How do I reach my market?

[bbm]

Hello all,

This is my first post, and being a internet business newbie, I have a question for you all.

I have designed a web business which has now gone live. Unfortunately I think I have missed the plot a bit when it comes to getting to my market...

My business idea is to provide a lettings service to people who commute, where they would be able to rent a room for the working week. This has the benefit to the lodger of being cheaper than a full 7 days, or B&B etc. For the landlord, they get their home to themselves for the weekend.

However heres my problem. How do I reach the people who would use this service?

1. There are two groups - those who are landlords, and those who are tenants
2. "Room to rent" keyword SEO is highly competitive
3. People are not going to be looking for this service since they probably wont know it exists.

Im a bit stumped!

Thanks,
BBM

[MichaelWall]

You could start of by doing some keyword research.

Go to Google https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and get some keyword ideas. E.g type in 'room to rent' or something related to your business, make sure use synonyms is ticked and click submit.

This will throw up related terms and give you an indication of the competitiveness of those terms and the search frequency. You could use Adwords if you'd like to find out exactly how many times these terms are searched for.

If the main 2 or 3 keyword is too competitive (after you've done competitor research) trying going to more specific keyphrases. You might want to include relevant regions or cities.

Digg around the internet for forums, niche directories that are relevant to your service and the target market that you are trying to attract.

[Brian Turner]

In all honesty, this sounds like the sort of approach you need to tackle offline first - do some offline marketing, leaflet drops, targeted advertising, etc - because you are talking about something people may not be easily looking for online.

Sure, set up a website to introduce the concept, but something about this says "local marketing" to me.

2c.

[bigslickdb]

Yeah i would have to agree with the above point. You need to focus on establishing some form of brand. As you said no one will know about your service and you probably will get lost in amongst the sea of competition online. You could try posting on several forum linking to a landing page that displays your service. Or perhaps use online community sites as an advertising medium if they have business groups based in the area you are operating. Basically you need to do a bit of research into the markets and go from there.

[bbm]

Thanks for the response guys.

Re: posting on forums. Is this netiqute, or would it be considered spam. The service is free at the moment and I expect this to be the case for a long time, perhaps even permanently, so maybe thats a redeeming factor.

Does anyone know how much it would cost for a leaflet drop in an area? Sorry to be vague, maybe 5000 or so leaflets in a London borough?

Thanks,
BBM.

[lin robinson]

I would hit craigslist immediately, in the areas you're working.

But also spend some time figuring out, since they aren't looking for your service...what ARE they looking for?

What is the problem they are trying to solve, that you could offer a solution to, and how would they put it into a search engine.

Maybe they are out there looking for "executive suites" or "business hotel" or something you think you might be able to compete with.

[MrCat]

Build targeted backlinks on site that are similar in niche. This will eventually help in the SEO process.

A good marketing mix will be feasible as well - adwords, site-wide links, banner ads, and other paid ways would help target your audience.

[Webtistic]

In very basic terms, with Adwords, make sure you set-up different Adgroups for landlords and tenants and for tenants add an additional one call it, say 'Location-Specific'.

Then on this Adgroup, use Googles 'keyword insert' option when writing the ad copy which will allow you to display the location the searcher has typed into the Google and use location-based keyphrases. Make sure you use the exact phrase option for this to start with.

So, for example, if somebody is looking for 'room to rent in Manchester', using keyword insert will display their exact search term into your ad copy and you can't get more relevant than that! This will give you a high CTR and will subsequently reduce your click costs over time.

Again, this is a very simplistic example and there are loads more things you can do to optimise further, but it gives you an idea...

[Profitxchange]

Talk to your local free newspaper- they are usually very helpful. One can be selective in where they distribute. But make sure your message sits with both your audiences people with spare rooms and people that need them. Try mailing companies that send out technicians etc

Good luck - nice idea.