Know Target Customer

Customer service is the most important thing in business. It doesn’t matter if you are B2B or B2C customers are customers. That said, do you know who they are? Their age? What type of education they have? What about their average income? Knowing your target audience is a must in business.

Do Your Homework
Think about your product or service. Who do you envision is buying it? Now you have a good idea of who your customer is, so now you have to think like them. Where do they find their information? What makes them get excited? What is the price point they are looking for in your type of product?

What are their Online Habits?

People consume information in different ways. Some might like information sent to them via email, others like social networks like Twitter or Facebook.  Social media is a great way to reach your audience and learn what they like and don’t like. Before you can do that, you need to know where they are engaging. Once that is established, the rest can follow.

What’s the Tone of Your Messaging?
With more and more people engaging in social media and reading blogs a conversational tone has become more popular. In many cases people want to feel like they are talking with their friend, not a stark corporation.  If your industry allows, try using a conversational tone in your messaging and see if it works for your company.

People Change
Remember that people change. This isn’t to say your entire demographic will suddenly wake up and change everything about themselves. But as technology evolves so does habits. Make sure you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and how your audience decides to welcome them.

In the end it comes down to how you monitor your audience. Keeping an open mind and realize they might change their habits over the years will set you up for success.

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Dominate Competitors

Starting a business is no easy task. You have to find capital, research your key audience and if you are a one man show you are wearing multiple hats. Once you get your business off the ground, you have more time to look into what your competitors are doing currently. You probably did research when you first started, but the landscape in your industry could have changed since the last time you did a good in-depth look.

Audit their Sites
When you decide to dive deep into competitor analysis, you have to start somewhere. Pick your top three or four competitors and see what they are doing. Audit their site and see what keywords they are using, how their site is laid out and what sites are linking back to theirs. Chances are you will see comparisons. Are they on similar sites? Are they using similar keywords and key phrases? How do their sites look similar and differ? What do you like about each?

How Can You Do It Better?
Once you have the information you need, the ball is in your court. How can you do it better than them? What are your strengths? Do you have a rock star SEO team that can blow them out of the water? Plan out a great strategy that will benefit your website and company. Remember Google can be fickle, and what works for one website might not work for another.

Revisit your strategy monthly. There are too many moving parts to online marketing not to. Stay up-to-date on industry trends and news. You never know when Google might pull out another major change to their algorithm. Make sure you stay ahead of the curve, it can help your site and blast your competitors out of the water.

 

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