eTail 101: Ways to Find Your Target Audience

Finding the Right People To Sell To

It is difficult for online sellers to succeed if they do not know who they are selling their products to. Marketing costs a lot of money, and you cannot waste that money trying appeal to every single type of shopper. Some people may not be interested in your products, so marketing to them will not do you a lot of good. There is a specific audience for your products, and you need to figure out what that audience is so you can sell to it.

If you are having trouble finding your target audience, use these tips to narrow things down.

Who Would Use Your Product?

People Sitting Outside

When you are just starting out, it can be a bit challenging to fully identify your target audience, especially if you have not had any customers yet. In this case, you will not have specific data to work with, so you have to start simple. Go over each of your products and services, and make a list of all the features and benefits each one has.

From there, start making a few assumptions about what kind of people would benefit the most from using your products. Think about things like age groups, occupations, location, and more when you are reviewing this. The more you know about your products and services, the easier it will be to identify your target audience.

Survey Your Current Customers

Reviewing Charts

If you have managed to make a few sales before fully identifying your target audience, you are at a bit of an advantage. Ask your most recent customers why they bought some of your products, and ask them about their shopping habits. Do you notice any common traits shared by these particular customers?

This knowledge can help you get a better idea of what kind of people would be most interested in the products you offer. With this information in hand, you can adjust your business plan to attract other people who have similar shopping habits to your current customer base.

See What Your Competitors Are Doing

One of the best ways to learn more about your target audience is to check out how your competitors are handling things. Go to a competitor’s website and see which products and services are the most popular. Browse through product reviews to get an idea of what people are looking for in these particular items.

The key, however, is to not go for the exact same audience your competitors are going after. Is there something your products and services offer that the competition does not? If there is, you should focus on it, because you could appeal to a specific niche of customers that other companies are not zeroing in on.

Use Analytic Tracking

Charts on Tablet

If you are signed up with a service like Google Analytics, you can get in-depth information about the people who visit your website. This can be used to learn many things, such as what your most popular content is, and where the majority of your conversions come from. You can even learn more about specific keywords that are helping you pull in traffic.

All of this information can tell you about your recent customers, and you do not even have to ask them a single question. Gathering this info can help you determine which audience you should focus on the most with your business plan. In the end, it is a lot easier to identify with your audience when you know more about their shopping habits.

Once you have identified your target audience, it will be much easier create content that will appeal to them directly. This will lead to more conversions and a larger customer base in the future.