In yesterday’s challenge task, you conducted research into the available online media that report on and support your chosen B2B target market.
Today, I want you to delve a bit deeper into two or three of them.
That’s it, just two or three. Rumor has it that today is a national holiday, so this is something that you can spend ten minutes on at literally any point in the day.
From your Google searching yesterday, select two or three of the trade journals, industry associations, online discussion forums, or other websites that you found. Running with one of the two examples I laid out yesterday, here are three options that service the healthcare industry that I found:
- American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
- Physicians Practice (media outlet)
- Association of Independent Doctors (started by two CPAs, btw)
As I mentioned yesterday, this is not an endorsement of this particular niche or these particular sites. I’m just using it as an example for purposes of illustrating the principle.
Looking at the websites for these two trade organizations and one media conglomerate sub-site, I want to look for a few things. These are the same questions you should ponder as you look through the websites that YOU found:
- Is there obvious on-site advertising?
- Is there a print magazine that they produce for members?
- Is there an email list that people can subscribe to?
- Is there a member directory listing?
- Is there a vendor directory?
- Can I download a media kit that includes advertising rates?
- Are there local chapters?
- Do they host events of any sort, either online or off?
- Is there a designated contact person for media, advertising, or sponsorship inquiries?
Based on just clicking through all the links on a website, including the stuff nobody ever looks at in the footer of the homepage, I’m able to make some pretty quick determinations about the potential value of advertising or sponsoring something in relation to that website. For example, the Association of Independent Doctors doesn’t really provide any opportunities for creating backlinks or generating access to their membership, as far as I can tell, so I can eliminate that one pretty quickly.
PhysiciansPractice.com, on the other hand, provides a gateway to something bigger, called the “Modern Medicine Network”. Spending just 5 minutes on their website tells me they allow article submissions from other businesses (that’s you!), they have print publications to advertise in, a full advertising media kit that I can sign up for (there’s a lead capture lesson there, btw), etc.
In literally five minutes or less, I’m able to make a determination as to whether there’s an opportunity on a site for me to do anything that could potentially generate 941 tax resolution leads within this particular niche.
That’s your task for today: Just peruse the website looking for clues as to whether or not that site can be of any use to you for lead generation.
Tomorrow, we’ll make some calls.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
