Over time, businesses grow and change. Part of that growth often involves entering into a new market. If you’ve decided to go from serving a local market to serving a global market, you’ll find yourself in amongst cutthroat competition. On the other hand, perhaps you’re just expanding into another city or state. Regardless, if you don’t know how to find customers in your new market you’ll fail miserably. Let’s look at ways to find customers in your new market.
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1. Know Who Your Customer Is
To find new customers in your new market, you need to know what your customer looks like. Ask yourself these questions:
- Do they have kids
- Do they shop online or in-store
- What are their hobbies
- What are their demographics
- What makes them happy
- Where do they work
- Where do they play
2. Where Can They be Found in Your New Market?
You may know where to find your current customer but you need to know where to find your customer in the new market. You will need to take some time to understand your new market.
- What is the average income
- Who are the major employers
- What is the average family size
- What is the population of the area
3. Your Ideal Customer
Once you have profiled your customer, it’s easy to find your ideal customer. There are all kinds of online message boards, newsletters, groups, and websites devoted to an explicit group of people. Take some time to do some research to find relevant groups of people by searching online.
4. Target Those Customers
You know who your customer is, you know where to find them, and now you can target them both online and off. You can now gear your marketing to that group. There are many different forms of advertising. Try to think outside the box and not use the basic “sale” tactics. Look to newsletters, free advice, coupons, forums, and social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Squidoo, which offer you a unique way to reach out to your potential customers.
The internet has changed the way business is done. It’s allowed us to reach out and target new markets far away, but it has also created a highly competitive market. That means you need to be thinking ahead of the competition. You need to be thinking outside the box to grab new customers before someone else does. The stakes are high, but he who expands into a new market and understands the customer wins!
