How do you effectively market your business and reach out to customers? Do you use a blog? Do you use social media like Facebook or Twitter? Do you use your website, or search engine optimization (SEO)? All these choices may seem daunting, but they don’t have to be.
If you have the budget, you can hire a specialist that can consult with you in what type of new media marketing is best for you and your business. They will probably recommend the type of marketing methods they specialize in, however, so it make be a better idea to research and choose the marketing method you think is best for your business.
The way you can do that is to understand the market for your business. You need to know who your customers are, what gender they are, how old they are, if they are a specific nationality, and if they belong to a specific socio-economic group. You should understand when they buy, how they buy, how often they buy, in fact, you should understand everything about their buying habits and how they relate to your business.
Begin by evaluating the characteristics of your existing customers, or the customers you’d like to target. Ask questions such as “Who is selling similar products to mine?” and “Who are likely prospects for my business? How are these companies reaching their customers, and what customers are they targeting?” This can be the beginning of your marketing worksheet, where you evaluate the information you gather. As you do your research, you may find new markets that you may have been missing.
Don’t assume that everyone is a certain demographic is your customer, or a large demographic is your marketing group. You should narrow your market and focus on the most likely targets that you can afford to reach in your marketing campaign. You shouldn’t assume answers to your marketing questions, either. You can always set up an online survey to ask your customers important questions about your business.
If you need help, you can find free marketing tools through your local Small Business Development Center or SCORE. There are also many programs and seminars on social media and how to use it for business. When you have a good idea about your customers, you can build a marketing campaign for your business that can help build your business more effectively and bring in new customers.
