Targeting your 1st Customer/s
from Young Entrepreneur.com 11/12 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
Visitors or Customers is a big difference. Would you rather your startup have 10,000 monthly visitors to its site with a > 10 % sales conversion rate or attract the attention of 100,000 visitors with < 1% deciding to buy from you? Driving Traffic is terrific, but . . . Many online Entrepreneurs often invest a lot of time, energy & finances to “drive traffic” to their sites, only to find out these people are not even the ones they want to have in the first place. So how can you steer clear from the many traps of aimless traffic generation? Here are five tips
1. Be a Problem Solver. You have to admit that at least part of business success has to do with the timeliness of your products or services. You must answer people’s needs. The key is settling into a business that has problems you really love to solve, with customers whose pressing needs you are very good at addressing. When you’re able to identify your Niche, you don’t only go out there to earn, you have a unique passion and an offering that suits the needs of those people.
2. Get into your Customers’ psyche. People buy not only because they need things, they often buy to satisfy something deeper in them. It’s often the feeling that they associate with a product that they finally make the decision to buy. This is when branding, reputation & customer service come into play. In fact, this is why there is marketing in the first place. Get into what excites and interests your potential customer. This is the only way you can tailor-fit your campaign to the people who would not think twice of paying for what you have to offer.
3. Where are your Customers? In Online Marketing, determining how your market interacts with the Internet is very important. It gives you leads as to “where” they are online. Online behavior can point you to what sites they frequent, the Social Media networks they prefer, the news they’re more likely to read and so on. If you know where they are, you can be sure to focus on places you need to have an attention-getting presence. This assures you of a steady stream of traffic of ready-to-pay customers, and it prevents you from effectively barking up the wrong tree.
4. Do you really know them? To really pinpoint who your target customer is, you’ll want to dig in deep – find out what motivates them, if you will. The key is to learn about them, even adapt to them if you want to get their business. So basically, this means you can’t just buy one customer list and operate off that in perpetuity. You’ll need to continuously find out about your target audience. Are they reading material to help you understand your customer better? Do they shop at stores where your customer might shop, so you can understand their world better? All of these puzzle pieces can fit together and help you identify the bigger customer picture, if you’re willing to spend time collecting the information.
5. Close in on the Deal. Once you know your customers: understanding where they are, where they want to be & how they think, you can specifically design an Online Marketing Campaign that appeals to those people who would love to pay for your products or services. By being a problem solver, you’re forced to know yourself and understand your brand’s strengths & weaknesses. (do a SWOT Analysis) Understanding who you want to engage with online, really seals the success of your business
Comments: What customer-targeting strategies would you suggest fellow Entrepreneurs follow?