Step #1 -

Find your target audience.  To do this you must first define who your target audience is.  Who would most likely be interested in what you have to offer?  Is it a certain age group, gender, occupation, income, marital status, parental status, or maybe geographic region?  It could be one or many of these.  There are chances that your target audience might be too broad in which case you would us categories such as ethics, morals, success seekers, risk takers, penny pinchers and so forth.

Step #2 -

Now that you have found your target audience the next step is to find ways of interacting with them.  Do research one where you would best find them.  Would it be your local mall, grocery store, concert events, social scenes, church, the internet, etc.

For example: Let’s say your are trying to sell tickets to a hard rock concert.  More than likely you would not try to do this at church.  You probably would not sell many.  Interacting with people at hard rock concerts or bars that play hard rock would more than likely be your best bet.

Example for internet marketers:  Let’s say your product is an e-book on how to find your soul mate.  The best places to find people that would want to buy your e-book would be social sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, dating sites, dating forums and so on.

Step #3 -

Once you have established the correct avenue of finding your target audience you will want to interact with them in order to begin a relationship of some sort.    Remember that people establish relationships with people they know, trust or can provide some kind of value to them.  A tried and true way would be to give away something for free or offer free tips and/or advice that coincides with what you are trying to sell.

For example: Sticking with the hard rock concert tickets.  You might want to give away free buttons with the band’s picture or free back stage passes to the first 15 people to buy tickets in a given amount of time.  You have just turned potential prospects into customers.

Example for the internet marketer:  You want to sell your e-book on how to find your soul mate right?  You have found the sites that you think your prospects will most likely be at.  The easiest way to establish a relationship with them would be to send them tips and tricks from your e-book without giving away all of the information.  Give them just enough to spark their curiosity so they will want more.  They buy your e-book without thinking twice.  Potential prospect turned customer!

Step #4 -

Turn your customers into fans!  Once you have customers you will want to keep them.  In order to do this you must make them your fan.  Keep them happy.  Show them your appreciation and give away more free stuff exclusive only to your customers.  Remember, people love free stuff even if it is just advice and tips.  This tells them you care about them and want them to be happy.  Once you have turned a customer into a fan they will want to know about any other product you have and trust you enough to buy over and over again.

Extra note -

You must be very careful to keep your integrity.  Once a customer smells a rat they will run the other direction and also tell all of their friends and family about you.  You must always be true to your customers and provide high quality products and services or you will fail in the long run.  A scammer can only scam for so long before word has spread and then the show is quickly over.  Being known for your quality products and services as well as integrity will keep you in business for a long long time.