The quickest and easiest means of identifying your potential new customers is to examine your existing customers and create your customer profile. Once you have a profile that describes your best customers, you can build direct mailing lists.
To help identify your ideal customers, you also might ask the following questions:
- Who are my current customers? Explore the characteristics that define your present customers. What age are they? Are they typically married? What is their income?
- What do my customers purchase? What is the amount of the average transaction?
- When do my customers purchase? Find natural events that coincide with sales of your product or service. For example, if you own a home supply store, the best time to solicit marketing leads may be when someone moves or purchases a house.
- Where do my customers purchase? While targeting customers within close proximity of your location works, you may want to market to a larger audience.
- Where do my customers live? Do they live in close proximity to my business? Do they occupy a specific area of town?
- How many times a year do they purchase my product or service? Is the purchase cyclical or seasonal?
- What is the estimated age of my best customer? Do I have customers in several age groups? Are my customers typically the same age?
- What is their estimated household income, age, gender and marital status?
- Do they have children, and, if so, what are their ages?
- How do they spend their free time? Do they share any hobbies or interests?
- What is their estimated current home value, and how long have they lived there?
- Once you find out all you can about your customers, you can target your marketing leads lists, saving you money and increasing sales.