Identifying your ideal customer creates the foundations for all the other marketing you may do. This final article in the ‘Finding Your Ideal Customer’ series looks at building the customer profile that you’ll use as reference for all of your marketing.
But why is it important to build a customer profile?
Anyone who works in your organisation or for your organisation will be able to know who your ideal customer is. From the person that answers the phone to the customer, to the person designing your website, they will all be clear who this is.
It puts a picture in the mind of everyone who reads it, ensuring you’re all on the same page. A picture paints a thousand words… this profile will make it much clearer who this profile is about.
You can refer back to it, so if something you are doing doesn’t help them, question why you are doing it
But most importantly the biggest impact is FOCUS. Focus around the people you want to attract to your business, not the people you don’t.
In the last article, 4 Ways to Describe Your Audience, we used demographics, firmographics, attitudes and behaviours to bring our ideal customer to life. Here’s an example of how this can be done.
This is the part of the profile that describes your ideal customer in more detail. What are their physical attributes, where do they live as well as their attitudes and behaviours in the marketplace.
We then look to make the profile more personal.
Give the profile a name. This can be a person’s name, but most importantly a name that describes that profile. For example ‘One Off Purchasers’ for someone who is only in the market once or ‘Just Starting Out’ for new fledgling businesses.
Also add a picture. It’s true a picture speaks a thousand words. This image brings the profile to life and turns a theoretical profile into a real life person.
Finally we put the profile to work…….adding in sections on their pain points and how we can help, as well as the platforms and mechanisms we think we can use to reach them.
Finally we add what it is we want to get them to do as a result of all of this.
In essence you are creating a mini marketing plan on a page for this customer.
Now you’ve got your profile, what should you do?:
Go and talk to your ideal customer
Make sure everyone in your business knows about them
Put them at the centre of your business when
You answer the phone
Create products
Update your website
Review your branding
Create social media posts
Communicate with your customers
The challenge I would give to you is to take one action as a result of your profile straight away. That could be :
•Using a new channel (email, networking, referrals, social media platform)
•Making your message more relevant
•Stop marketing to other customers
If you’d like help finding and engaging with your ideal customer, please get in touch using our contact form or email me directly.