It’s an old adage, but it’s true: people can’t buy from you if they don’t know you’re there.
And, with an increasing number of channels available, it can be tricky to know how to reach your ideal customer. So where do you start?
Know your ideal customer
It’s much easier to reach your target audience if you know a lot about them, so it’s really important to build some customer profiles. You’ll need to think about a variety of things, including:
- Gender
- Age
- Employment type
- Amount of disposable income
- Location
- Education
- Where they shop
- Where they holiday
- Products they like to buy
You can find out some of this information by analysing the data you collect already, but you can also gather it in an informal way, by talking to your customers, learning more about them and listening to what they say about how they like to shop with you. You can also use wider industry statistics to see what the current and predicted trends are, giving you inspiration about how to get the word out.
Building this profile will let you start to understand how you might get your business in front of them. This might be via specialist pages on Facebook, or by joining a dedicated chat on Twitter. If you own an interiors store, your customers will be inspired by images, so you should consider Instagram and Pinterest. Consider holding relevant open evenings or offering discounts to club members, or involving yourself more with the specific community you’re trying to reach.
And look at all ways of getting your message out, before refining it for your particular business. Whilst print advertising is declining as a medium, it might still work for you. In the same way, Facebook might be great for other businesses, but not so suited to you. You might have a great email database, in which case email marketing is a valuable option.
Get your message right
Just as important as identifying your market is creating your message. For this, you need to know why someone would want to come in and buy from you. Are they only likely to come in when they need a gift? Are they dedicated followers of a particular brand? Do they come in regularly to stock up on your product lines? Knowing why people cross your threshold allows you to speak directly to them in your marketing. You can remind them about picking something up ahead of a key date; or give them some hints and tips on how to choose the best product, or offer a discount or multi-buy on a best-seller.
If you get this right, you end up speaking to the right people, at the right time, on the right channel, with the right message. And that means your marketing campaigns are far more likely to be successful.
How can we help?
Modulus Retail integrates with your CRM system, allowing you to have complete control over what’s happening in your store. See immediately which campaigns are resulting in sales; get automatic notifications when you need to re-order stock to keep up with demand, and compare your online sales with your shop sales to see how you can tweak your campaigns to sell more across all your retail channels.
You can try Modulus now for 3 months for just £1 per month! There’s no obligation and you’ll have a helping hand to set things up for you.
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