Q: I co-own Momosa Publishing LLC, publisher of the Mommy MD Guides and other books, www.mommymdguides.com and other websites, and the Mommy MD Guide app. Our biggest challenge is sales. How can we better target our marketing, which I think we do well, to translate into better sales?
Jennifer
A: The key phrase in your question is "which I think we do well." In any business, but particularly one that relies on online sales through multiple landing sites, "thinking" you know how well things are targeted sounds like a gut check, rather than monitoring real metrics. Further, those metrics must be based on the "right" targets.
A first question should be: Do the places we market reach a broad group of people who fit our general profile of a target mommy, or do those channels deliver the mommy most likely to buy? Or better yet, the mommy who buys the most?
So, the search for metrics to monitor begins with a better understanding of your customer. If this information is not already in your sales data, you can/should find ways to get it there.
For instance, what do you know about repeat customers? Are you keeping track of them by credit card number? Do the transactions from those prime customers appear from a single site, or from multiple sites in your portfolio? What demographic data have you gathered from these customers, and if you don't have much, how can you gather more naturally through the marketing process (e.g., offer a coupon code tied to gathering some bits of data)?
Eventually you can build a set of "persona profiles" of key mommy targets: the frequent buyer, the volume buyer, the seasonal buyer, etc. To maximize sales, you must first put your focus on these most lucrative customer types. That means not only promoting through channels they frequent, but in addition, tweaking your messages to engage these particular buyers.
Certainly you will promote to the general audience mommy in the process, but an enhanced approach to those who will be most likely to produce multiple sales will take your sales a step further than where you are today.
Mike Porter is the director of the health care communications program at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.
