Understanding Your Ideal Customer to Increase Website Conversions

Unlocking the potential of your online business hinges on one pivotal element: understanding your ideal customer. In this episode, we will unravel the secrets of identifying and connecting with your target audience to boost your website conversions. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, I'll share actionable tips that help you step into your customer's shoes and use relatable language to forge stronger connections.


Mentioned Resources

Using ChatGPT in your Business

Episode 61: How to Write a Blog in Minutes Versus Hours Using AI

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Chapters

• 0:45 Understanding Your Ideal Customer for E-Commerce
• 11:55 Connecting With Customers for E-Commerce

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:45

Running an online business is a journey filled with many challenges and learning opportunities. One of the most critical aspects of this journey is truly understanding who your ideal customer is. This is a topic that is close to my heart because I've seen firsthand how powerful it can be in transforming a business. Today, we're diving deep into the concept of understanding your ideal customer and how this knowledge can help you increase your website conversions. So join me as we explore actionable insights that can elevate your online business. Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, k Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine-month-old my main goal To help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry, and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the e-commerce made easy podcast. Today, we're focusing on a fundamental aspect of running a successful online business understanding your ideal customer. This knowledge isn't just a nice to have. It's really is a necessity If you want to increase your website conversions and grow your business. It can really make or break your website.

Carrie Saunders: 2:12

I remember when we first started out it felt like we were throwing spaghetti at the wall sometimes to see what would stick. We had great products, but we weren't sure if we were connecting with our customers in a way that really lead to conversions. As soon as I nailed that down and dialed that in, our conversions and our sales exploded. I stepped back and took a look at what the current customers what I thought they really needed and wanted and what their pain points were and how they thought and how they processed information. As soon as I got that in there, that clarity allowed us to tailor our marketing efforts and our website design and copy on our website and even our product offerings to better meet the needs of our audience. So the first step in understanding your ideal customer is to really define them. Who are they, what do they do? What are their pain points and desires? Think about the demographics, psychographics and behaviors of your ideal customer. For me, it was online business owners just like me wanting to have an online web presence that easily sold to their customers, so I could really put myself in their shoes. So I can really put my you know myself in their shoes. So when you create a detailed buyer persona that includes their age, gender, occupation, their interests and any other relevant information you might think is important, this will help serve as a guide for your marketing and product development efforts.

Carrie Saunders: 3:39

And don't take this lightly. Make sure that you do this, and I would challenge you to revisit this every few years, however often you feel like you want to see another growth. How often ever you think that you've learned a lot from what you've already done? Regularly revisiting this is a great idea. Maybe once a year, or maybe every two years. Honestly, when you're starting out, though, you may want to revisit this every three to six months, you do want to give yourself some time to see if your persona and how you're speaking to your ideal client is working. So make sure you're not changing this every week or every month, but really look at where are you in your business. How often should you be monitoring this and updating your ideal persona to make sure that you're still effectively talking to your ideal clients?

Carrie Saunders: 4:24

One way is if you already have established clients and people buying from you is. You can conduct surveys or interviews with your current customers, ask them about their needs, their preferences, their challenges, in whatever your problems you're solving, and this direct feedback can provide invaluable insights that you may not have considered otherwise, even if you might be in the same marketplace as them. You may hear some words or some language that somebody else uses that you may not have thought of, just because their life experience is different, even if you might be on the long along the same path, kind of like we are with some of our clients. But if you're brand new and don't have any clients yet, put yourself in their shoes. What pain points or problems are you solving with your products or services? What would they need to feel and know to connect with your product?

Carrie Saunders: 5:15

Remember, your goal is to be able to have the words they would use and make sure you're talking to them, not at them. You want to, really, not at them. You want to really be communicating with them, so it's more like you're talking to someone familiar, like your friend or business bestie. Using too stiff and formal language can be quite the turnoff for most customers. There are some exceptions to businesses that need to be talking a bit more formal, but you need to be using the language that they're going to be using. So keep that very much in mind and if you really get stuck, you can use artificial intelligence to help you get back on track. Be sure to listen to episode 61, if you haven't already on how to really nail down utilizing AI better. We have our guest Sam in there who really helps us figure out how can we use AI to write a blog post really quickly, and you can glean many of that information there. To also figuring out who your ideal customer is using episode 61. So be sure to check that out. We'll have a link direct link to it in the show notes.

Carrie Saunders: 6:13

All right, so once you have a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is, you can start tailing your content to meet their needs. This means creating blog posts, videos, social media updates and other forms of content that address their pain points and provide solutions. Do the aspects of these contents that works best for you? Don't feel like you have to be everywhere and all the places. Just be consistent in a handful of places and you'll be good there. So when your content resonates with your audience, they're more so. For example, let's say. You know your ideal customer is a busy mom looking for quick and healthy meal solutions. You can create content that offers recipes, meal planning tips and time-saving kitchen hacks. By addressing their specific needs, you show that you understand their challenges and are there to help. Be sure to use specific words they would use also. I mentioned this a few times already in this episode, but it's really truly important, especially if you are maybe an experienced mom and are now maybe a grandmother, but you can look back on your life and see how you were as a mom. Make sure you're using the mom language, not the grandmother language, if your target audience is the moms out there. So just an example of how our experiences might change our language.

Carrie Saunders: 7:31

We want to make sure we're still using the language in our copy and for our website that is targeted to the people that you are serving there. So, with a clear understanding of your ideal customer and tailored content in place on your website, it's time to optimize for website conversions. This involves making sure your website's user-friendly, with clear call to actions that guide visitors towards taking their desired action, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase or filling out a contact form. So we talk about this a lot on the podcast, so you'll want to incorporate your information you get when you research your ideal customer to these elements on your website. You also want to make sure your website loads quickly and is easy to navigate and provides a seamless user experience across all devices. Again, this is a lot of topics we cover here on the podcast, so be sure to go through some of our other episodes for a little bit more details.

Carrie Saunders: 8:22

But when we're doing that, we want to make sure we use compelling headlines, engaging visuals and persuasive copy to capture your visitor's intention of keeping them engaged. So when you're writing those compelling headlines, you want to use the language of your ideal customer to really draw them in and help them feel connected to you. So when we talk about making sure we're optimizing our website, that's part of it. It's part of it. It's just our language. It's not really anything technical, it's our language and how we have visuals on the website, the images, the graphics that you use.

Carrie Saunders: 8:56

Make sure that you're really speaking to your ideal customer and then remember that this is an iterative process. We need to test and refine when we're understanding our ideal client. We may get close the first few times but, like I said earlier on, we're going to want to test and refine and optimize our website as we go, so regularly testing different elements of your website and marketing strategies to make sure you're seeing what is best. And when you're doing this, make sure you provide enough time to get some good results. You know depends on how fast your market moves Could be a few weeks, could be a few months. So make sure that you're doing this in a manner that's really getting you the best day that you can receive for that and if you're not sure, give it at least three weeks to four weeks. When you're doing collecting the data, it's kind of a good benchmark is to at least give it several weeks, all right. So by the taking the time to understand your ideal customer, you can really create a more personalized and effective marketing strategies that resonates with your audience and drives conversions.

Carrie Saunders: 10:02

I know for me, whenever I was writing product descriptions for many of our plugin modules to software, when I really thought about how the client thinks what are they really looking for? What pain points is this product going to solve? Once I started using the language of our clients, those products that I took the time to do that on really sold like hotcakes. And if I look back at our website, too, for those products that didn't sell very well, I can really see I was in a hurry, honestly, and didn't really make sure that I wrote the copy for the product that really resonated with the client. So make sure that you're really spending a good amount of time doing this. It's really not wasted effort. I know many times in our busy business lives we can kind of rush product descriptions or service descriptions, but when we really refine and nail down speaking to the client like a familiar person, like you would speak to a familiar person and using their language, you're really going to super increase your conversion rates on those pages. So make sure that you are reviewing this and doing this.

Carrie Saunders: 11:15

The key to success in e-commerce and online business is not just about having a great product, but also about connecting with your customers at a deeper level and providing them great value. So I challenge you today if you already have a website up with products and services, really give it a critical look from your customer's perspective. Does this speak at them or to them? And what I mean by at them is are you just spitting out information about what it does and all these things, or are you really speaking to them and really engaging in their emotions and in their thought processes, as you're speaking to them?

Carrie Saunders: 11:55

All right, so that's all we have for this week's episode. Thank you for joining me. If you found this episode helpful, please rate us on Apple Podcasts and share it with your fellow entrepreneurs. That really helps get the word out for us and gets us connected to other people. We always love hearing your feedback, so feel free to email us at podcast at bcsengineeringcom, and don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening, whether this is on YouTube or on your podcast player. And until next time, keep connecting with your customers and making your e-commerce and online business journey a successful one.