It’s funny to look back at how the beer market has changed in Ontario since the year 2000. That was the year I started at the Beer store, I started on September 11th 2000. (Yes, one year before.)
That was 2 days before I had my “interview” with the manager of the Tecumseh, Ontario store, Charlie, after my Uncle had told me to come in and meet him.
I went to that store in the “small” town of Tecumseh, to do what I thought would be dropping my resume off, but that turned into the manager showing me around the store, showing me the machines and where the beer was and quickly showing me how the tills worked. A P.O.S. system that was designed in Microsoft Access. (That’s a story for another day)
The manager, Charlie, then asked me if I was able to work in a couple of days, and that was the start of my 16-year Beer Store career.
We won’t get into the fact that the first shift I had, it was just Charlie and me and when he went for his hour lunch I was left alone after only being at the store for 2 hours.
Back then, the way the beer market in Ontario worked, as there was the Beer Store and the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). The LCBO was obviously owned and operated by the government and something many don’t realize, the Beer Store was a private company that was owned by the brewers, Molson, Labatt and Sleeman. It’s changed a little, with the craft brewers of Ontario having a VERY small share and basically no say.
With just those 2 places to buy beer and the Beer Store the only store with the ability to buy packages larger than a 6 pack, there was no need to spend a lot of money on marketing. That said, that was also the downfall to the beer store.
The Beer Store did and still thinks they are the “ultimate source for beer” when now there are tons of craft brewers and beer being able to be sold elsewhere. They didn’t need to know who their dream customers were and now, that’s a must.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they tend to post content they like, and it’s to a large audience that may or may not contain their own target audience.
You have to start by asking yourself a few questions first when you start to create your strategy, ask yourself this…
Who are my dream clients/customers?
Before you start anything, this is the question you need to ask yourself. If you’re selling a BlackBerry, (yes the phone), you won’t market to a younger audience that wants to use their phone to game on or make Tik Toks.
If you’re selling a BlackBerry however, you might want to look at a bit of an older audience, someone that has had them in the past and loved them and someone that might be more of a professional that needs to send a lot of emails/messages on the go.
Once you know who your dream clients are, the rest start to fall into place easily.
As silly as this next step might be, this exercise I’m about to share is something Russell Brunson taught me in his Dotcom Secrets book, and it was a game changer when I first started.
Let’s talk about what your dream client looks like.
Think about who your dream client is. I want you to close your eyes and picture your dream client right now. Can you see them?
Now think about what your dream client likes to do. Do they like to fish? Do they enjoy fine wine, or are they more of a craft beer lover? Are they into sports? What sports and what teams do they like?
Start writing all of this down as well as everything you can think of that they would be into and when you’re finished, head to google and search for an image of a person with the name you picked for your dream client. The name can be fictional or actually someone you know, either way search for that image and print it out.
Use that image with all the details you wrote down and print it all out together. Having this is a great way to visualize who your dream client is as you start to find where they hang out online.
This was something I had up on my wall for a long time and still have it tucked away in my desk at the top of my drawer. Something I can and do look at often.
Let’s find out where your dream client hangs out.
If you want to sell a product or a service, you want to make sure you’re reaching out to the right audience. That could be a specific group of people, or that could be a specific location.
If you’re a retail store and want to sell something that’s specific to your area, you’re not going to want to waste time marketing to a location that’s hundreds of kilometres away. (Or miles for my American friends).
Think about when you were in high school. That might not have been a fun time for most, I know it wasn’t for me but if you think about it, back then everyone was in a different group or clique of friends that all hung out together.
As an example, in the mornings, I would catch an early bus to school and meet my friends near our lockers to play cards while having far too many of the freshly made cookies from the cafeteria.
For my group of friends, we played 2 things. Since I didn’t know how to play euchre (yes, I know, I know), we played a card game called A-Hole (No need to say the full name, but you get it), or we played the Star Wars customizable card game. That was very similar to Magic the Gathering, but based in the Star Wars universe.
For this example, I’ll use the Star Wars game we played.
Back then we didn’t have Facebook, but we did have online forums we would chat in and since we were huge fans of the Star Wars card game, we were always in the forums that talked about the cards and how to build the best decks in order to beat the other players we were up against.
Comic shops and game shops would also be in these groups talking about the new packs they just got or a rare card that came in, and that was the perfect spot for them to market to us.
They knew everyone in these forums would want a new deck of cards or a certain rare card, so as soon as they posted in the forum, a group of us would rush down to the store.
That is basically what we are all trying to do now. The only difference is there are a lot more platforms, and it’s a lot easier to find your audience with Facebook Groups and or LinkedIn groups. Not only those platforms, using hashtags that your target audience are using is a perfect way to find them on platforms like Twitter or Instagram.
Before you start to look for your dream customers online, ask yourself these questions…
What websites do they like to visit?
What social media platforms are they using?
What blogs do they read, if any?
What podcasts are they listening to?
What YouTube Channel do they subscribe to?
What emails are they subscribed to?
These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself to figure out who and where your dream customers are hanging out.
With all that I talked about here today, do you know who your dream customers are? Can you find them online and deliver your message to them and provide them with value?
The bulk of this is something I learned reading Russell Brunson’s books, and it’s something he takes a deep dive in his book Traffic Secrets. That’s a book that I’ve read multiple times, and I keep going back to like a textbook. As I did with both Dotcom and Expert Secrets.
If you want to take a deep dive into who your dream customers are and how to find them, I highly recommend checking it out. The best part is the book is free.
If you want a free copy, just click the button below to get your copy!
