Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Do You REALLY Know What Your Business Does?
I've been working hard lately on a project for a client and discovered something amazing. I'll tell you what it is in a moment, but first a little background.
I've worked for that client for over four years. I didn't know much when I started his site and I learned as I went. Since I was so green at Internet marketing back then, I never went through some of the steps I now would.
The site still has a lot of beginner errors embedded deeply in its structure and its copywriting that could stand a fresh look. So we decided to go back and look at the site as if we were starting from scratch.
We started reminiscing about customer reactions. We studied sales and log files to glean exactly what customers are turning to us for. And, lo and behold, suddenly it hit us that we've been approaching our customers from the wrong direction.
And the more I've studied what competitors are doing, the more convinced I've become that our competitors aren't competitors after all. While customers have been turning to those companies for far more general needs, they've been turning to us for far more focused, niche needs.
After four years, I suddenly discover that I really didn't fully understand what draws customers to us. Incredible!
It just goes to prove that there's no substitute for really getting to know your target audience and what they want. You can bet that this project will result in a site that is much more focused on appealing to those needs that we now find are central to customers' needs. And that should result in far higher conversion rates and greater sales.
Like I say, there's no substitute for understanding your customers. How well do you know yours?
Jeff
I've been working hard lately on a project for a client and discovered something amazing. I'll tell you what it is in a moment, but first a little background.
I've worked for that client for over four years. I didn't know much when I started his site and I learned as I went. Since I was so green at Internet marketing back then, I never went through some of the steps I now would.
The site still has a lot of beginner errors embedded deeply in its structure and its copywriting that could stand a fresh look. So we decided to go back and look at the site as if we were starting from scratch.
We started reminiscing about customer reactions. We studied sales and log files to glean exactly what customers are turning to us for. And, lo and behold, suddenly it hit us that we've been approaching our customers from the wrong direction.
And the more I've studied what competitors are doing, the more convinced I've become that our competitors aren't competitors after all. While customers have been turning to those companies for far more general needs, they've been turning to us for far more focused, niche needs.
After four years, I suddenly discover that I really didn't fully understand what draws customers to us. Incredible!
It just goes to prove that there's no substitute for really getting to know your target audience and what they want. You can bet that this project will result in a site that is much more focused on appealing to those needs that we now find are central to customers' needs. And that should result in far higher conversion rates and greater sales.
Like I say, there's no substitute for understanding your customers. How well do you know yours?
Jeff
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