Do you ever wonder who your customer is? I mean what are his likes and dislikes? Why must he buy from you? What do you offer which is irresistible? I have spent a few quiet moments thinking about this and I have realized that most of us are busy creating a website and never think about our customers. If you were in the old world traditional marketplace, you would have been wiped out long back. Thanks to the low cost options on the web, we seem to survive.
Understanding customer profile
Each product is designed for a specific market. If you have designed a product which caters to anyone and everyone, you have already lost it. There is a misconception among internet marketers that they can address all segments of the market. Since it is easy and rather cheap to speak to a wider audience, there is a distinct attraction to think of a humungous audience. But in the process we are likely to miss the mark altogether. It is not how many people you can get to your website but how many right customers. Understanding customer profile is extremely important. You will be able to design your website around this understanding. This means you will be able to target the right customers.
Understanding competitor profile
This tactics has been around but more in a diffused way. It is not accepted as an intrinsic part of marketing strategy but as a peripheral activity – not a must do but a nice to do kind of stuff. To me, understanding your competitor/s is the starting point. You will be able to evolve and create your marketing campaign in a more focused fashion. Extracting chinks and weak links in your competitors will help you in creating a niche product or service which others have ignored. The personality of your true customer will be born from this exercise.
Understanding your product
Don’t be surprised when I say that very few of us understand our product. We are busy looking for customers and never bother about the actual product. When customers reject our offering, we wonder what’s gone wrong – while the reason stares at us right into our eyes. Every product has strength and weakness. If you provide high quality, it comes with a hefty price tag. If a product is affordable, it doesn’t match customer expectations. Your understanding of the product you sell will mean finding the right customer.
Putting it all together
Customer, competitor and your product, each have a role to play and are interconnected. Reaching the right balance is critical to your success. No doubt it is a delicate balancing act. If you miss any one of the components, you will miss the boat. In physics this is called buoyancy. In fact, Archimedes, a Greek Mathematician, ran through his town naked, when he discovered the secret of balance. This is what we must do – not run naked through the town but discover balance between our customers, competitors and products. Who knows you might also get to cry Eureka.
This article has been written by Nitin Aggarwal, the owner and webmaster of Offshore Ally. He is one of the leading providers of virtual assistant and SEO link builders. He is interested in Internet marketing techniques and enjoys blogging. Connect with him via Twitter.