What makes a good business owner stand out is the attention and care they give to their customers. But how do you offer value to them if you don’t know your target audience? Many business owners focus on delivering the product but skip a very important step: identifying the ever-changing needs of their customers.
Here are 4 steps every business owner should take:
1. Schedule a call with your customers
The impact of a 5-minute phone call can be huge, in terms of understanding your target audience. By personally reaching out to them, you are not only showing that you care and value their feedback, but you are also building rapport with them, as well as increasing your company’s credibility and trustworthiness. Plus, it is an opportunity to collect suggestions on how to improve your business model and approach.
2. Ask them to fill out feedback forms
Surveys have been used consistently over the years but they haven’t stopped being one of the most effective ways to identify your audience and collect key information about their preferences. Surveying customers when they join your mailing list or when they purchase a product or service from you is one of the most common and organic techniques. It is always important to outline what people should expect from your company when they sign up to hear from you, in order to set the right expectations and keep the engagement levels high.
Some of the top platforms we recommend to create surveys and questionnaires are Typeform, Survicate, SurveyMonkey, SurveyGizmo and PollDaddy.
3. Provide incentives
Offering incentives is another effective way of collecting feedback from your customers. Whether it’s a discount code, free samples, or a membership upgrade, you could use incentives to receive valuable information in return.
4. Utilize social media
Everyone uses social media these days, regardless of their age. Social media is a great tool to discover what your customers’ interests and demographics are. You can easily identify your target audience by simply looking into your Facebook or Instagram insights section. Regardless of the social media platform you use, audience analytics have become extremely sophisticated in recent years, giving you the most up-to-date information regarding your target audience.
You can also create social media posts to give your customers the opportunity to ask you questions or ask them specific questions about your products or services, about their experience, and about their level of satisfaction. In addition, you can become active in other relevant-to-your-business social media groups in order to interact with your target audience by engaging into conversations with them. Pay attention to common questions or comments, and then use them to your advantage.
Once you have followed the aforementioned steps, gather all the data you have collected and compare them. Your collective results should be your guide to adjust your creative content, emphasize on different products, revamp your website, or improve your responsiveness. Whatever your challenges may be, if you don’t ask your customers you’ll never find out.
