Using Stats to Identify a Target Market

Review your website statistics and use the results to identify potential target audiences for new products and revenue.

Expand your market
Expand your markets

When you are creating your business plan and strategy you start by identifying your target audiences and what they need and how you provide something that meets that need.

After you have had your website up for a while – you might find that there are other people who are finding your website that may be outside of your original idea of a target audience.  Reviewing your website statistics may give some clues and ideas of other potential markets that you could tap into.

Example:

As a nonprofit of small business you may directly serve people in a specific geographic location.  Perhaps you provide training or consulting as part of your services.

Website Statistics - Map of Recent Visitors
Website Statistics - Map of Recent Visitors - view from Statcounter.com

You notice in your website statistics that you have visitors coming to your website from other parts of the country – or even internationally.  Although you don’t know WHO these people are – look at the path they follow and what pages of the website they look at.  This will give you some idea of their interest.  Also you may be able to tell where they came from (link from another website) or what key words they used in a search.

What could you offer these people?  Would you be able to charge for it?  Would it be appropriate for your mission? Would it potentially add value to your organization profile – and also of use to your own clients and affiliates?

You may want to consider creating “Information Products” that would meet the needs of this potential target audience.  Here are a few suggestions:

  • Webinars on specific topics.  These could be available free or for a fee.  With many webinar softwares it is possible to record the session, and make them available on your website of via a link.  You could also be building a library of these over time and offer on DVD.
  • eBooks. An eBook is readily accessible to download for free or by purchase.  Review the current publications that you have now – or think of topics that lend themselves to a book, whitepaper, or short tutorial that would be useful to this potential market.
  • Printed Books.  Investigate publishing a printed book using a self publishing firm.
  • Video. Videos are increasingly popular as a means for delivering training and tutorials and providing information to your target audiences.  If you are charging a fee for video views the videos could be in a subscription / members area.

As with any new product or service you will need to do your research, decide on the content, method and resources needed in order to carry this out.

Here are a few links to get you started. These are sources that I have used after researching and found they offer good value

  • Webinars GVO Conference enables you to put on a webinar, record it and store the link to use.  It is a good way to start as there are good tutorials on how to begin and help getting setup.
  • eBooks  and Printed BooksLULU.Com gives you the means to publish eBooks and printed publications.
  • Videos Screenr.Com has a free version that you can use to create tutorial. YouTube has a basic editor for video.

Denise Davies is an Internet and media consultant.  She works with nonprofit organizations and small businesses to maximize their effective use of the Internet to build their organization and achieve their objectives.  If you have questions or would like to learn more contact through the contact form

Selling your Products Online – Questions for your Planning

Questions to consider when planning to sell products online. Here are some things to consider when deciding what method would work best for you. Types of products; Types of payments; Fulfillment and delivery, shipping.

I often get the question about selling products online.  There are several types of products that you may be thinking of selling online. Here are some things to consider when deciding what method would work best for you.   For nonprofits you may also be considering online donations – but this will be a topic of a different posting.

Type of Product

  • Information products – eBooks or products that you can download after purchase
  • Tickets – and you need the options to sell one or more online.  e.g. tickets to a fundraiser or special event
  • Physical items – these require shipping, packing, tax
  • Registration / Subscription – person is signing up for some specific service or area of your website that requires a login and they would be paying a monthly fee

Type of Payment

  • Is it a one time payment by credit card?
  • Is it a multiple payment — installments or subscription?
  • Do you already accept credit cards?
  • Do you want to give people an option to pay by check?
  • Would you need the online system to do calculations e.g. allow multiple item purchase such as 5 tickets, or to select multiple items and get a total for payment?

Shipping and Handling

  • Product fulfillment or delivery – is your product an ebook or other digital item that the person will download once they have paid?
  • Will you be packing and shipping the order yourself – or are you using some order fulfillment system?
  • How will you handle returns?
  • How is the shipping rate calculated?

There are many options available and the decision on the method is one that will take some thought and planning and comparisons to see that the solution you select is right for you.  This article has some additional ideas –>

Generating revenue from your website

Future postings will have more details on options.  If you have an immediate need or question do send me an email with the details.  We provide help for organizations and business owners to integrate payment solutions and online payments into your website.  davies@alephinc.com

Or try out these 2 websites both have tutorials and information

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Building Website Traffic: Strategies for Your Internet Success
Building Website Traffic: Strategies for Your Internet Success

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See full Table of Contents and details
Building Website Traffic: Strategies for Your Success