Online Market is really huge and millions of shoppers are ready to purchase every day even every minute! This is so encouraging and heart-warming factor for ecommerce entrepreneurs but there is one more huge thing that they should also know : They are not alone! Online shoppers have a vast selection of companies vying for their attention so, if you want to become successful in e-commerce business then you need to develop a strategy for attracting the attention of your possible customers. Here comes “Defining Target Audience”. Which means analyzing “exactly” who you need to be selling to and how to sell to them.
Define Your Target Audience
The main step in this strategy is to define your “general audience”. Is your product more suitable for consumers, or businesses, or both? For example, just think that, you are selling a wooden table. If it is a “wooden table for gardens or living rooms, we can easily say your product is “more suitable for consumers”. On the other hand, if you are selling “wooden table for offices”, now you can put that under “more suitable for businesses” category. This will help us while we are preparing our Marketing Strategies. Now you can start to categorize your products for the types of businesses or people.
Answer These Questions:
*What is your product/service?
Let’s continue together with the example product : “handmaded earrings”.
*Who will the product connect with and appeal to?
Generally, I want to reach “women” that love online shopping and fashion for my handmaded earrings.
*How will the product be used?
In Online Sales, customers don’t have the chance of feeling and trying the product . So you have to show them how they are going to look when being worn. It means you need to add images with models wearing your designs, rather than just the earrings themselves.
Time to Research
We have just decided our example product as “handmade earrings” and our target as “women that love online shopping and fashion”. But this is a very wide target market. To get more “related results”, we have to narrow this down a bit and offer products that appeal to a particular section of the women. Think of your perfect customer and then ask yourself the following questions:
After these answers, we will have much better options to focus our marketing attention.
Design Your Website Based on The Target
Website Design
You need to think about the name of your website, design, layout and logo. It should be something attractive and women-oriented, as well as trendy and stylish.
Price
Do you think your products are unique and they can be purchased anyway even if it has high price? (higher than your competitors’ similar products?) Or , Are you crafting basic, easy to find anywhere earrings? Think about your target audience and product specifications then decide your price accordingly.
Additional Value
Consider that, if there are any some other interests that your target audience might have. For example, blogosphere where they can easily learn about crafting process. Or, reviews field that can raise their trusts to be sure to purchase the item. Details does matter!
Channels to Focus More
For every product type, whatever you are selling, after deciding your target audience, you have much more chance to find the “exact” channels for marketing. For our example “earrings”, you can consider fashion websites, magazine blogs, etc. Another example for video game sellers, game forums, online gaming websites or technology websites can be suitable areas. Also, you should decide a “message” that will pass along the product’s strengths and key features to the audience. Give the reason why they must buy yours even they are able to get anywhere else? Is it exclusive, or best priced, or free of shipping costs? Find that “unbeatable” feature of your product, I mean, what actually sells your product, and promote it to your target audience in your exact channels. As a conclusion, in today’s online market, you can’t ignore these strategies above if you want to run a successful ecommerce business, but, as you’ve just finished reading, it is not that hard to carry out! At least, easier than trying to survive in the online market without having them =)
Define your TargetE-commerce Businessgeneral audienceTarget Audience