Digital Marketing
IN THIS LESSON
Find your competitive edge and increase your marketing efforts...
…by better understanding your customers' wants, needs, and nuances.
By making market research part of your regular routine, you can glean the meaningful insights you need to make informed, strategic decisions about your business, marketing, and products.
Common ways to collect information directly from target customers (known as “primary market research”), include examining data from your Moja storefront sales and social media sites, combing through customer reviews, conducting informal surveys, and just observing customers’ behavior online and in person. You can also dig into outside reports and analysis by government agencies or trade organizations on trends and shopping behavior. (This is known as “secondary market research.”) For example, research giants Nielsen and McKinsey Global have in-depth studies and reports on consumer habits in more than 100 countries.
These five tips are designed to help you get started with your own market research and gain a deeper understanding of your core assumptions.
1. Watch what sells (and what doesn’t)
Keep an eye on what inventory is moving through your store quickly and try to better understand why it is selling at a higher rate. Look at your keywords list and determine which high performers are bringing the most traffic to your store and think about developing a more robust product line based on those top sellers. Consider what kind of audience is drawn to those products, and why other types of listings might not be receiving similar attention. Are you highlighting a potential B2B purchaser or using demographic-specific keywords in one listing, but not the other? Search terms, budget, and relevant trends all vary between types of shoppers. If one product is not connecting with one audience, consider repositioning it with different language to increase visibility.
2. Capture information from customer questions and habits
Paying close attention to the details your customers are sharing via Connect, WhatsApp or SMS, email, and social media can help you inform and update your approach. Are you receiving a lot of custom orders for a specific variation on your product, or ongoing requests for rush shipping to a certain location? Do shoppers repeatedly ask you the same question? Consider how each time you communicate with your customers can help you better understand the unique needs of your audience. Then create a shopper persona based on those common characteristics. You can also take a more proactive approach by offering additional product variations or services and gauging customer demand for those offerings.
3. See what shoppers are saying in reviews
Encourage buyers to use the Message Seller feature on your storefront site to leave feedback. Not only will buyer feedback reassure new visitors to your storefront, it will also help you learn more about the use-cases and expectations of your customers. Pay close attention to whether customers are satisfied with the quality of your products, and if they mention buying your item for themselves or as a gift. It can also be helpful to research reviews for similar products or categories around the web for ideas on how to get ahead of your competition.
4. Amplify your in-person efforts
Any time you show off your products face-to-face at trade fairs or open-air markets, take note of what captures customer interest. What questions are they asking? How do they interpret your product’s purpose and value? When you are a primarily online business, in person interactions are a rare opportunity to actually put a face to the abstract definition of your target market. The people your items resonate with the most might surprise you.
5. Learn about their lives from social media
Think of social media as an opportunity to communicate directly with customers. It is a chance to bounce ideas off your followers, giving them an opportunity to weigh in and be involved. Pay close attention to which posts generate more conversation than others, to ensure repeat success down the line. Every social media channel can help you learn new and different things about your market. From Facebook’s demographic tools (available for brand pages), you can learn more about the average age, gender, and location of those who “Like” your storefront’s page.
Utilizing all of the available information will give you a more complete picture of your target market, keeping you and your marketing efforts nimble and on point.