How to get to know your buyers

[Former_Member]

Hi,

Maybe you can help me out.

I am a Dutch photographer, living in the Netherlands.
Since two years I have my shop ZenzPhotography here on Etsy.
During this period I made 30 sales to mainly American customers.

To improve my shop I know it is important to know my buyers.
But ... how do/can I get to know them while I am living on the other side of the ocean.

All suggestions are welcome...

Thanks!!

[Former_Member]

Whenever someone orders a shirt, we try to be SUPER friendly. We tell them how grateful we are and then we try to give them a little background on the item. For example, our "Sharks are my Friends" Tee has a super cute story behind it. Usually after we've opened up about it they have some sort of story in return about their experience with sharks. Sometimes they don't respond but often times we have quite a few convos and it helps us get to know them.

[KittyBallistic]

Do you have a blog, or Facebook page? Both can be a great way to post about your work and get feedback, not just from customers, but from friends and maybe potential customers too.

[AllieBlankets]

I am far away from my customers as well. I interact with them on My Facebook page. To try to get a feel for the type of person who likes my products, I've been looking at the profiles of the people that buy or favorite my items to try and catch common stuff about each person.

[FizzCandy]

@alisa I love your flag blanket!

[AllieBlankets]

Aww thanks Mila! :)

[Former_Member]

Excellent question! I will be watching this one, since I am also trying to hone in on my customer base to see who I am actually selling to.

[Former_Member]

Thanks John and Rebecca, I'll keep that in mind.

And yes Helen, I have it all ... a Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest, a blog, a website, a YouTube video channel...

But what else is there, I just have a feeling there must be something else I am missing...

[Former_Member]

Any more suggestions...

[TouchOfSilver]

One of the things that I do, immediately after the sale, is send a convo thanking them for their purchase and other details on when it will be in the mail, BUT then I ask them how they ever found me. I mention that with 800,000 Etsy sellers, I wonder how they landed in my shop. Sometimes the buyers don't answer at all, but often, it opens up a line of conversation.

Once recently I had a query from someone in Tallinn, Estonia....and low and behold, we had visited there this summer (I live in NY). So you never know what might open up. Sometimes I even say at the end of a convo something like: "I hope it's warmer where you are than where I am...lots of snow coming tonight".....and that will often spur some conversation on their part.