You could have the greatest product on earth but still not sell anything if you’re trying to sell it to the wrong market. Knowing your customers is everything, and that goes for any business online or off.

What You Need to Know

What do you need to know about your customers exactly? Of course, you need to know what kinds of products or services they want, especially things that they can’t find currently.

You also need to take into account the kinds of products and services they’ll want in the future. This is essential for building a long-term relationship with them where they’ll come back and buy from you again and again.

What’s really important is to understand how your customers see themselves. Self-image determines the kinds of products you buy and also shopping habits. You’ve got to know if they see themselves as young and hip or mature and conservative, for example.

All of this determines how they like to interact with businesses. If you know that, you’ll know exactly how to reach them on their terms.

My Top Tip

Never, ever try to sell a product or service that you have not tried or know is of the best quality. The fastest way to lose customers is to be selling and promoting below average, poor quality product. Just don’t do it ever!!

Social Media

Social media websites offer some of the best ways of gathering information about your customers. These sites practically do your work for you. On Facebook, look at groups or fan pages related to your business. See what people are talking about and check out their demographics.

Twitter is also great for gathering information. Twitter has a search function so you can find tweets about a certain keyword or phrase. You can then see who’s talking about it and what they’re saying. This is priceless for marketing research.

Come Right out and Ask

Still the best way to find out what your customers like is to come right out and ask them. If you’re thinking about starting a site or creating a product, go to a forum or social media group and ask. Be totally transparent and tell them you’re conducting research for a new launch. Most people love to give their opinions.

Another great way to gather information is to conduct polls. Polls are great because all your customers have to do is click on the button that applies to them. It’s even easier than posting a comment or sending you an email. You can do a survey on your blog, a forum, or social media sites.

Your Ideal Customer

As you gather information about your customers, create a person who symbolizes all of them. Make a profile of this single person that includes hobbies, likes, dislikes, income bracket, age, gender, education background, shopping habits, and Internet usage.

This is what copywriters do when they write sales material. They compile enough information about the target market that they’ve got an actual human being realized down to the last detail.

Dislikes Matter

You need to know what your customers like, want and do. Even more importantly, pay attention to what they DON’T like, DON’T want and DON’T do. This is often more telling, and it teaches you the tactics you need to avoid, which is just as important.

Keep gathering data about your customers because it will change over time. Never settle into thinking that you know them and you don’t need to keep learning about them. They’re dynamic and your marketing strategies need to be too.

To your success

Tony Phelps

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