If you feel like you should be building your email list, getting more active on social media, redoing your website, or that you really should start doing video, you’re not alone. We speak to many business owners who want to do more, or something different and the focus is usually on which channel of marketing they should be prioritising. It’s easy to get distracted by the options and the technology, but in doing so most people don’t ask some fundamental questions that should drive all of their marketing (and arguably business) activities.
The key question is:
Who are your ideal customers and what do they care about?
Your ideal customer
You’ll notice I refer to ‘ideal customers’ and not just ‘customers’. This is because while you could sell to many different types of people, there will usually be groups who fall into one or more of the following categories and are therefore easier to work with:
- Ready to buy, with an understanding of the value of your product/service
- Have bigger budgets
- Have shorter timelines from enquiry to purchase
- Involve fewer people in the buying decision
- Have a higher conversion rate
- Understand your product/service better
- Are more accessible/cost less to reach
- Can buy more of your available products and service so upsell and cross-sells are easier
Niching vs targeting
If you serve other businesses, the difference between your customer groups may be the size of the company because only a company with over, say 100 employees, will need your service, or have the budget.
Alternatively, the industry a company is in could be a factor that defines your customer groups because some industries either have or recognise a need for your service more than others. In either case, that doesn’t mean that you have to limit your customers to a niche group or only focus on one size of company or one industry. Prioritising groups allows you to target and put more of your marketing budget and time where it’s more likely to provide a return on investment first, but not to the exclusion of any others. You can also hone your messaging to more directly relate to the concerns of a group, which makes them more likely to engage with your marketing.
Building audience profiles
Understanding your audience is so crucial to good quality marketing that we’ve made it the first step to building a marketing plan with almost all our new clients for the last two years. We find that the messaging on a website, social media or email newsletter often benefits from focusing on customer needs more closely, and it’s tough to do that if you don’t know your customer.
The process usually involves meeting with those in direct contact with customers to uncover the demographics and psychographics of their ideal customer groups. It usually results in some big realisations that eliminate confusion and make it easier to:
- Produce a marketing plan
- Justify a marketing budget
- Create engaging messaging
- Brief those working on marketing work
- Set meaningful marketing measurements
However, not everyone needs 1-2-1 support to build a profile of their audiences; they know their customers really well so they just want access to the processes and systems we’ve tried and tested. That’s why we’re launching the Customer Attraction Roadmap in the New Year. It’s a programme designed for business owners and marketers who have been working on their marketing but are frustrated that their efforts aren’t bringing in the leads they expected. They’re ready to spend the time to get to know their customer better and produce audience-led marketing that yields business results.
Marketing that makes a difference
Visit customerattractionroadmap.co.uk to learn more about the Customer Attraction Roadmap, a programme designed to take you from confused about the right marketing to build your business to a finished marketing plan, messaging and budget.
If you would like 1-2-1 support and guidance to build your audience profiles, get in contact for our Audience Profiling package on 01858 374 170 or fill in our contact form.
MD & Head of Digital Marketing
Jessica has worked in digital marketing for over 10 years and has watched it evolve from an experimental marketing option to an essential tool for most businesses. She is driven to help businesses achieve their objectives using the best digital marketing resources available and recognises that each business is different. Jessica devours the latest news about digital marketing and is constantly learning in order to stay ahead of the trends for clients.
