Black Belt Web Marketing.pdf - Costa del Sol

Exercise 3-5 -- Targeting Special Interest Newsgroups
This section is an important stage in developing your web marketing plan. You will learn to
find where your target audiences hang out – primarily in which newsgroups and mailing lists
they can be found. For now you just want to reach them with your announcement. In
Lesson 7, you will evaluate these lists, and decide which one to join and participate in
discussions. In these groups you want to build one-to-one relationships with members.
Also in this section you will learn to make your announcement more acceptable to your
target audiences so that you don’t offend a significant portion of them.
Finding Discussion Groups Where Target Audiences Hang Out
1.Finding target audiences in newsgroups is similar to searching for Web sites. The search
is based on a keyword associated with a newsgroup. Some of the keywords will likely
be the same as ones used to register your site in Lesson 2. Other keywords could
identify the specialized field or skill set of the target audience. Sometimes newsgroups
can be found by product or service offered. Still others consist of members of an
organization or association.
2.Making sure that you are online and that your newsreader is showing all newsgroups
(not just subscribed ones), search for each of the keywords listed. An alternative is to
go to Deja News and search there.
3.List the newsgroups returned as a result of your keyword search.
4.Subscribe to each newsgroup that appears to be a suitable place to post your
announcement.
5.Retrieve the new "headers" or messages in each group.
6.Review the headers for each group before deciding if you want to announce in the
group. Look for level of activity and topics of current discussions as indicated by the
subject lines. In Exercise 3-7 you will compile an evaluation report of newsgroups
visited. This will lay the groundwork for Lesson 7 when you will become a group
member and start participating in group discussions.
Lesson 3 Pg. 16