Imagine shopping for a birthday present for your best friend. Easy, right? You knew their favorite stores, colors, how they take their coffee, etc. Having known exactly what your best friend likes, you immediately to store and then once you’re there, finding the perfect gift is a breeze.
Now, imagine shopping for that relative you haven’t seen since the last family get together. You wrack your brain for memories of things that they’ve said in the past, and try to get them something they (hopefully) aren’t allergic to. It takes you hours until you finally lock down a generic gift that you think they’ll like.
This scenario demonstrates the difference between knowing your business’ customer base, and playing the guessing game as to what you think your customers are interested in.
The more you know about your customers, the easier it’ll be for you to market to them effectively. You’ll be able to segment them better and get more conversions because of how relevant your products/services will be to your target audience.
To get a sense of who your customers are, you should be able to answer questions about them from all angles. You should know the who, what, where, when, and the why of your customers as thoroughly as you know all of the same information about your best friend.
Who
Create a generalized persona for your customer. Who are they? How old are they? What are they wearing and why? What kind of car do they drive and why? Keep asking yourself these questions until you have a distinguished character from which you can model you target market.
What
What is your customer in the market for and how can you make that more readily available to them? What do they value in a brand? What do they wish your company would never change and what is something you think they’d like to see improve?
Where
Where is your target market located? In what regions can they be reached the most effectively? Also, where are they searching? On mobile, tablet, or desktop?
When
When can you best reach these customers? When are they making the most amount of purchases?
Why
Why are these customers using your website? Why are they buying from you? Why are they motivated to make a purchase from you in the first place? The objective of knowing “why” is figuring out what is driving your customer and why they’re buying from you and not a competitor.
Once you know the ins and outs of who your customer is, marketing to them will come as easily as buying a birthday present for your best friend. So be thorough in how you choose to learn about your customer and their needs!
