Much of the auction industry is comprised of a tight-knit community of auctioneering veterans, their friends, and their friends’ friends. This is what makes it such a socially rich culture, steeped in tradition. These traditions are passed to new generations via family, educational institutions and auctioneers associations. While this torch passing has served the industry well internally, the same cannot be said for the consumer population. The technological tide-change at the turn of the century left many basic consumers in the dark regarding the viability of auctions as a means to buy and sell. Particularly, young consumers know very little about auctions; how they’re conducted, where they are, how to participate . . . Luckily there is a way to reach these people, expand your market, and ensure your continued success.
Jeremy Hamel is a young man who has worked with Wavebid for three years, getting to know the industry inside and out, speaking with countless business owners across the nation and helping them utilize today’s technology to benefit their business. He offers the following tips to both learn about your market and direct your market using analytics:
Know your current demographic
The first step to reaching out to a demographic is to know what it is currently. This can be done in many ways. By implementing Google Analytics into your website and learning how to properly read the results you can develop a profile for your ideal consumer. Being able to know what gender, age, and location of the traffic you are currently getting on your website means that you can better address your audience in future marketing. (If you are interested in learning more about how to measure and target certain types of traffic check out our video with John Shultz about utilizing the Facebook Pixel . . . click here)
Track your demographics
Look through your auctions and pages and compare the current demographics. Note who is most attracted to what, and then double-down on that the next go-round. If a certain demographic is particularly interested in car auctions, then you can make sure to highlight and advertise car auctions accordingly. Track the types of items and auctions you have and compare that against your biggest opportunity areas and successful areas.
Make changes to draw traffic
Based on your results, highlight the most sought after items on your homepage. Write blogs about topics that will draw traffic from your key demographic. Put a few dollars into marketing with Google and Facebook to target certain markets. When online it’s about strategically using content to push your prospective buyers to your site.
Your online profile is your best salesman. Learning how to engage people online has become imperative in today’s age in order to draw newer, younger consumers. To an inexperienced online marketer this may seem complicated, but it is in fact a very tangible, straightforward method based on real numbers and real results, taking the guesswork out of marketing. These resources are cheap if not free and there are many great young guys like Jeremy who can help.