Understanding Your Customers: The Key to Successful Marketing

How well do you know your customers? Do you know what motivates them to buy from you or what irritates them? To be successful in marketing, you need to understand your customers. You can’t just rely on gut feeling or assumptions – you have to research and find out what makes each customer tick.

Here are some tips on how to do this: 

• Talk with your current and potential customers. Get their opinions about the product or service that you’re selling, and ask them specific questions about why they care about it or how it’s relevant to them. This kind of feedback will give you a valuable understanding of who your target market is and ultimately allow you to sell more effectively based on their needs.
• Use surveys to understand customer attitudes and behaviors. You can use online or paper surveys to gather feedback from a large pool of customers, which will give you rich data that can help you improve your marketing strategies. Surveys are an effective way to get detailed information about customer behavior and preferences, which can help you create more effective ads or develop new product offerings.
• Analyze your website analytics data. This includes things like the amount of traffic that your pages receive, where people are clicking on the ads, what keywords people are using when they search for your products or services and more. By understanding these data points, you can identify areas where your marketing efforts are successful and where they could be improved. In order to be successful in marketing, you need to understand your customers. This means talking with them, using surveys, and analyzing website analytics data.

 

What’s the main reason your customers come to you or buy your product? What’s the number one problem you solve for them? Do you know for sure? If not, your marketing might be off, and you could miss out on sales.

What sets you apart from your competition? Think about it for a second. What makes you different from the other businesses in your area? Are you providing a unique product or service that no one else has? Or are you offering a more affordable option than your competition? If you can answer these questions, then it’s likely that you have something special to offer your customers. The best way to find out is by talking to them and learning what makes them tick.

This is your Single Marketing Message that you should use in all of your communications about your business, product or service. It can be difficult for small business owners to determine what their single marketing message should be. Why? Because they are too close to their business and because they are viewing their business from only their perspective.

Keeping your marketing customer-focused can be a challenge. Even though we know that we should be looking at our business from our customers’ perspective, it’s often easier said than done. It is easy to get caught up in all the amazing features of our product or service and the reasons why we think that clients are attracted to us or choose to buy from us. However, sometimes this vantage point is clouded by our own perceptions and beliefs which may not always be accurate. So how can you pinpoint the real reason that customers are attracted your product or service as well as their true motivations for choosing to make a purchase.

There’s an easy way to stay on track. Very simply, you ask them! Okay, I know it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we don’t think of the obvious. Your prospects and customers (and yes, even your rejecters ‘ those who visit but don’t buy) can provide great insights about the benefits they value most in your product or service and why they chose to buy. Whether you have a lot of customers or only a few You don’t have to have a large customer or prospect base to do some research to see if you are on track. Even if you only have a handful of clients or customers, contact them and ask them what they like most about your product or service.

Most of your customers will be happy to provide you with honest feedback. In fact, they may even thank you for asking! You can use this information to make better products or services that meet the needs of your target market and build long-term relationships with them.

If you want to better understand your target audience and see if you’re attracting the right people, this will help. You might need to change your marketing strategy depending on what you learn – which can help you serve your target audience more effectively. I’ve had clients who were surprised by what they found out when they asked their customers why they bought from them. This feedback can be really useful in figuring out a strong selling point that you may not have thought of before.

Don’t make any drastic changes based off a few people’s opinions. If you only have a small group of customers or prospects that you surveyed, don’t make any big decisions until you can validate your findings with a larger group of people. Or test out the changes before making a final decision to change your whole business or marketing plan. Use common sense and don’t overreact to comments made by only a few people.

You can ask in a number of ways – choose what works best for you. There are lots of ways to collect research from your prospects and customers, like telephoning them, emailing them or sending them a written questionnaire. You could also meet with them in a group (called a focus group) to get their opinions. You can be as formal or informal as you want – it’s up to you. Usually, the more people you survey, the more formal the survey will be. So if you’ve only got a few people to talk to, just give them a call instead.

Don’t be afraid to ask people for their opinion on your products or services, or how you could serve your clients better. The information you get could be really useful in helping you build and grow your business.

Remember to say “thank you” when someone does something for you. You might also want to offer them a bonus, like a discount or a freebie, to encourage them to do things like take your survey.