How Identify Your Target Market - Questions To Find Your Target Audience To Make You More Money 💵

All right, I'm just going to read it. It's a little bit long, but I think the context is important because it's a well thought out question. So this is from Andrea. She reached out on LinkedIn, I believe. So she says, stefan, I'm really stuck on the research piece of the course because I'm not sure who my target audience is with respect to the copy I'm writing on LinkedIn. I'm a career coach for college students and young professionals, AKA recent graduates. My expertise is very niche. It's helping those who are confused about what they want to do when they graduate identify three potential career career options they'd be psyched to explore. I don't work on optimizing resumes. I help them get career clarity and then I give them tools like how to do informational interviews and how to use LinkedIn for job searching and networking in a super strategic way. I write about this every day on LinkedIn but clearly haven't found my audience. Where can I find these college students who are stuck and confused on Digg, Quora or Reddit? Or should I be writing to their parents who will be the ones who will be able to afford to buy the five figure course I'm currently going to be selling soon? Thanks so much.

Sweet. So yeah, it is long. So basically and Andrea is a badass. She's awesome. And she actually interviewed me for her podcast. She interviewed dude Charles and then interviewed me and we did like a two part interview last week. And she was a CNN reporter for like 15 years and has an awesome network. Super cool person, does really cool stuff. Glad to have Andre. And after she was preparing to like interview me for the blog, she bought her NBC. Cause she was like, oh shit. Like damn, it turns out that copy works. But oh Andrea, come on. She said, Andre, you're still an all panelist. You gotta do panelists and attendees. But she said, you're embarrassing me. But no, you deserve your soup. I really enjoyed our conversation a lot, Andrea. Yeah, I think for me so the idea of like with marking this, I do think you're probably trying to, you know, for research on it, I would say you were still trying to market to the parents. I mean you want to understand maybe what the students are talking about and their fears and pain points. But really like you and I talked about briefly, Andrea, during the podcast stuff I was doing with you. You're starting like a $2,000 or $3,000 for you, which is like, you know, course about basically what to do after college at $2,000. Then it's like, you know, the parents are the one that you're writing to and marketing to more so than the students. Right. Because the students can't afford it. They have to go ask their parents. But what's more likely is that the parents are going to see it and get it for their students as, like a gift, as like a, you know, like a graduation present or leading up to it. So that's. That's thought number one. And then, I mean, where are they, you know, hanging out? Like, what are they doing? Well, like, you know, there's definitely. There's so many. Like, there's got to be forums on, like, parents of, like, college students are like, like, I guess that's curious because, you know, there's so many forms on, like, admissions and college admissions and, like, getting kids into college. But, I mean, I know there's definitely parenting forums. Might be like, you know, if I even just Googled, like, you know, daughter or son, you know, graduating college, like, you know, advice for them, like, for advice for parents as, you know, and put form at the end of it. Something as simple as that. I think could probably find some interesting stuff. Like, you know, I can Google it right now. I'm kind of curious to see what I get here. Like, you know, son graduating college advice forums, parent forums. I know I'm not screen sharing, but I'm just curious. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's something like here, if I share my screen, I'll share it for a second. Yeah. Seek advice from my son graduating in 2016. There's, you know, parent Parents forum from College Confidential. So if you're looking in there, Saving for college forum. This is College Confidential as well. Another one. Oh, Attitude magazine. I did their podcast. They interviewed me. Interesting. There's ADD stuff there, but, you know, I've typed in son. When you can do same thing with, like, daughter and kid. And then, like, honestly, I'd just be messing with, like, I mean, this is one place I would start because I can hear the parents are the ones talking, not necessarily the students or the kids. So I'd be looking there. I agree. Andrea, you're still on all panelists. If you look at the little blue thing, you can switch to panelists and attendees. But you are still on panelists. But Andrea said. Exactly. There's so much focus on getting kids into college, but next to nothing about helping them once they get ready to transition to the real world. Yeah, for sure. That's really interesting. I think you have a good niche there. But yeah, I think there's still some forums I'd be going through there. Maybe Amazon. There you go. I'll pass. Attendees. Hey, Andrea. Everyone say hi to Andrea in the chat now that she did panel some attendees. Can I get Kalkulo Say hi to Andrea. Want to see it? Anybody? I'll say hi. There we go.

No.

Someone said no. Frederico's a dick. But Krista, Ben, Jose, Nielsen and Krestener all said hi. It's great. Federico when he's like a famous copywriter and he wants Andrea to interview him and she's gonna remember that he said no. Rodrigo. Yeah, Federico's not a dick. He's always making sure that I remember to stay hydrated, which I appreciate that. Amazon. I wonder about like, you know, like. I'm actually searching here. Let me pull back up. Share screen for a minute. Like I put career advice for college graduates. Mastering college to career modern guy to planning your dream job before graduation. It's kind of interesting. What's next five year plan for life after college? I mean, not a ton. I like lots of reviews getting from college to career because again, I think if you go through here and this sort of stuff, you'll probably find that a lot of people buying this or parents are like, I bought this for my son or daughter because here's, you know what I was worried about that type of stuff. I mean we can go look and see here. So much of his fellow students. But I think if you go through these, I would imagine you'll see some of the reviews that are like from parents who bought them for their kids and stuff like that. And same thing for some of these other books too. Like I bought this book for my daughter but since she was away this weekend, I read through it myself. I ended up writing three pages of bullets and notes, some things I already knew I was going to suggest her as nice to have validation. I learned new things. I would recommend this to all her friends while she finds a job because the tips are so clearly spelled out. My favorite advice beyond the very important, walk down your social media sites now. And they're very practical. Add a signature line to email. Let's follow every rainbow. So if you go through these, you'll start seeing. I think you'll see more of this stuff, Andrea, where it's like, you know, parents like, this is a career coach who read it. I mean, I think that's what I would be doing on Amazon. So hopefully that makes sense. But I think as you go through that, that should hopefully be helpful. Does that make sense? And Then excellent. Awesome. Andre, Ben and Saba, do you guys have anything that you want to add to what I've been saying?

No, I think that's solid. And for the research part, for sure, I think you got that covered. I was thinking more along the lines of who these people are just in my head and definitely, like the, you know, the super parents who try and organize everything for their kids from, you know, at every grade level, like, they're the ones who are going to respond to this type of offer the best, right? So the ones, if you can really highlight that, you know, the fact that, yeah, the helicopter parents or the super parents who are really invested in their child's, like, growth and career and are always on top of, you know, making sure that they get their applications in on time and, you know, all of that stuff, they're the ones who are going to be like, okay, this is the next step, right. They need to get this course on opening up that next level to continue controlling their kids.

And you both agree? I mean, it is important to note about how basically it really is like you're talking to the parents and not the kids as much. I mean, the kids, you can note their pain points because again, I think. Andrea, one quick note. Like, if you see the kids who are leaving reviews and dragging the forums and like, their concerns and anxieties, it's worth noting those, because you can then express those to the parent and be like, perhaps your kid said something to you like this or this. Maybe your kid feels like this. Right? And if you're seeing that those things are coming up regularly. So I think you can look at both. I look at the parents stuff first because they're the buyer. But I think you can, you know, go to, like, no, I think for your LinkedIn post. Well, I finished my thought, but then I think, so look at the parents first because they're the buyer. But then for the Amazon reviews and even the forums, you can do like, you know, college student forums about, hey, like, you know, getting a job after college and what are they saying? And you can kind of have both. But again, I think speaking to the parent for selling for LinkedIn, it depends on the point of the LinkedIn post, right? If your point is to sell the course and sell your services only.

I.

Think you're ranked to the parent. Well, you know, for selling, you're writing to the parent, but you're also, you know, trying to create content that the parent will then share with their student that they feel is valuable, they want to give to their student. If they'll share your free content, they're more likely to buy your paid content to share with their student as well. And then as far as like, you know, wanting to create, you know, and give value, I do think that there's, you know, same to be said for having posts that are also geared towards the actual students. So they also, you know, as more than get to know you and respect you and value what you have to say, then it is more likely that they will, you know, some of them will tell their parents about you and will want their, their parents help buying the course. But if you only speak to one, it's the parents. But I think for your LinkedIn content, having a mixture makes sense, you know, to do, to hit both. That's my perspective on it.

And you could. Yeah, and you could speak from a place of authority too, right? So you could come up with like, any statistics or did you know that, you know, 50% of college graduates have no idea what they want to do with their careers and kind of go into, you know, an explanation of why this happens and what people can do about it, whether it's the college student or the parents at that point, you know, just more general, sort of like bringing shedding light or creating awareness about this big problem that they're confused, you know, they've just, you know, finished. They've invested so much time, energy and probably money if they went to private school to get to college and, and then they have no idea what to do with their careers. Like, they're just, you know, they're stuck. And for the parents, the biggest fear is that they're going to be just, you know, wandering through school or not committed enough or never actually graduating. Right. Like, they lose interest and never actually graduate. So definitely talking about all of those pain points will be valuable.

Totally, totally cool. Thank you, Saba and Ben and Andrea, thanks for the question. Is so proud. Kids are graduating into the worst recession in decades.

Yeah, exactly. I would talk about the recession and talk about the economy and like, what types of companies are hiring yet college graduates are getting degrees and things that are not even going to be relevant in five to 10 years. So create all that fear. I mean, you know, in an ethical way, but definitely just be the, be the person that's creating awareness about those things I think would be your best, your best strategy.

One more interesting thing, Andrea, real quick is like, because I'm a subscriber to Wall Street Journal and I read it pretty much every day and just like, you know, the main stuff and they had like the most popular, they always have like their kind of the five most popular articles for the day. And like anytime there's stuff about like graduates, like going into the job market, like grad school rankings, like top school rankings, like. But grad school makes sense, right? Because you're talking to college graduates who maybe grad school is on their mind. Should I go to grad school or should my kid go to grad school? Should they try to become a lawyer or whatever? I actually think, I don't know if, you know, you need a subscription. I think it's $29.99 a month for Wall Street Journal if you don't have the digital subscription. But it might be worth going in there and just like looking at some keywords, like, you know, searching for like college graduates or you know, like entering the workforce or whatever. Just different keywords and then looking at those articles and then, you know, a lot of them also have, they'll have comments, right? You'll see like hundreds of comments and some of them are going to be the crappy troll comments and stuff like that. But you know, you'll probably see a lot of parents who are sharing their thoughts and that's sort of like kind of part of your market too because we're talking about, you know, if they're a reader of Wall Street Journal, you know, and they have a subscription, they're going to have a bit of a higher income and you know, they're going to be able to afford the course and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly. So I think that'd be a really cool approach for you as well. This is cool. Look at that. This is part of your RBC for 997 one time. And like we're sitting here as giving, talking strategy. I love this. So awesome. So fun.

That's crazy. I did my best to convey that in my post pitching this last week that this is typically something reserved for much more expensive programs. So the fact I was able to wrangle you and Saba and anyone else involved is pretty nifty. And then I don't have anything in regards to what they just said. It's awesome. But one thing I would think about is really everything that we just answered or your process and everything. It's the same as if you were a coach or a consultant or whatever else expert type business. So you need to have a proprietary process, you need to have branded deliverables, you need to have the same elements that would go into any sort of high ticket expert offer. So just think about that you've already, in the email to Stefan, you've written some things that I think could be branded to your own brand. Like, I'm not. I'm sure you don't own the words career clarity, but I've never heard that before. Of course, I'm not really in the space. After college I worked in a deli, so I probably could have used your service. But yeah, I think that that's something where if you focus on having a proprietary process, branded, deliverables, things that you own and you have that positioning and you come up with a name for your process, you can really own this space and make it seem really special and really attractive and charge that value. Because obviously your value proposition is really big. And whenever you're selling any sort of make money offer, which is what you're doing with a better job, selling an 80 or $100,000 a year job for 10 grand, it's like, it's a pretty good deal. So instead of working at a Dell.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I agree. Ben just said that so casually, but that was like a really good point.

Yeah, no, and if you can come up with some sort of method or process that you help these students work through, you know, if it's like a three step or five step process where you ask certain questions, they fill out questionnaires or whatever the process is, you can basically brand that. Right. So where it's like the clarity, four step process, whatever, you know, you come up with a clever name for it and then that will be your thing. Like this is the method I have all my students go through. And then obviously at the more advanced levels, if they're working one on one with me as a coach, then we work through this and expand on it. So you could use that as a lead magnet. You know, there's a lot of ways to basically brand it and create your positioning. That's what Ben was alluding to.

Yeah, totally. And then for your overachiever parents, they're likely going to be the ones selling the expensive stuff. But if you have a method, then you can break that down into a number of ways. It could be a little video course with just like slides, it could be an ebook or whatever. And that gives you the opportunity to present an offer to the marketplace that might also attract students directly. Where if you're thinking about it and you're stressed out and you've proven that you're really an expert on this, then having that lower ticket offer might attract the students. Just make sure it's not something that causes you a bunch of logistical headaches. Otherwise, it could be not worth it, you know?