A business that wants to grow online must identify its audience. This is one of the most
difficult things to do. It can be overwhelming to know where to begin with so many channels available, including Google search and social media.
This post will give you practical tips on how to find your potential customers online.
It is essential to get to know your potential customers for any business. Customers are what drive sales, no matter if you’re a start-up owner or a boss at a large multinational corporation.
Customers are the key to your revenue and profits. Even though there are many obstacles to overcome when you start a business.
12 innovative ways to get to know your potential customers:
1. Look Where People Congregate
Look where people congregate and see what they buy. Let’s say you want to sell health products for exercise and fitness. You can jump on Facebook and see what sports and health groups are there. Or go to Quora and Reddit and type in a question that you think a customer of yours would ask.
‘Where can I get natural products?’ Quora has a whole list of different questions in their Related Questions area. By reading through these you will begin to see a pattern of customer needs.
Spend time researching so that you have a really solid idea of who your customers might be. Make a list of the age groups, male or female, where they live, what particular products interest different groups. You might find several group types of customers that you can service.
Building websites alone doesn’t necessarily mean potential customers will flock to you just because you exist. Most new website owners never bother with identifying their potential customers before creating a website. So, be different, you must first find people if you want them to find you.
Find Groups Who Will Want Your Products
Segmentation into interest groups is possible now because of the internet and you can tap into this to find the best group for your customers. You can find niche communities on the internet that cater to very specific needs. You can look at all the social media platforms to identify your perfect customer. Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, and many more.
Before you create a website, spend a few days just researching, it will pay you huge dividends!
There are many communities that cater to things such as video games, moms-to-be, and farm equipment. Russell Brunson, an internet marketing expert, made his first million dollars by selling a DVD showing how to make potato guns.
You can later use the list that you made to market the right product to the correct customer on the perfect social media platform. It will also give you a guide to segregating your email list later so that you can send the perfect emails to the right group.
2. Build an Online Presence
Social media is not just for promoting your products. Spend time and effort creating relevant content such as blog posts and Q&A sessions. These posts will bring in more customers than just a product review.
As long as your company has a strong online presence, everyone can connect to you on social media platforms. Keep your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts up-to-date.
3. Conduct a Survey
A well-designed survey will provide valuable insights into your customers’ interests in products and customer service.
Although you may have some data about your customers from your plan, it is time to go further. Create a survey to get to know your potential customers better. You can distribute the survey to both existing customers and those who are interested in your products or services.
Surveys are brilliant when you have a subscriber list. You can send a survey to them asking their opinion on what products they would be interested in. Keep it short (7 – 9 Questions at most and open-ended.)
4. Spy On Your Competition
Yes, I am talking about spying on your competition, and everyone does it! The only way that you can compete for the same customers is by doing it better and you need to see what they are doing.
You can save money by researching your competitors and get important information. Because you’re both targeting the same market, their potential customers could also be yours. Learn from them what works and how you can improve.
There’s a good chance that you are not the only one in your niche. Your competition may be already attracting customers through multiple methods, if so; study their methods and get creative.
Learn all the tricks to help you rank and get Google to pay attention to you. Read how I can help you to build your business success starting today.
5. Approach Influencers
If you can reach the right influencers, it can make a difference in your customer base. As long as the product or service that you are selling is relevant to both the person and the viewer, this will help.
Many internet users depend on the ideas and advice of thought leaders or influencers. These could be entrepreneurs, bloggers, or social media gurus that spend time finding great products and sharing them with others.
6. Create a Plan
Do you sell your products or services to companies or individuals? Do these people purchase their products immediately or will they take longer to buy? These questions will allow you to understand your product and customers, and create a sales strategy that works.
You must create a plan based on the products or services you intend to sell. Set some goals, know where you are going.
7. Always Respond to Your Customers
You must give your customers the attention they need, no matter if they are contacting you to compliment your business or to complain about your customer service. Answer all phone calls and social media messages promptly.
Your company’s customers are, as we’ve said before, the driving force behind your business. Happy clients are returning customers. You must answer customers’ questions in order to keep them happy.
Use this interaction as positive input into the idea mill for growing your business in the future.
8. Build Trust
A company with the trust of its customers will be profitable in the future and the present. You can reach more potential customers by gaining trust from your target audience, regardless of the number of competitors in your niche.
Recent research shows that trust is the most important thing to customers when it comes time to use a company’s services. Reviews, publications, past experience, and other sources can all help to build trust.
9. Create Targeted Ads
Every day, billions of people access the internet. These people spend most of their time on social networks. So, you should create targeted ads on Facebook and Google. This can be expensive, a cheaper way to use excellent SEO practices and answer real questions asked by customers to gain organic traffic.
These ads are visible to people most likely to buy the products or services your company offers, thanks to complex algorithms.
10. Sponsor Events
Sponsor the events your target audience attends. Local events are often affordable and you don’t need to spend a lot.
Sponsored events can be a great way to meet potential customers. You should have done market research to determine who is most likely to buy your products and services if you want to run a successful business. You can then target them specifically.
11. Create a Newsletter
A personalized newsletter is a great way to attract new customers. You should also send it to existing clients. A personalized newsletter that is sent to your target audience can increase your leads.
It can be difficult for companies to generate leads. It takes a lot of work to get to know your customers and analyze their social media activity.
12. Use Buyer Personas
Your ideal customer will help you not only create great products but also keep you focused on sales and marketing. Simply by identifying who you want to target, you can create messaging that is in line with their goals.
You should use buyer personas to identify your target audience and their expectations. First, define your target audience to find out their location.
A common mistake business owners make when trying to sell their products or services is assuming that they are for everyone. It’s a terrible assumption. You will never sell your product if you try to market it to everyone.
Think about it. We like to chat, hang out, and do business with people like ourselves. Your customers will feel the same. If you reduce the message, you can alienate all and make it difficult to connect with everyone especially your new customers.
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Conclusion
It is smarter to do targeted research online for your niche and get in touch with them directly. It’s possible to establish relationships with the people you are creating products for and to let them know where your product is available.
A website is not enough to draw a crowd, you need to know and understand your ideal customer and meet their needs.
I hope that these 12 points will allow you to understand how important it is to identify your potential customer and build your business around being of service to them.
Wishing you great success.
I would love it if you would share this post or like it and any comments will be received with pleasure.
Warm Regards,
Lily
This is a lot of very good advice on how to identify and capture your target market. Anyone who wants to grow their business should follow your advice. I have a low-carb dieting website and I did not really know who my target market was, after about 6 months I now realize that women from the age group of about 30 to 50 are by far my most consistent visitors to my site. I have since joined several online dieting groups that cater to this group. Since sharing content in this way the traffic to my site has really exploded.
Hi Al, that is great to hear. I’ve actually started following your keto website. So far I’ve tried your pizza recipe and the chunky pesto recipe. Both are very yum. I’ve also been making my own almond cookies and they really fill me up and stop me craving sugar. It’s great that you have identified your target market.
I second the survey suggestion. When I was writing a personal finance course, I created a survey and got lots of people to take it. That gave me valuable information as to what the people really wanted to know about. I was surprised by some of the answers and I wouldn’t have included that information had I not conducted the survey, so it’s a great way to get into the mind of your customers.
Absolutely, Alicia, it is easier to take the time to create a survey and know where you are going by asking questions. You did the right idea by using a survey to find out the facts first.
Oh! It is soo easy to come up with an idea and to share content around that idea but without eyes to see, it is of little value. This is something I have struggled with for a while and while I’ve been using some of the ideas suggested there are many more that I could try out. I look forward to seeing the results of implementing these strategies on my sites.
That sounds like a great plan Mike. We really do need to think about who our customers will be and write for them. This thought process can take a while and it does evolve as you go along. Without traffic you don’t have a business, you need customers.