If you don't know your customers' needs your sales and marketing efforts will be like throwing mud at a wall hoping it will stick. The more you know about your customers, the more profitable your business will be because you have a clear focus.

7 Strategies to Know Your Customer's Needs

1. Know where your customers gather online

Find the forums, blogs, discussion groups they visit and participate in the conversation. Communicating with your customers will give you insights how they think.

2. Conduct a survey

Some forums allow you to run a survey or poll. Ask questions related to the product or service you wish to offer. If there is no interest choose one that people are excited about. Use surveymonkey to create surveys to send to your subscribers.

3. Create a Google AdWords campaign

Set up  different ads that contain keywords related to your niche. The beauty of this method is that you can receive feedback within a few days. You can also tweak your ads to see which one generates the most clicks.

Use the copy of your profitable ad in the content of your web site because you already know it will attract visitors.

4. Research online stores

Visit the large online stores such as eBay, magazine and amazon to get an idea what products are big sellers. Visit the largest bookstore in your town to see what books are featured prominently in the store.

5. Subscribe to Google Alerts

Google Alerts provide email updates of the latest Google results based on the topic of your choice. It also allows you to keep current on a competitor.

6. Observe industry trends

Sign up for Google Trends to follow the trends in your market. It provides yearly and monthly trends for any keyword you enter.

7. Research the cost per click of your main keywords

Enter your main keywords in Spy Fu dot com to view how much advertisers are willing to pay for a particular keyword. It shows how many advertisers there are, cost/click, clicks/day and the number of search results.

Conclusion

Knowing where your customers gather online, how they think and what they buy, will help you make a more informed decision what niche or topic to invest in for the long term.