Who’s My Customer?
Every now and again you’ll be confronted with the challenge of defining your customer. Perhaps you’ve just heard a speaker at a conference talking about a customer avatar or a marketing consultant has talked about your target market or ideal client.
Many small business owners and solopreneurs don’t quite understand what a customer profile is, or if it is useful to them.
“But I want to sell to everyone,” I hear you say. Well of course you do. And if they walk in your store you certainly should. It’s not about defining who you will sell to, it’s about defining who you will market to. In other words, where you will spend money and time to reach out to promote your goods and services.
As a simple example if you sold video games you might define your most typical customer as being a male who is 35 – 45 years old. If a 30 year old female walks into your shop and wants to buy a video game from you – you’d sell it to her. Having a customer profile does not stop you from selling to people who don’t fit the profile.
Having a customer profile defines who you will market to. Where you will spend money to promote your business. You’ve identified the type of person who is your typical customer. Your customer isn’t always in the same group, but they most often they are.
The good news is you’re allowed to have more than one customer profile. Let’s say 70% of the video games you sold were to men, but 30% were to women. You’d create a secondary profile for the female buyer. If 1 in 100 of your customers was an 83 year old male you wouldn’t create a profile for that age group – it’s just not enough of your business to get a return on the time and money you need to invest in promoting to that profile.
Another way of defining it is not to ask who your customer is, but who is your ideal customer. Adding in that one word “ideal” can make a significant difference to the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Example Customer profile
For our business we have three customer profiles, they are:
- Accountant Tom
- Determined Denise
- Savvy Sally
They’ve already got personalities haven’t they? And that’s the whole point – your customer profile needs to feel like a real person – in this way when you are writing your social media post you are writing it for a person – not a theoretical group of people.
Here’s a bit more info about Tom.
Accountant Tom
Tom is a professional accountant who services local businesses and shops. He wants to connect with more business owners in his area. He wants reception staff to initiate and drive communication channels like facebook, newsletters and website updates but not spend too much time doing it.
He lives and works in Plympton. He is 40 years old, in a relationship and has two kids.
He values providing a quality service for his clients and a good work-life balance.
He reads the Weekend Australian and the Financial Times. He enjoys going to Crows games and having a BBQ with friends. Two people who he admires are Paul Keating and Bruce Willis.
His challenge in marketing his services is having to communicate and find content – what’s there to say? His business growth pain points are not getting enough enquiries and his staff not being strategic in their Facebook posts and newsletter articles. His objections to the sale is knowing if there will be a return on investment.
Phew! That’s quite a profile isn’t it? Perhaps you know Accountant Tom or someone like him. If Physiotherapist Pete or Naturopath Nina should come into my sphere and request marketing services from me – well of course I would welcome them as new clients. Naming my customer as Accountant Tom does not restrict me to just accountants or just men named Tom. What it does give me is a real, living person who I can imagine. He (along with Determined Denise and Savvy Sally) are the audience for my articles, seminars, social media posts and other marketing activities.
Marketing will Fall into Place
Define your customer and your marketing will fall into place. It will assist you to make decisions about what channels you should use to promote your services. It will assist you to find the right images, to find content for your posts and what style (or voice) you want your business to have.
Importantly it will also guide you on what not to do. Given the plethora of choices available to small business owners, the decision is often about what not to do.
The customer profile is a useful reminder to use your limited time effectively, by promoting your products and services to people most likely to want and need them. Don’t waste time by marketing to groups of people who have a low chance of purchasing your product or service.
Discover Your Top 3 Marketing Sweet Spots
Your marketing sweet spot is all about finding those promotional activities that are going to grow your business. It’s easy to be busy – finding your sweet spot is all about being sure you’re busy doing activities that are strategically valuable to your business.
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