If you sell a product or a service, you have to understand your consumers. Even if you have a demographic that you target from the beginning, you need to analyze who you are selling to regularly. Without an understanding of your base, you can’t market towards them effectively. For example, some demographics may spend a lot of time on social media but do not watch much television. In this case, television ads may do little good, but social media marketing is better.
Here is how you can get to know your consumer base better.
Check Reviews and Respond Accordingly
You can learn a lot about your consumers through the reviews that they give you. If you have any negative reviews, don’t ignore them. It can be easy to overlook negative reviews or discredit them, but this is a bad idea. Negative reviews can tell you a lot about how certain customers perceive your business. Try to take all reviews as constructive criticism.
What can you learn from the review? For example, if someone complains about customer service and you see this review repeated more than once, you may want to sit down and analyze your customer’s expectations. Certain demographics might expect different things from a business.
For example, older clients may seek more professional service, whereas younger demographics might like customer service agents that are more casual and friendly. Remember that you are not the only one who sees reviews. Potential customers will see the reviews also and often use what other customers say as motivation to seek a company or to stay away from a company.
Try to respond to every review of your service or product. Try to check reviews often so you can respond in a timely manner. Be humble and showcase how much you care about the consumer experience. Do not argue with the customer in the reviews. Always be cordial and brief and if you can offer a customer something to better his or her experience, then you should try to do so.
Engage With Your Customers
Your clients and customers are a part of your business. Whether you sell a service or a product, your company would not exist if it wasn’t for your consumer base. One way to find out more about your customers is to speak with them. One of the best ways that you can engage with potential customers is through the use of social media.
Everyone is on social media nowadays. You can establish a Facebook, a Twitter, or an Instagram that is dedicated to your business. Keep in mind that your content should fit the demographic that is most likely to view your company on specific social media websites. If you have consumers responding to your content, engage back with them. You can also use social media platforms to ask consumers questions. For example, you can ask consumers questions and watch how they interact with other people and then take the answers and use them towards marketing.
Another way to engage on social media includes using user-generated content. This is any content that the social media user creates. One of the best ways to market with user-generated content is through contests. If you’ve been on social media before, you probably have seen brands perform contests. For example, if you are a pet supply store, you might ask your customers to post their favorite pictures of their pets using one of your products and then pick the best one. The person who submits the best picture would receive a prize from your store. This encourages people to engage and to create content for you.
Conduct Surveys
Surveys are also a great way to learn more about your customers. When you create a survey, you want it to be as targeted as possible with its questions. Understanding who your demographic is can help you target your questions. You should not have any more than five to 10 questions to ask your customers. Most people have a low attention span and may not answer a long survey.
You can also offer incentives to customers to complete surveys. For example, maybe completing a survey will put them in a drawing for a prize or maybe they will receive a discount on their next purchase. Give them an incentive to spend a few minutes filling out the survey. Surveys are a way for you to do sales forecasting. The more you know about your clients, the easier it will be to market towards those consumers.
If you want to market to your consumers and ensure that your sales continue to rise, you have to know the people you are selling to. Fortunately, there are many ways to get to know your customers and better deliver a product to those who want it.
