How to Find Your Target Customers
When you are looking to start up a new project or launch a new product, you need to understand who comprises the market you are about to target.
You need to gather two types of data: primary and secondary. Primary research is information directly from the mouth of the market – potential customers. There are numerous methods to conduct this; surveys, focus groups, interviews – and all this data collection has been made easy by the advent of the internet. You can simply create an online survey and share it across social media to gain the most number of responses. Secondary research on the other hand is the gathering of statistics, reports, and other data that has been collected over time by commerce, governmental bodies, or universities. The best places to look up secondary information are the local library and internet.
To collect data and market your product, you need to ensure that there is enough buzz around your brand on social media. This buzz can be converted into survey responses and an identification of the target market associated with your offering. To ensure this, you can do the following:
• Build a following in the blogger community – approach them for reviews and send them free samples.
• Allow a discount for your social media followers once in a while.
• Respond to comments and questions – do not lose your cool even when a negative review is posted.
• Do maximum damage control – try to turn unhappy customers into happy repeaters.
• Use hash tags – using hash tags allows your page to come up in related searches.
• Have competitions which involve sharing and liking your pages/twitter profile.
• Use humor but be sensitive – post about happy events and even sad ones; put a human face to your brand.
By combining these techniques, you can carve out the exact niche that you want to target and aim your marketing and product at them from day one.
marketing