Do you know who your next customer is going to be?
Can you tell me in detail who your current customer is? Can you use that detail to predict where and when your next customer is coming from?
Does this sound familiar?:
“I’ve exhausted all ideas on how to gain new customers and even the ones I have aren’t really buying my products?!”
“I thought my customer was X, Y, Z, but actually a totally different audience is buying my product! What should I do?!”
I totally get it and hear it all the time, that’s why I’m writing this blog post for you.
This is the key growth trend of 2021
To gain new customers, you really need to who your customer base is in other words who your audience this. By knowing who your audience is will enable you to personalise your approach and to be targeted, as you should never use a scattergun approach when trying to increase your sales.
Your approach should always start with knowing who is my audience, where do they shop, what do they value, what are their hopes and desires as well as pain points, so that you can ensure your brand answers these.
Knowing who your customer is really is the key sales growth trend of 2021. So get to know them now!
These 2 brands that know who their next customer is going to be ...
The importance of knowing who your customer is has been seen by leading brands Nike and ASOS, who continually upsell to their engaged community.
For example; Nike has created a community in their fitness app offering exercise plans plus health advice, which speaks directly to their audience. This enables them to gain product feedback as well as, upsell all in one place.
Sales growth will come from knowing exactly who your audience is and building a community that offers a level of engagement and customer service beyond your competitors.
Now looking at ASOS; ASOS relies heavily on influencer marketing, using influencers that sit exactly within their audience demographic, that use highly engaging content to interact and sell ASOS products.
ASOS creates aspirational but also real context, that over time has built an addictive community, where you’re afraid to blink as you could miss out!
Aside from this, ASOS also has a fantastic rewards scheme, where for a small cost you can join their club and gain express shipping on all orders plus other perks!
Learn from the best, and think of creative ways to build your community.
So, let me ask you - What do you know about your audience?
Needing some help? Then let me share with you some methods you can use to start to understand your audience better.
Consider using:
- Hotjar – analyse your page performance and see where you lose the most customers by using Hotjar user heatmap. This will teach you about your user journey, and where your customers lose interest in you. You will therefore learn what makes them stick around and browse for longer.
- Google Analytics – To understand what ads perform best ie what messaging, power offer converts the highest.
- Build a community to create a space that they feel comfortable in and enjoy visiting so that in time you can use this space to gain feedback and learn more about your audience based on their engagement in your content. Options being:
- Invite them into a closed FB group or invite them to tag themselves in your product on your IG account.
- Create a community via your blog, as per Anthropologie
- Create engaging EDM sequences and upon purchase request product feedback by incentivising them with a % off their next order
- Give your customers a name for example Megan Crosby calls her customers BMC Babes!
- Read customer reviews on your competitor’s products as it is likely that you will share the same target audience, therefore highlighting to you the competitive advantage.
To learn more about how to discover your audience mood and how to use this data to create highly converting ads, enrol in Fashion ScaleUP! Now. Fashion marketing & sales growth course + coaching. It will only cost you AU$50!
"Sales growth will come from knowing exactly who your audience is and building a community that offers a level of engagement and customer service beyond your competitors."
Carley johnson
Here are 4 methods to gain new customers
Before jumping into the 4 methods, I just want to remind you of the importance of changing your mindset when thinking ‘Oh I wish I had more customers’.
If you focused more on ‘Oh I wish I had more sales’, this would open your eyes to exactly what your end goal is, that is making sales and not gaining likes or more followers on Instagram.
The 4 sales-generating methods therefore are:
Method 1 – Incentivise sign-ups to your community (blog, newsletters, community) with a free gift or a % off and this has to be followed up with a solid EDM sequence ready to nurture and up-sell them into a sale. Focus on writing copy that converts, along with strong campaign ideas that speak directly to your target audience.
Method 2 – Invest in marketing, generating ads only on the channels where your audiene is present using the right tone of voice and ad copy that answers your audience pain points.
Method 3 – In line with your product/collection launches invest in influencers marketing if that relates to your audience, ensuring you partner with influencers within the same demographic, as well as increase your PR efforts to gain coverage on podcasts or on editorials where your audience hang out.
Method 4 – Improve your value stack and pricing proposition vs your competitors. Make your offer irresistible to your audience therefore they simply just cannot resist. For example product bundles, payment plans, buy 1 get 1 free etc
You've got this!
I really hope this blog has enabled you to see that you first need to know who your audience is to the deepest level of understanding in which to gain new customers.
But most importantly, I hope this post has taught you to not focus on increasing your customer count but to focus on how do I increase my sales growth, as this really is the end goal.
In 2021, work hard to build your community, to build trusting relationships that will enable you to nurture your community into being repeat customers for your fashion brand.
