Free Website Content
Tips to Identify Your Customers
Identifying Customers
By Sharon Housley
It is common knowledge that "targeting"
customers will result in a higher sales conversion than
non-targeted, random traffic that just happens upon
your website. In order to effectively target your customers,
you need to know who and where they are. Customers come
in all shapes and sizes, so how do you discern which
customers are the best to target?
The following are tips to identify
your best customers...
1. Existing Customer Base
Get to know your existing customer base.
Who is buying your software? Do you have a large concentration
of existing customers in a specific vertical or market
segment? If so, how can you better reach more people
in that demographic. Survey existing customers, and
ask them how or where they found you or your products.
Ask customers to suggest places for you to advertise.
Talking with existing customers can be an eye-opening
experience.
2. Communicate With Customers
Learn how your customers are using your
software. Create a dialogue with existing customers,
and try to gain an understanding of how they are using
your software to solve real-world problems. Consider
how others in a similar situation can use your software
to overcome similar obstacles. Use the information to
build content for your website. Request profiles from
customers (along with permission to publish them), and
create whitepapers that describe how customers are using
your software in unique or unusual ways.
3. Evaluate Competitors
Examine your competitor's websites, and
determine who your competition is targeting. Where do
your competitors advertise? Perhaps they have found
a niche market that you have not yet tapped. If the
competition posts customer whitepapers on their website,
review them and consider how your software could also
fill the need described, and possibly better or easier
than your competitor. Use competitive intelligence to
uncover markets that competitors are selling into.
4. Talk To Resellers
Resellers are often instrumental in tapping
into new markets and identifying potential new markets.
Develop a dialogue with your resellers. If you find
a reseller with an unusual idea for extra value add-ons,
consider ways you can work together to develop more
sales.
5. Alerts
Set up automatic alerts to find out what
niche or vertical-market blogs and forums are talking
about your software products. Participate in those conversations,
and offer assistance when appropriate.
6. Viral Markets
Some niches are more viral than others.
Sharing resources is less common in the commercial business
world, because those businesses often compete against
each other. But in other areas, such as schools and
public safety organizations for example, people are
often very willing and eager to share information about
effective solutions they've discovered. If you sell
into a market that tends to be viral in nature, use
this to your advantage and set up incentives for customers
to refer their colleagues or other organizations to
you. Happy customers will often evangelize solutions
that work.
Understanding your customer demographic
will allow you to target them more effectively. Most
ISVs have limited advertising dollars, and a minimal
amount of time available. Targeting your best customers
will result in a higher return. .
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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publications and websites, provided that the resource
box is included and the links are active. A courtesy
copy of the issue or a link to any online posting would
be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
.
Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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