In search of a target market.
Answer:
The key here is finding repeat business. I worked in publishing for
years, and I know that you create a much steadier revenue stream with
a newsletter than you do with a marketing brochure.
That said, I've come up with a four markets that could use complex,
interactive (read: expensive) CDs on a recurring basis. I know from
experience that it’s better to market to a small, definable group with
money to spend than to spread your efforts over a large audience, most
of which doesn’t receive your service.
The industries below share three common characteristics:
1) You can get a list of useful contacts either through a list broker
or some Web research.
2) They need the service but are likely to either not have someone
in-house to do it, or because of the recurring but infrequent nature
of the product would choose to outsource rather than hire.
3) They traditionally face pretty serious deadlines. If you can’t work
fast, you won’t get the job.
All of the markets below offer good potential targets for your
business, but, as is always the case, your ability to market yourself
is of tantamount importance. In some of these markets, you’ll be
competing against entrenched producers. Be prepared to differentiate
yourself.
1: Producers of annual reports.
All publicly traded companies in the United States have to file annual
reports with the SEC. Several thousand of them produce printed annual
report, with marketing and financial copy. Many are effusively
designed and quite colorful.
Some of these companies produce CD versions of the annual report. They
tend to be very rich in interactive features. Here you have two
potential markets, which you would probably not be able to separate.
First, you could compete for the business of companies that already do
this. Second, you could try to sell the annual report producers on the
benefits of an interactive CD. Personally, I’d go for option two,
simply because I can’t find a list of annual reports available on CD.
Many nonprofit entities, like colleges, hospitals, and museums, also
produce very detailed annual reports, some of which are already
available on CD.
To tap into this market, you sell to people with titles like Corporate
Communications Director, Public Relations Director, and Investor
Relations Director.
This will not be an easy nut to crack, but the rewards are pretty
impressive, in the form of high-dollar business that recurs every
year.
2: Real estate companies
A lot of real estate companies produce market reports. They tend to be
heavy on statistics. I don’t know of many who distribute via CD, but
it’s a market ripe for that kind of dissemination.
Companies that produce these reports usually do them either quarterly
or semiannually, so the business would definitely repeat.
To tap into this market, target directors of communications or public
relations at real estate companies.
3: Publishers
Here, you want to find companies that produce large, detailed printed
publications that require frequent updates. Possibilities include
encyclopedias, textbooks, and academic or business books sold to a
mass market but revised every year.
These jobs would be very labor-intensive. The deadlines wouldn’t be
quite as tight as they would be with the first two groups, but the
size of the potential projects would be much larger.There are two ways
to attack this market. The most lucrative is to sell yourself directly
to the individual producer of the publication. That could be
difficult, as job titles and descriptions tend to be ill-defined in
the publishing industry. Still, you’ll make more money if you contract
with Professor Bloated Prose to deliver the CD that accompanies his
textbook update every year or convince the Organic Flower Network to
let you produce their annual catalog and directory.
Probably the most high-percentage way to tap this business is to
market yourself to publishing companies and get on their list of
outsourcers. Publishers, like everyone else, are scrambling to cut
costs. Outsourcing is an increasing trend, and if you present a good
front, you may be able to cash in on it.
4: General corporate communicationsW
What I’m thinking here is something like a press kit. Plenty of
companies like to distribute press kits in the form of CDs. They can
pack on a lot of glossy marketing copy and data without sending a huge
pile of papers no reporter will have room to keep at his desk.
This target market is probably the least-recurring of the ones I
mentioned, and offers the smallest-ticket jobs. But there are a lot of
people out there who could use this service.
To tap this market, target directors of public relations at either
regional companies or regional branches of national companies.
For some general information about lists and links to list brokers,
check out my answer to an earlier question at
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=107446. |
