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From: "Christy Fillerup" <>
Subject: [TGF] Market Research (was the Long Distance Genealogist)
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:27:21 -0700
References: <866958.90868.qm@web50612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <00d101c979ef$95b3c120$c11b4360$@net><95702E5B3C04474BAA9E731DCF58704D@LeRoy><014401c97a64$ca8c4b40$5fa4e1c0$@net>
In-Reply-To: <014401c97a64$ca8c4b40$5fa4e1c0$@net>


LeRoy,

I don't actually have an answer for you, but I'm hoping that through
discussion we can generate some good ideas for market research, which seems
to be what you are asking about. Frankly that is the last piece of my
business plan and I'm as frustrated as you. I'm in a unique location so the
questions that occur to me are more about the market at large rather than
about a certain location's market. So I pose the following questions to the
list:

What are your thoughts on the size of the market for genealogical research?
Are we dealing mainly with an older generation looking to find their roots
now that they have more time in their lives?

Is the average genealogical research services consumer a genealogist
themselves, looking for help over those brick walls, or are they more of the
I know nothing please research my family variety?

What are the alternatives to individual research services? There are
occasionally media needs, there is the need for heir searchers, but both of
those markets seem relatively small.

Let's start there, identifying the major consumers of genealogical research
services (perhaps we can treat writing, teaching, and lecturing separately).
Once we've identified who we believe the major market groups are, and what
share of the market they make up, perhaps we can then discuss marketing
ourselves to them.

Eager for a lively discussion,
Christy Fillerup
in Salt Lake City, but still struggling to understand the market

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:36 AM
Subject: Re: [TGF] The long distance genealogist


> LeRoy,
>
> You raise very good issues--critical one for professionals.
> Unfortunately,
> because of deadlines for this week (and the next ten weeks, frankly), I
> can't spend the time it will take to develop the game plan your questions
> deserve.
>
> Anyone else care to pick up the discussion here?
>
> Elizabeth
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> [mailto:] On Behalf Of
> LeRoy Atkins
> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 7:59 AM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [TGF] The long distance genealogist
>
> Elizabeth wrote:
>
> "On the other hand, if this I-live-in-the-wrong-place problem is one we
> have
> in our client work, then we should certainly reconsider whether we are
> taking the wrong client assignments. (If we take client assignments that
> we
> cannot adequately fulfill, we won't have satisfied clients and we won't
> build a robust business. If we wisely limit our commissions to projects on
> which we know we can deliver first-class service, then we have extremely
> satisfied clients who recommend us to others until we reach the point that
> we have far more requests than we can handle. Then we have the luxury of
> choosing only those assignments that really appeal to us, so that we get
> up
> every morning thinking how wonderful it is to spend our working life doing
> projects that truly excite us."
>
>
>
> Elizabeth,
>
> In part your point seems to be that good business comes from referrals.
> From
>
> your experience what is the balance of work coming through end user
> clients
> versus through other professionals?
>
> As I understand, location and many other things are part of marketing.
>
> I live in _____ (fill in the blank.) How do I properly assess the
> demography
>
> of my potential client base?
>
> How do I know if the size of the market is large enough to warrant
> entrance
> into the market?
>
> Then how do I pick a (product) "genealogical research service" that I can
> provide?
>
> LeRoy Atkins
> Mesa, Arizona
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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