Internet marketing is not being developed the same in all the world, but Im doing my job on it here in beautiful México!
cheers!
KYLE,
Thanks anyway.
I read your post on Geographic marketing, i’m impressed.
I am a Nigerian, once a member of Wealthy Affiliate University . I did joined June 4th 2008- Aug.4th 2008. We Nigerians are hardworking people, we a large population, in West of Africa.
This is country where Gsm communication companies made $141billions in profits. Companies like MTN, STARCOMMS, ZAIN NOKIA, ETC.
We are only having an online payment problems that’s all. I paid through Graphcard.com, if you can remembered. We have the money to pay . Concerning Clickbank they will include us soon, b/cos the INTERNET is getting BIGGER everyday.
Thanks,
Damiebi Emmanuel
Yes, I read your Oyster pickin’ analogy lead in a few weeks back. Nice spin. I too made $$ picking oysters many years ago; and salal. Oyster picking times were always depended on the tide; sometimes out there in the wee hours, working by Coleman lanterns.
Re: I edited the campaigns settings so that it would only show within countries with the purchasing power that I felt necessary to sell the products that I had within my back-end sequence.
I assume I’ll soon be learning how to do this type of geographical restriction.
So much to learn … I’m glad the process is underway.
What is it they say – “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
So many good, and willing, teachers here in WA.
Awesome!
Hey Kyle,
Excellent post! I had to go back and read your original post because I was not here when you made it.
I really learn much more through analogies and think that your whole thought process is awesome!
It definitely makes me think about finding my beach and shucking my oysters! Thanks!
Great post.
From experience on my niche campaigns, i’ve found that just targeting the country I’m from, can lead to GREAT results on broad keywords because in my copy I make sure the visitors know that I’m ”one of them”, and this makes them more inclined to see what I’ve got
What you have just said is right but there may be people who really want to work to work but do not have the initial payment.
Now your “Oyster” illustration is starting to make sense. Isn’t it a shame India and Nigeria isn’t a little better off. Anxiously waiting for part 2. My very first job was “picking sticks” not as adventurous as yours and a whole lot more boring!
Love this post! Even if you don’t know for sure where your traffic will come from, you CAN know who your probable buyers are — and reach them with the right keyword phrases, being in all the media where they regularly surf, and speaking their language.
If you are getting too many of the “wrong” visitors, it’s time to examine what aspects of your campaign to change. That can be a disappointing experience in the beginning, but pain is valuable if you use it to course-correct and get yourself and your products where they will attract who you really want: eager buyers who need what you have and are looking for it
Nancy
Joined WA a couple of days ago and all i do now is read and come up with a strategie to reach my goal.
this explanantion and all your other blogs and tutorials are realy helpfull.
i lke the way you make things that are complicated to a new guy like me, much more easyer to understand.
just got 1 step closer to my goal !
thanks,
eddie
good information on geographic marketing strategies Kyle!
Interesting Kyle, and an eye opener thank you.
As the late Gary Halbert said many years ago:
The essential thing you need to run a successful hamburger stall is a hungry crowd.
Spot on Kyle! You hit the nail on the head.It makes no sense promoting a product to people who are interested but are not willing to buy. I learned this the hard way. It saves you time that you could spend improving your campaigns on potential buyers.
Thanks a lot
This is a great way of explaining it Kyle, it kind of reminds me of the saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink it”. Looking forward to part 2.