Tight Budget? Things You Need To Know To Let Your Business' Buck Go Further

Know your Customers

With the help of technology it's just that much easier and faster to know your customer. Your customer is voicing their problems, concerns, and ideas without having to be asked or taking boring surveys just to receive a lousy $5 that won't be available for withdrawal till next month. You survey takers know what I'm talking about.

Big Businesses - They Know Their Audiences

Zappos – They knew and understand who their customers are. But how was this possible? This is because they ask. Every business day, they tend to engage with their customers and ask them relevant questions. This way, they get ideas straight from them and even get creative suggestions. Zappos CEO stated that this is how they get ideas. By talking to their customers directly, they outline the best strategies for their next business’ game plan.

Sears - By knowing their customers, they initiated a rewards program without any use of cards. Upon understanding that customers deal with so many reward cards with different businesses, it served as a call for the company to defy the norm and went card-less.

Microsoft - (Xbox VS PlayStation) when the company introduced their own gaming console to the U.S., it is indeed quite a challenge for them since Sony's PlayStation is reigning supreme. But by hearing the complaints of many PlayStation users, Xbox improved their console and attracted new customers to the business. Customer interaction plays a huge role to their success. From Xbox live, to headsets, to cooperative online gaming, to high definition graphics, quality and speed of games, and diversified game genres. Just by doing so, they we're able to overcome a great competitor.

There are plenty more example but I think you get the point. Knowing your customer is key to soaring the high skies of success with your business.

How to "know your customers"

Well some of the ways that I have found it best to engage with customers online without taking silly surveys are....

1. Forums- Go and visit a forum that generally targets your ideal market place. For example lets say that I'm into dog training. I would Google "dog training forums." Now I would look at that forum and see how active it is by looking at latest postdates. Then I dive into the subject matters of each form area. Like "First Time Dog Training", "Dog Training Tips", or "even dog health questions". Get in there solve some problems and become the "go to expert" or take the investigator approach and document the problems people seem to be having. I would go to as many active forums you can find and get a great perspective of the demand and if there is a shared problem.

2. Yahoo answers- This is a great way to engage with customers, or even get ideas for blog post. You know it's funny but I didn't really get turned on by the idea till after i began actively searching for questions to answer on the internet for my target audience. Yahoo answers is great because it allows potential customers to view your answer then look up information about you from your picture and profile information that will be linked back to your website. plus the answers says on there for a long time getting traffic which could lead to more clicks to your profile and site on autopilot.

3. Twitter Search – Twitters are often utilized to follow businesses and other people. You could also use relevant keywords so you can view what people are saying about your market in ‘real time’. There may be quite a number of spams but you may be able to locate those real questions and comments. You can utilize those to initiate a topic and become the subject matter expert.

4. Your Competitors – They’re here for a reason. You will be able to size up the issues in your chosen industry. If you would visit your competitors’ website, you’ll find out that they are trying to solve common issues and talk about it on the first page of their website. They would even offer freebies to attract more people. You could also encounter words that are used incessantly throughout the entire website. That’s the power of keywords in order for them to be found online.

There are still many more ways to know your customers but we will keep this short and straightforward.

Ask yourself the question if your business possesses a fight chance. Because there are many businesses out there under your same target market. You'll see the same content over and over again and could make you feel sick. In fact, your customers may feel the same too. They will become irritated to find out that no one seemed to be doing something better.

Therefore, what you must do is to defy the gravity. "Nichify yourself" and make your business stand out from the rest. Social media is powerful thus personal branding is highly important. Being unique is essential because people want to hear something new. The more unique you are, the more different you are from the other. Thus, people are attracted more to your uniqueness.

The more you make your business products/ services unique then the more the right customers will be drawn to it. To help you with this process I will share with you a structure used to make your business products and services a force to be reckoned with.

1. Are you aware of your target market?
2. Do you know why you have chosen that market?
3. Do you know what these people are usually looking for?
4. Do you have means of communicating with them?
5. Do you know their main problems?
6. Do you offer help and benefits that could help them?
7. Do you know what to say when they ask about why they should care about your business?
8. Do you have an efficient way of attending to their concerns?
9. Do you know what to tell your customers as to why your business is better than your competitors?
10. Have you constructed your own USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?
11. How can you WOW your customers?
12. What will you do to educate your customers instead of selling them your products?
13. Are you efficiently creating videos to show your customers with?

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