Who Is your Customer?

You have your product or service, but who's your buyer? Customer base is an important requirement when identifying where your profits will come from. There are many characteristics of a customer base, but by narrowing in on your customer you have a better chance of selling your product or service than your competition.

There are several common factors that are used by the professionals to find your target market; they are customer attributes, geographic zones and product factors. Examples of the customer attributes are age, sex, lifestyle, annual income. Geographic zones divide the market into several regions as international, national, regional and community zones. Product factors revolves around usage, brand loyalty, pricing and benefit to the customer.

All these factors go into identifying your customer. The more specific you get the more specific your marketing strategy and message should be. So don't forget to do your homework when it comes to your customer. Armed with this data you will be able to uncover specific information about your customer and stand a better chance of selling your idea. - CT

Free Artisan Marketplace

I want to tell you all a little bit about an artisan marketplace I just found and signed up with last week to showcase our contemporary handcrafted jewelry. The site is artfire.com and it's a free marketplace which brings artisans and art buyers together...they only allow handcrafted items by artists so items are unique. It's a great site and if you've seen their advertising, it's true you can start your business on artfire.com totally free.

There are two membership levels. The "basic" membership allows you to list 10 items at no charge with 4 photos. From my understanding they can do this because they are sponsored by several internet suppliers and importers of craft and art products, but there aren't a bunch of busy ads on their site. And unlike other sites, you don't have to pay a listing or relisting fee each and every time a product is added or want exposure on the front page. If you intend to sell more than 10 items and want to get more perks and the full functionality of the site, you can become a "verified" member for $20/month. That's it, a little over 60 cents/day! Where else can you get that type of exposure for under a dollar a day? Plus, I received a sub domain for my studio ctjewelrydesign.artfire.com to use in our monthly newsletters, email specials and snail mailings, etc. It's still a fairly new site so for me it's a great opportunity to play a more active role on the ground floor...and guess what, the folks at artfire.com really do listen and follow up with you promptly and professionally.

So if you're an artist and want to start a free web business give artfire.com a try. You've got nothing to lose...it's a win win situation...plus they are committed to creating a green community. For every new member that signs up they will plant a tree in an ecologically distressed area. Their goal is to plant 1 million trees in 24 months. They planted one for me...and I didn't even have to get my hands dirty! - CT