Marketing : Think Like a Customer

Today, marketing has been turned upside down. The traditional 4 P’s of marketing: product, promotion, place and price are still sound business principles but have all been rearranged, reconfigured and redefined because of the Internet.

“Think Like a Customer” is an attempt for business owners to get into the mindset of the new customer (buyer).  Your potential customer has an unfulfilled need and the business needs to think like a customer to capture that opportunity.

Let’s look at some simple questions you should be asking yourself:

• How does the potential customer find your business? (Make it easy.)
• Now that they found you, what are your unique features/benefits?
• Why would they want to buy from your business? (What is it your business offers that makes you different?)
• What is going to get them to come back as a valued customer? (Repeat purchases.)

A potential customer wants to purchase a pair of left-handed scissors, so they immediately grab their Internet-accessible device (desktop, laptop, tablet, iPad, android or iPhone) and start searching.

This brings up the first of many questions about your business:

• Does your business have several social media sites? Are you mobile-friendly? (The most popular are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.)
• Is the business Website easy to find and updated on a regular basis?
• Is your Website mobile-compatible? (Fifty percent of Internet traffic takes places on mobile devices.)

Is your site using strong keywords that purchasers might be looking for?

What type of left-handed scissors?

• Professional (hairstylist, pet groomer)
• Commercial grade (manufacturing or service industry)
• Consumer/Children

Does your company sell other left-handed products?

Now that the potential customer is on your Website:

• Educate and inform them of what your company offers.
• Make it easy for them to move around, get more information and assist in the buying process.
• Give them many choices of when, why and how to make a buying decision.

Marketing is still marketing but it has changed and will continue to change as e-commerce/online sales growth explodes.  The Internet is just one of many ways to promote your company and should not be the one and only method of finding customers.