Successful marketing hinges on knowing your target audience. Knowing your ‘who’ should make up 50% of your marketing strategy. Without an in-depth knowledge of your customer, you can’t find out the ‘why’ they buy your product (another 25% of the marketing strategy). And therefore, you can’t encourage others similar to them to do the same.
One of the common mistakes we all make is to assume that the customer is just like us. So, here’s something to remember……
You are not the customer
The other mistake is to think that everyone wants your product, and so here’s the next thing to remember…….
Not everyone is a good customer, not everyone wants your product
So, it’s not me, it’s not everyone then who is it?
Good question. The reality is that we only have limited money, time and energy in which to do our marketing. So, it is important to have a detailed picture of your target audience or ‘Super Customer’ when you are doing marketing.
The best way to understand your ‘Super Customer’…..
………is to do research. When you do this research, consider 3 key areas, it builds up a great picture of what your customer is like:
Demographics – age/ marital status/ gender/ income location
Attitudes – what they think of your products/ how easy they find it to use
Behavioural - how they go shopping/ how they choose a specific product/ how often they use it/ why they don’t use it
How do you research your ‘Super Customer’?
Talking to your customers: think about putting a simple questionnaire together, or just having a conversation with them next time you speak to them
Research amongst groups you’re part of: use the above questionnaire, and you can find out the prospects you might appeal to
Google: there is often lots of information that you can find about your industry or market, research done by government bodies, academic research. It may be a bit out of date but will still give you a good picture as to why people buy yours or similar products.
And once I’ve done the customer research? Create an Avatar or Persona
Look at who you have on the list and choose your most profitable group or groups.
For each one, create an ‘avatar’ or more in-depth profile of that person.
Give the person a name – Angela/ Michael/ Susan
Think about:
How they feel – really dig deep into their psyche
What they want from you – really think about it from their point of view – be careful not to list off your product benefit
What is their key pain point – linked to how they feel but use the research to corner this. You need to know this so that you can overcome objections
How will they find out about you – think channels here – is it friends and family, facebook, the local library – you should have this from your research.
Use a large sheet of paper to put this together. And remember it’s the emotional element, not the practical element you need to crack. Emotion sells, facts don’t so much.
Get creative so your ‘Super Customer’ is always front of mind
It’s so important to not waste the hard work you’ve done in putting together your avatar. It’s very easy to do the exercise and then just push it all to the back of a drawer. But….. if they’re not there in front of you, you simply won’t remember it and will forget to write for them.
So, here’s some ideas:
Get some magazines and create a poster
Put some post-its up around the room with a reminder of the key feelings you are appealing to
And there we go. You've created your ‘Super Customer’ Avatar.
If you want help to research your ‘Super Customer’ or just go through the process of creating your Avatar, then do get in touch – Sophie@sophiedaviesmarketing.co.uk
