For the past 3 weeks, I have learned so much about marketing that I believed I know more than any marketing graduates out there. There’s one thing I am sure of – you can’t learn effective marketing from textbooks.

Textbook will not teach you where to find your prospects. Textbooks teach you marketing to the masses, shows you marketing that requires millions of dollars. But what if you run a small business and funds are limited. You can only afford to invest thousands or even hundreds of dollars in marketing. What can you do?

I took up fishing in the last 2 months, and I found 2 simple business lessons through fishing.

Lesson 1. Go to the place where there are lots of fishes.

Lesson 2. Ensure those fishes want your bait.

I did fish at a place where there are only a few fishes in the pond. My bait is fresh, but no fishes caught that night. I also learned that some fish don’t eat some bait.

When it comes to marketing, the same principles apply. Do your marketing where there are lots of prospects, and ensure they want what you are offering.

The first advertisement I placed 3 weeks ago gave me 1 response. Horrible result! Why? Because I placed at the place where fishes don’t go. However, you wouldn’t know whether there will be fishes until you fish at that location once.

Immediately, I changed strategy. I look for ponds where there are lots of fishes. Not only that, they are the kind of fish that I want. Lots of fishes is one thing, but a particular kind of fish is another. You can have big crowd but they are not eating your bait, then your marketing failed. You have to find prospects who want to what you offered.

Identify who will want your product / service. In today’s world, you can’t offer to anyone. There’s only a group of people who are suitable to have your product/service. Find out who are they, and where they usually swim.

After the first advertisement, I started to find places where my prospect are gathering. Throw in the bait and the marketing process start. The rest of the marketing process requires other skills and preparation. But the first step is to identify where your fishes are.