Once you have created your killer marketplace, how can I get people to use it? How do I know who to target or share it with? You can start with your family and friends but that can only get you so far. Check out these four questions you must ask yourself as you look to build your marketplace.

1. What is your buyer persona?

This will come from the data and research of your current customers. What are their backgrounds? What industry are you targeting? These questions should all be kept in mind when creating your buyer persona. If you don’t understand your customers, how do you expect to sell to them? Essentially ask yourself, “who is my ideal customer?”. Put yourself in their shoes to understand the problem you are looking to solve.

Gather your sales and marketing team for a meeting. Have each person will out a list of your ideal client. Share as a team to create a finalize buyer persona. This will dismiss any confusion and help put your team on the same page. With a more aligned perception, creating content and marketing to potential clients will become a much smoother process.

2. Where are they located?

Is your marketplace global or are you looking to keep a small radius? Identifying where your audience is coming from is important for your marketing team. Where will they be advertising to or what events will they be attending to promote your marketplace? For example, if your services are only based in the United States, then what good is it to target customers in Europe?

As you conduct research of your current clients, you will find out a lot of useful information. So what if you are a new marketplace and don’t have clients? Look to your competitors. More than likely you are not revolutionizing anything new and simply putting a spin on something that is already out there. Look who, what, and why they are marketing to those specific audiences.

Related: 4 Tips to Get Users on Your Marketplace Platform

3. What kind of content do they like?

This can be answered with your market research. Data analysis is your biggest friend when it comes to content. How will you attract users to your marketplace and keep them coming back? While they purchase your product initially, they may need more assistance. Creating a blog with helpful tips and tricks to enhance their marketplace experience is widely beneficial.

A great place to start building a content strategy is to check with your support or sales team. What type of questions are they being asked? What are the pain points of your marketplace users or customers? This vital information can be used for knowledge base articles or put in the FAQ section.

4. How will you reach them?

Unless you have thousands of dollars set aside for ad spending, how will you reach your audience? Will people really just google my marketplace and land on my blog? That is quite a big stretch unless you are a big name company like Apple or Salesforce. If you have not already, create business social media accounts. Optimize them as if they are your own website. Insert all the correct information, for others to see and post updates on a regular basis. The more active you are on social media, the more likely people will reach out to you on there.

Social media isn’t just about sharing updates about your life. It has become a customer service outlet for those to ask questions and seek answers. Getting on social media to interact with your audience, good or bad, can help build a reputation for your marketplace. People will take notice how you handle other customers so be sure to handle with care.

Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Implement Social Media

Keep in mind, your marketplace will not instantly become an overnight success. Trust the process and keep to your plans. One of the best pieces advice I can give is to be genuine. Network and be active within your niche to find out what or who your target audience is.

If you are currently building your marketplace or need help with your marketing efforts, comment below sharing your difficulties. We would love to hear and help out!