How To Target Your Customers and Put Them In A Buying Mood

Copyright 2002 Herman Drost

Have you spent a lot of money on advertising with the expectation that you would get many sales from the 1000s of people that visited your site or read your ad?

Have you poured money into driving traffic to your web site, only to have no one buying your product?

Maybe you have seen the ads, “Get 10,000 visitors to your site, for only $20” . Wow, you think, that’s a great bargain, I’ll go for it. The result – 10 people visiting your site and no one buying.

What’s the problem?
You have not effectively targeted your customers. Your field of customers is too large. Most of them are not interested in your product. You need to zero in the person that wants, needs and thirsts for your product.

How Do I Find My Targeted Customer?
1. You have to have to put on your customers shoes. There’s an Indian saying that says “You must walk a mile in my shoes, before you can understand me. For example, if I am selling a weight loss product, I would not be targeting skinny people, but targeting those that are overweight.

2. Make a thumb nail sketch of this person – who is your customer? What is her wants, needs and worries? Try to understand what makes them tick. Then you can understand what gain you can offer and what worry you can solve.

For example, let’s make a sketch of the overweight person.
30-50 years old
Out of shape
Probably married with children
Under a lot of pressure, tight for time, stressed
Looking for ways to improve health and wealth
Lack of self esteem

3. Develop your product that addresses one or more of these needs. Always refer back to your thumbnail sketch as you write for your site. Elaborate on the points that fit your product and what it delivers. As you start writing, new ideas will naturally emerge, but always keep them focused on your targeted customer so you won’t go off the track of what your customer wants.

Write Your Copy to Sell
When you begin to write the copy for your site, always stress the benefits. Develop a theme for your site that focuses on this benefit and don’t stray from it - see my article, “How to Get Listed in the Search Engines – Developing a Theme-Based Site” (www.isitebuild.com/searchengine.htm)

Make Sure Each Page Sells
Each page should emphasize the benefits in the headline, to pull the reader into the contents of your page. It should ask this question: “What’s in it for me? Why should I spend my precious time reading this page?”

Make sure you are writing, as if you were talking to your friend.
Make your copy one to one, conversational, friendly and personal, as if you are sitting next to the person. Write from the viewpoint of what your customer wants to buy, not what you want to sell.

Then deliver the contents in a clear, crisp way, being careful not to stray from the central purpose of what you promised in the headline.

Finally, make your customer want to click through to the next page or click through to your order page.

Now, that you have identified your targeted customer and written copy tailored to solving your customers problems, you will no longer lose those that you have driven to your site.

You have now put them in the buying mood.

Herman Drost is a Certified Web Site Designer (CIW), owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Affordable Web Site Design, Hosting, and Promotion Packages.

Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles at: subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his in-depth articles at: www.isitebuild.com/articles

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