You have probably heard of attraction marketing before, but have you ever heard of “style marketing?” It’s basically a sub-niche of attraction marketing – it focuses on the power of style and fashion in attracting like-minded individuals into your network. With a little practice, it can make you popular and stylish at the same time.

Style marketing may sound like an emerging trend among common marketing types, but it’s actually been around for a while. And it’s not just about the clothes you wear either, as you will see in one of the following examples. Let’s start several decades back, when America’s business style was still in black and white.

#1 – Lifestyle: Everyone knows John F. Kennedy — the youngest US President to ever take office. Many fashion historians credit his habit of appearing in public with a snappy, uncovered hairstyle did away with the mainstay American habit of wearing fedora hats, a practice that had been around for several decades. Naturally, that lifestyle change made people like him more.

#2 – Politics: President Barack Obama also did away with the political fashion trends in the Bush era by wearing suits that were perfect fits to his lanky frame – unlike the Republicans before them, draped in perpetually oversized outfits. It underlined his campaign promise to be a bit more thoughtful with the country’s expenses, which helped him win the election by a landslide.

#3 – The Internet: These new marketing types aren’t limited to clothes and accessories – it could be applied to something as simple as your writing style. John Mayer, the musician, makes it a point to make every Twitter post interesting, funny, and smart – which attracts fans and audiences who share his liberal tendencies.

There are endless ways to use style marketing to improve your business’s numbers – see how you can tweak certain aspects of your own business style into a fashion statement that your intended market will appreciate!

The key to effective marketing is to reach the right client with a clear and powerful message that creates the best response – action!

This can be challenging for the part time solopreneur who is looking to focus on the key activities, with the limited time you have available. So you want to focus in on the best methods for gathering data about your ideal client. Here are some simple steps to start the process rolling. You can easily build from here to see even greater results!

First, be very clear about who ideal client is.

- Are they male, female, working in a particular industry, have particular skills, like particular things?

- What do they do?

- What problems do they have that your product or service solves?

Create a detailed profile of your ideal client including how you’d like them to work with you and you with them! One of the best ways to determine who your ideal client is is to look at who is coming to you today for your knowledge and expertise. And if you enjoy working with them, they’re likely your type of client. If you don’t have clients today, then consider if you would be an ideal client for you.

Let me give you an example. I like to take action, learn from my results and improve the process. So I like working with clients who like to take action as well. Potential clients who procrastinate, complain and make excuses are not a good fit for me. So whether you have clients or not, it’s a good way to create a picture for what your ideal client would like.

Second, once you have a clear list of the characteristics and attributes of your ideal client, it becomes easier to find these jewels. Once you identify the particulars, then you can find online and offline networking groups and associations where you can connect. There you will learn more about what problems they want solved and how your product or service can help. You can use the search engines to get more information too. Simply put the characteristic, in quotes, in the search engine and see what gets returned. I work with solopreneurs. Therefore I would type “solopreneurs” in my search box. It will return groups, associations and more about solopreneurs. By browsing these groups I can learn what information they’re looking for t address their business and marketing challenges.

And finally, consider setting up Google Alerts for those characteristics and attributes you’ve identified. You may not have heard of Google Alerts, but they are becoming a valuable tool for many businesses large and small. At a recent presentation on selling effectiveness, my ears perked up when I heard the speaker mention that she uses Google Alerts to prepare her research before her sales calls!

Google Alerts will deliver a comprehensive list of searches, blog posts, etc. on the topics you’re interested in. You’ll learn what your competition is telling your ideal clients. How’s that for finding out what their needs are! If you see a couple of articles or topics respected you can be sure your ideal clients are interest n this area!

There you have it! You now have three quick marketing tips for getting a handle on your clients’ needs. I can’t stress enough, and this is purely from personal experience and some of the areas where my clients get stuck, how important it is to have a deep and clear understanding of who is your ideal client. Your marketing messages will be crisp, clear and effective. And it will unlock the door to so very many sources of information, partners and alliances.

A trade show offers the manufacturer a direct platform to interact with the very people who will be making purchasing decisions. Most purchasing managers of corporations make it a point to attend trade shows relevant to their needs in order to evaluate a wide range of products and services, all under one roof. If offers them variety, at a fraction of the time regular meetings with sales personnel form all those companies ever could. If this is the reason why they visit trade shows, isn’t it obvious that your product or service needs to be showcased in the trade show as well?

Two, trade shows offer all manufacturers a level playing field. Of course it may not seem like this as some manufacturers have bigger spaces with far better stalls and displays, but at the heart of it all, a trade show is where conventional competitors come together to provide the end user with the best possible information to make a purchasing judgement.

Three, trade shows provide manufacturers, especially relatively unknown ones, with a readymade audience that is focused, targeted and in the best frame of mind to make a purchasing decision. As far as targeted advertising goes, a trade show is by far the most effective way to reach the target audience.

A trade show also allows for demonstrations. Conventional print advertising is not interactive and showing demonstrations on television could prove really expensive and not worth the investment. But in a trade show, a demonstrations is almost a pre-requisite. I still remember a heavy machinety trade show I had the opportunity to attend. On one hand, there was Ingersoll-Rand with their range of diggers, back hoes and dump trucks. On the other hand, there was caterpillar with their ‘Cat’ range of equipment. Elsewhere, Komatsu had lined up their state-of-the-art equipment. Being able to see all these equipment on display, performing actual tasks that they were created for gave not only me, but all other purchasing managers there an unforgettable demonstration. You can be sure that when the time to take a decision arrived, we had no problems in picking our personal preferences!

But not all trade shows are effective. It is a sad part of the competitive world we live I that several fly-by-night operators have entered the trade show industry. Out to make a quick buck, these unscrupulous operators try and organize events and trade shows that neither have a reputation, nor attract manufacturers with one. As a result, the gullible manufacturers who invest time, money and effort in these trade shows, lose a lot. The best way to stay clear of such operators is to stick with trade show organizers who have a proven track record, are reliable and provide you with measurable service.

Online and offline organizations like the National Trade Productions and the Trade Show Exhibitors Association of America (www.tsea.org) offers several tips and guidelines on how you can get the maximum value from your investment in trade shows. By linking organizations and individuals involved with trade shows and the trade events businesses, these associations enable a connected trade show exhibitor’s world where each and every member can learn from the collective experience of all the members. Where applicable or necessary, local chapters also exist and provide the same services to exhibits on a local scale. You can never go wrong if you follow the simple guidelines these associations offer.