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One important area that will need to be defined is; will you be dealing with individuals or businesses? Who is your product truly geared toward?
Individuals When defining your individual customers it is best to answer following questions in as much details as possible.
1.What is sex of your customer? Are they male or female? 2.What is average age range of your customer? 13-22? 22-32? 3.Is product aimed at a younger customer but bought by an older customer? 4.Is product aimed at an older customer but bought by a younger one? 5.What is their average income level? Less than 14,000 a year? More than 15,000 a year? 6.Is there a specific career or aptitude product relates to? (i.e. is it aimed at medical profession, legal profession, etc.) 7.What other interests could this demographic group possibly have? Do you have other products that might be relevant?
Businesses When defining possible business customers, similar questions come into play.
1.What is industry you will be selling to? 2.Is there a specific sales level? 3.Who are top names in that industry? Locally? Nationally? World Wide? 4.What would be relevant data in industry? 5.What else do you know about businesses you will be selling to?
Geographic Profile Thanks to Internet all businesses can now reach world and not just their backyard. This can sometimes make geographic profiling hard. It also makes it very important. Remember that Chevy sold very few Novas in Spanish speaking counties because no va means “no go” – quite an unintended message. Unintended messages can pop up rather easily if you do not define your geographic sales area. What does it take to define your geographic sales area? Let’s start with basics.
1.Where are your customers located? Will they be in your backyard – within your town, county, or state? Will they be in your country? Or will they be worldwide? 2.How many customers are there in your market? Are you marketing to a specific group or does your product have mass appeal? 3.What is dollar value of sales that occur in your market each year? Is it possible to make income necessary for your lifestyle?
Other Considerations Basic demographics can often be fun and interesting, because you learn more about your product, your customers and way your customers think and perceive your product. Sometimes basics are enough to increase your sales potential and yet, there are times that basics provide to little information. The possibility of customers worldwide creates need for more information. Will there be shipping and handling issues? Language, communication, issues? Cultural differences? What will someone else see that we don’t?
Demographics are very important when it comes to site design. We no longer live in age where our backyard is truly our backyard, and even when we design a site for our local area, world has option to view it. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” didn’t start with Neil Armstrong on moon, it really started on Internet.
Wynn Wilder is a Website Psychologist and owner of Critical Thinking (http://www.thinkingcritically.net)