In my last post, The Best Marketing Medium is Personal, I discussed the importance of getting out into your community to meet your target market (desired member or clientele). Of course you first have to define who that is. If you run a T-Shirt company, your market may be any organization or business that wants a fun way to create brand awareness. If you are running a senior fitness program, you should be seeking to connect with seniors that want to improve their quality of life (and let’s face it, that’s most seniors). Once you know who you want to reach, you can start to plan ways to connect with them.

My wife, Heather and I, moved to a new town a little over a year ago. We opened a private fitness facility that offers personal training and group fitness. With fitness, our market is anyone who isn’t already on a fitness program and even some who are. So, our goal is essentially to meet as many people as we can. Get to know them. Let them get to know us. Build a relationship so that they know, like, and trust us and, when they are ready to begin a fitness program, we will be the people they go to.

For us, meeting people means getting involved in almost anything. We are probably more social than we have ever been. We go to local theater, concerts, benefits, gallery openings, belong to the local business association, volunteer for civic events. We’re out meeting people, helping people, and having a ball doing it. It’s a win/win scenario. At the same time, we also know that it helps in creating a positive feeling about us and our company.

What if your target market is seniors? Volunteer at the local senior center or another senior program. Maybe there are programs at your church that you could help with. Attend events that seniors may also attend and strike up conversations with them.

If you want to work with first responders, you could offer to volunteer at their events or offer to give a presentation on tactical fitness. You could create a challenge between the EMT/Paramedics, Police Officers, and Firefighters (i.e. fitness, weight loss, obstacle course).

No matter who your target market is, you need to find the venues that will allow you to get to know them. The quick and simple guide is:

Locate and get out among them.

Volunteer with their various organizations.

Donate prizes to organization benefit events.

Create and/or host benefit events of your own.

Build relationships with them…

and when they are looking for the services that you offer, you will be the one they come to.