How well do you know your customers? When looking to improve your marketing and grow your business, knowing your customer can be the key factor in success or failure. So the question stands, how much do you about your customers? This is part of our small business marketing 101 series where we share how to leverage your customer information to grow your rental business.

Segmenting.

The goal is of segmenting is to identify similar attributes of your customer base. “Segments” are the traits we are looking to identify in customers. Be understanding, because depending on your industry segments will be different. From business to consumer firms, example segments are age, gender, and income. You may also segment by personal attributes, such as hobbies and social views. Business to business firms should identify the size of the firm, the number of facilities, and purchasing policies.

Data Mining.

Data is one of your company’s best assets. Large companies realize this, but small businesses are notoriously bad at using their own data. First, look within your company for what data is already gathered. Review the data from past orders and marketing campaigns to learn location, order quantity, and products often sold together. Utilizing online reviews will both build consumer confidence in your brand and encourage customers to share personal attributes. For example, a wedding rental business could use their customer data base to learn that 90% of their customers are women, aged 21-35, located in X area. Better yet, you don’t have to guess or manually sift through data yourself. Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool to learn about your customers. If your website does not include Google Analytics you should stop reading us and address that immediately. Recipi would be more than happy to help you setup analytics on your site and work with you to mine your data into actionable business insights!

Personas.

If you know what your ideal customers look like, you can target them precisely in the future. With your data, create three or four profiles or “personas” of customers with what they have in common. For example, if you own a bicycle rental business your personas could be “millennial,” “family renter,” and “corporate,” Using personas will help you craft better marketing messages, target the right users, and ultimately grow your rental business.

More From Our “Rental Business Marketing 101” Series:

Rental Business Marketing 101 – How Are You Different?

Learn about the advantages of being different from your competition to expand your rental business.

Rental Business Marketing 101 – Awareness vs. Demand Capture

Learn how to raise the awareness people have for your company, and then how to take that and turn it into a demand for your product.