Start with your customers and you’ll be one step closer to success!
Ever see a promotion from a one of your favorite places to shop and think “who cares”? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen companies put together what they thought were great discounts or promotions for their customers… and these programs never increase business! It usually boils down to two simple problems: either the company does not understanding their customers OR they haven’t thought out the promotion and how it can be redeemed. I’ll cover the first issue today.
Small business owners often struggle at defining their customers or completely understanding the trends in their industry. There are some simple things you can do which will help you be more targeted and efficient when you put together programs to entice people to buy your product or service.
Know your customer well. Profile them. Envision what they look like, what they wear, what they do for work and fun. Some businesses actually create a visual representation (cartoon or photograph) of their customer segments. They give them names, a personal history and fully describe their lives. This allows everyone in the company to visualize who they are selling to and keep focused on those people. Part of this description will allow you to define the “demographics” or things like age, gender, education for your customers or prospects. All your future marketing materials will be based around this information. This is very important.
Really talk to some customers or prospects (if you are trying to reach a new market). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “I assume they use my product this way” or “I’ve been told by distributors that this feature is important.” This isn’t good enough. This may give you inaccurate information or something too general. Try to speak with your best customers regularly. These are the ones who buy from you often. Ask them all sorts of open ended questions. What problem does it solve (ask for specifics)? How exactly do they use it? For instance if you are selling Velcro, find out what things they are holding with the Velcro, what environment is it used in, what were they doing before they had this product? This really helps you understand their “pain” or need for your product or service. Why do they buy your product not something else? Also by talking to them, you’ll learn to put things in their words. You’ll be able to prioritize your product/services benefits based upon their real needs. You may even come up with ideas for new products or variants.
When you are done with this you can find have time talk to the ones who only bought one time and find out why too! But that is a story for another day.
Sometimes good marketing starts with the basics. If you don’t really take time to know your customer, you are guaranteed to have a much harder road to travel.
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