How Do I Build A Customer Profile

[jihanemo]

I run an ecommerce website but I've just realized that I really don't "know my customer". But I don't even know where to begin when figuring out the demographics of my average customer. How does a small business with limited resources conduct marketing research? How do I begin to find this information? Where do I look? How do I figure out her wants? Needs? Income? Spending habits? What does she read?

I have no idea where to start... Help!

[JEccles]

The first thing you need to do is get an analytics program. Either Google Analaytics or Statcounter will do. You may want to do both. They both have their pro's and con's. Google is great for giving you bounce rates and goals that you can set. Statcounter is great for the "where did the come from, at what time and what pages did they look at".

[Collabora]

Are you more concerned about the demographics of your customers or site visitors (who may not be customers)

[Googley]

I run an ecommerce website but I've just realized that I really don't "know my customer". But I don't even know where to begin when figuring out the demographics of my average customer. How does a small business with limited resources conduct marketing research? How do I begin to find this information? Where do I look? How do I figure out her wants? Needs? Income? Spending habits? What does she read?

I have no idea where to start... Help!

Before anything else, you need to know your customer.

This is how some of the big boys do it...

Put yourself in the customers shoes, why do they NEED this product? What NEEDS will it fulfill? What WANTS does it meet? What would have to happen psychologically, then physically, step by agonizing step, for them to buy your product?

What kind of person would have the issues that your product solves? Why do they have these issues? What do these issues get in the way of, that the customer would rather not have them in the way of? What would cause your customer to be compelled to just throw money at the problem? Are you offering them a solution? Whats in it for them?

This should be more than enough to get you started, continue with this train of thought until you know them so well, it's like you have become them. ACTUALLY FEEL their shoes on your feet. Then, test your results by trying to meet people like them in the real world and compare what you wrote down, to your objective observations in the real world. Fine tune it.