This Triangle Can Make You A Billion Dollars
One of the biggest problems people have in online business is targeting the right market. Another big problem is how to target said market.
What if I told you that both of these questions can be answered by a simple picture?
What if I told you that you’ve probably already seen this picture or heard about it?
Hold onto your hats, because in this article we’re going to ‘hack’ what it means to be human. We’re then going to apply it to our making money schemes.
The Hierarchy Of Needs
Since the dawn of time, people have tried to discover what makes us all tick. From the movement of gods, to the Zodiac, to biology, to psychology and now beyond, we’ve used the observable Universe to pinpoint the unobservable drives within our heads.
Philosophy is fascinating, but it’s probably not why you clicked to read this article.
Behind those differing perspectives, there’ve always been recurring motifs. You might think that love was unexplained until the discovery of Oxycontin in the brain, but you’d be wrong. It’s now the province of a chemical, but before that it was the work of many forces and beings.
There’s always been a “god of love.”
There’s always been a “God of war.”
Regardless of where you sit on the god to ” It is all the brain” spectrum, the fact is, the basic needs within us have been present for as long as we have.
Enter Maslow’s Hierarchy.
Maslow created this little triangle, depicting all the needs of humans:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
As you can see, it has love, like we discussed. It has security. It has things like food, water and health.
Then it has things like self-actualisation at the top.
The fact that it’s a pyramid is of the utmost importance. Maslow’s theory that you can’t have the higher desires without the lower needs being met is crucial when it comes to copywriting, business planning and everything else in your life.
Nobody cares about whether they truly have a place in the world when they are dying of dehydration in the middle of a desert. Nobody cares about taking up painting when they’re starving. Nobody looks ahead to marriage if they have social anxiety and can’t even talk to a member of the opposite sex yet.
You can see where I’m going with this.
How Is The Hierarchy Of Needs Relevant In Business?
This whole thing is a pretty new-found revelation to me. It’s something that you can unpack in different ways over and over again.
Here are three ways I’ve found of using this information.
- 1. The lower down the list, the bigger the niche.
It’s no real secret that the three biggest niche markets in online business are fitness, relationships and making money.
Those correspond pretty well with the bottom of the list of needs. Money making is crucial to having security. You can’t eat without money.
Relationships and love drive all those ” One weird trick to get rid of acne forever” ads, they’re the reason for the pick-up artist movement and all those info product ads. But to take it further, they’re also the reason for Facebook, Instagram and Social Media in general. They’re also the reason that news outlets are constantly reporting on what the Kardashians are wearing.
Fitness needs no explanation. Scientists hate that one guy with all the ads about six pack secrets.
- 2. You can incorporate all aspects of the needs into whatever niche you’re going for.
The fact that those niches are huge means that there is huge competition. Most people who want to start making money online are going to have trouble competing in the fitness, love and business niches because there is so much competition.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the hierarchy of needs in your website planning.
You might not be able to get rich with your book on fitness, but you can incorporate it into another market. Make sure you address the need.
Say you have a site about photography. You could get into the technical stuff quite easily. You can write a review of the latest lens cap, but who really cares? A very small amount of people who probably don’t need your blog anyway.
Why do people get into photography though? To make money? Write about how you make money with your photography.
To make friends? Write about making portraits and giving them as presents.
To have an excuse to get out into the world and live life? Write about how to get fit so that you can go hiking with your camera.
In those examples, you’re hitting all of the needs whilst being in a less competitive market.
If you’ve read the above two points, then you’re thinking, “Why would you go to the top of the pyramid?”
At the top of the pyramid, there are less customers. Those customers also need less. But you still might want to target them.
Why?
Because if they have all their needs met, then you can guarantee the following:
1. They have money.
2. They are your target customer because they want to be.
3. You’re giving them something profound and moving as opposed to something concrete.
Teaching millionaires to meditate falls into this category. Celebrity astrologists fall in here as well. The whole “Eat, Love, Pray” fad from a couple of years back was selling mindset advice to people who had it all. Another example is Tim Ferriss. He sells lifestyle “hacks” that are really expensive gadgets and different self-help ideas for thousands to rich people who are looking for answers.
Closing Thoughts
Those are three quick ways you can start to think about a market to target and how to target your market once you’ve discovered it.
There are probably hundreds of ways to use the table.
If you think of any more, drop them in the comments below!