subject: Your Target Customers: How Do You Find Out About Them? [print this page] Having known who your target customers are and what to find out about them to grow your online home business, it's equally important to learn how to do it. The question now is "How do you find out the information about them? What methods do you use that will give you the best results?
There are many ways in which you could find out about your target customers, but in this article, I would like to focus mainly on observation, asking questions, online surveys, forum visits and talking to your customers.
1. Observation.
Finding about your target customers through observations is one of the easiest and most affordable methods that anyone can use. But the challenge is on what to observe and how to do it. Of course you do not just observe. Sometimes you have to use some tools on your site to purposely provide you with basic information on how your customers behave on your website.
For instance, if you track the visitors to your website, you can use the statistics to get information not only on the quantity of the visits but also on the quality. Using the observable information like the average length of visits, the number of page views and/or the most popular paths, you can get to know more about your target customers.
Use the comments or the feedback you get from your target customers! What do they say? Do their comments and feedback give you clues on what you actually have to do to improve your product and services? Plan to have a feedback page to get such useful feedback from your target customers.
What about other websites in the same market place like yours, do you observe them to find out what works for them that you need to know and apply it, if possible? Observation is a very useful tool that you should always apply on a daily basis.
2. Online surveys
Develop a questionnaire and send it out to people you think are interested in your products or services. An online survey will easily give you qualitative information on what people think about your website, whether they find it easy to use your website and to get the products / services you offer or not, what they would like you to add and much more information.
For your survey to be effective, plan your questions basing on your priorities. The questions should not be more than ten because people have limited time. Focus on the choice of questions to ask. Use open-ended questions to allow your users to give freely the answers they want. But balance up your open-ended questions with closed questions where you provide a choice of answers to your questions.
You can use survey software to get and manage the information you collect from your target customers.
3. Ask questions
Asking questions is what everyone can do. But you need to ask questions that will enable you to meet your goals. Some online business owners integrate a small form in the ordering process to get some feedback from their customers. When one buys a product, he has to take a minute to answer a question or two before he finalizes with making his/her order. But you can ask questions using other channels that are convenient to you and which will give you the best results.
4. Talk to your customers
You can improvise and find a most suitable way to directly talk to your customers. If you physically meet some of your customers, get them closer to you so that you can get their feelings and opinions about your products and services.
5. Visit places that your target customers hang around such as forums
With an online home business, you can achieve this by visiting forums that are frequently visited by people in your target audience. You don't necessarily need to engage yourself in the discussion, but you can stay aside and read or follow the discussions. This can easily help you to know what others say and what they think. If you are involved in a conventional business, then it's even easier to find out where your target customers hang around and go there to get information as to what they say and think.
Alternatively, you can read newspapers or magazines (also available online) that are popular to people in your target audience. Visit the "Letters to the editor" section and read what your target audiences say.
Finally, finding out about your target customers is a continuous process. You do not do it once and stop. You have to make it a habit. You need to develop a system of getting useful information that you can use to make decisions from a well informed point of view and to keep in close touch with the people who keep you in business, the people that are so crucial to your business success - your target customers.
