Knowing exactly who your customers are is the simplest way to determine where you should be advertising and what you should be saying. You can greatly increase your advertising results by catering to an audience you know is interested.

Here are some tips that will help you determine who you should be marketing to:

Who are your customers? There are two (or so) methods of thinking… 1) You have a very specific customer-type in mind, you only want to cater to these customers. 2) Anyone with a pulse is a potential customer. It is difficult to turn away ANY business, however you are going to save yourself time and money if you can profile your customer-type and market directly to them. Ultimately, you will end up with longer term, quality customers if you know who you should be looking for and market to them.

This goes along with number 1. However, it has its own number because it is so vitally important for you to know what is going on in the market. Stay on top of current events and trends. Use current happenings to your advantage. For example if banana sales are way down this quarter, perhaps know would be a good time to advertise your home-grown oranges. That example may be a little elementary; however you may be surprised at how current events affect your business.

Talking with and relating to your customers can help you learn a lot about who is buying your products and why, enabling you to create a pretty accurate customer profile. Getting to know your clients on a more personal level, not only does wonders for your marketing strategies, but it benefits you on a customer service level too! That is a two for one, my friends! Ask away. You may find that most of your customers are retired men who live in the suburbs or maybe your customers come primarily from rural areas, and consist mostly of middle-aged family women who drive mini-vans. All this information is very helpful when planning a marketing campaign.