Learn More About the Geography of Your Customers

The more small business owners know about their customers, the more they can focus their marketing efforts on those customers and their needs. Business owners can conduct their own market research at minimal cost. Some of that research is just basic fact finding.

Some methods for identifying customers’ locations appear below. Location is important. Customers may shop only within a 15 mile radius to their homes, maybe its a 5-mile radius. You need to know where your customers live and where they shop. You want to identify shopping patterns, buying patterns and similarities between your customers. The better your understanding of your customers the better able you will be to respond to their needs.

• Internal records. Sales slips, delivery orders and charge slips all offer a simple method of identifying where customers live. On the various forms you have on-hand the addresses and phone numbers of customers will appear. You can plot the location of customers on a map and determine where you have the highest density of customers.

• Coded coupons. Another internal source of market area information is the coded coupon. When customers redeem a coupon specially coded in a newspaper or via a direct mailing, you can determine which coupons are redeemed from what sources. In addition, you can determine who redeems coupons among your customer base. Coupons are easily tracked and can provide you with a reliable source of information about the location of customers.

• Prize drawings. If you host a drawing for a free item in your shop, customers must complete an entry form. This entry form gives you valuable information about foot traffic in your store. Try to get every shopper to register for the drawing, so you can get as much information as possible about as many people as possible. This identifies customers who are in the store and adds more information to your demographic base on customers.

You want to focus on the customer and gathering as much information about him or her as possible. The better able you are to target your customer base, the better able you will be to target your sales and marketing efforts. If you would like to discuss market research, merchandises or marketing, contact the SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired Executives). More than 12,000 volunteer, business counselors donate their time and expertise to assist entrepreneurs. SCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides free and confidential business counseling to entrepreneurs as a community service. For a referral to the SCORE chapter nearest you, call 1 (800) 634-0245.

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