Getting to know our customers is the best way to effectively market and sell to them. This is well known in marketing circles. The more you know and understand your customer the easier it is to find them, attract them and engage with them. Google has become a master at helping us do this. While many people often object to the notion that Google follows our every move online, the fact is that as a marketing device, getting to know your audience is still the key method of successful marketing and consequent sales. Getting to know your customers is not difficult. It simply means gathering certain information about them and using it in a lawful and meaningful way. For example, many companies miss out on the opportunity to create a relationship with their customers by not gathering their email addresses. This is a simple task that can reap huge rewards in terms of repeat business. Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool, one which will help you to identify who and where your visitors are in relation to your website. It will tell you how long they stay, the pages they look at and it if you set up the right reports, you can link these analytics to specific social media pages, campaigns and to social media. Start looking at how you can begin to learn more about your customers. The more you know, the more powerful your communications to them will be. Content is not just about good spelling and grammar, it’s about understanding who you are talking to, why and making sure you reach them. Social media sign-up, registration for newsletters, encouraging followers to add you to their RSS feed - these are all ways to gather followers and get to know them better. When you know who your customers are, where they are, and what interests them, your communications will be far more effective and any calls to action your communicate will result in responses.