Before you start marketing, identify your target audience.
By Roy Harryman
Blindfolded archery is a real sport. But it’s not too popular for obvious reasons.
Unfortunately, “blindly” is the way many small business marketing campaigns are run.
And it’s understandable.
It’s easy to be reactive when you’re bombarded by advertising and marketing options on every side. Facebook and Instagram want your money. So does Google. And so does that agency down the street. Then there’s that “social media expert” your cousin knows.
So, you start trying things. And more things. And failing. Then you throw up your hands in dismay.
If you shoot arrows blindfolded, you’ll hit something, but probably not the target. A customer of mine paid someone to “find” Facebook followers for him. He got them. But they live in Saudi Arabia, and he resides in the Midwest, where he installs flooring. Not the best fit.
“Any discussion of marketing tactics should begin and end with your intended audience. ”
A tale of two businesses
Let’s imagine a tidy town square in Middle City, Michigan. At 404 Main Street sits Mary Lou’s Quilting Supply. Next door sits Reynolds Accounting. Should these businesses have an identical marketing strategy?
Mary Lou’s customer interests revolve around a hobby. Reynolds, on the other hand, primarily serves business customers, not hobbyists. These two entities have different audiences, and each requires a unique strategy. Instagram may be a great way to reach quilters, but not necessarily business accounting prospects.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by options. But keep calm and maintain an open mind and a level head. Be leery of dogmatic assertions such as “Everyone’s doing this” and “No one does that anymore.” The key is finding the approach that works for you.
Who is your ideal customer?
Before you spend time and money on marketing, you need to identify your ideal customer. You may think you already know who this is. But assumptions can be misleading.
Instead of guessing, you need to ask the people in the know: your customers and prospects.
Customer research can remove at least some of the marketing guesswork and connect your organization with people who want and need you.
In general, there are two sets of data related to your clientele. One comes from a buyer profile. The other comes from a buyer persona. Sometimes people use these terms interchangeably, but they are in fact different.
The profile
A buyer profile helps companies humanize their customers, turning an abstraction into a reality. It’s built using publicly available data and may also be combined with customer surveys.
If you already have a storehouse of customer data, you’ve got a great start. Helpful information could include:
Age
City of residence
Income
Occupation
Gender and family status
How they heard about you
How long they’ve been doing business with you
What they buy
How much they spend
When they buy
Their communication preferences (Email? Text? Social media?)
When collecting information, don’t include generic blanks. You need to obtain data that’s relevant to you.
So how do you get it? One way is to ask for it. One of my clients provides security education. They asked class attendees to fill out surveys at every training. The participation rate was nearly 100%. The company received a wealth of insightful data about the people who were paying for its services. They could use the data to improve their services and marketing communications.
Other options include:
Giving customers an incentive to provide the information (such as a discount, raffle or coupon)
Inviting active customers to a focus group (with food and other incentives)
Handing customers a survey at every interaction (this worked well in the classroom setting)
Sending a survey via email or text or putting it on your website (incentives help people to respond)
Using point-of-sale software to acquire data
The key is to collect, sort and use the data in your marketing. Don’t throw a pile of forms in a corner to collect dust. Every response should be prized.
At the end of the day, you can use this data to create a humanized typical buyer of your services. It’s common for businesses to aggregate this information and to turn it into a graphic representation of their customers. In the following example, the data resulted in a fictitious person named Andy.
“Andy is 47, lives 7 miles from our store and is married with 1.8 children. He shops here about 10 times a year and spends an average of $132 on each trip. He prefers communication by text and uses Facebook for social media. He works full-time and is self-employed. His primary reason for shopping at our store is because we have a broad inventory and nearly always have the supplies he needs. Andy also values our extensive hours, being open 7 a.m.-7 p.m., six days per week.”
This information helps direct your marketing message and dollars. For example, if you have a walk-in retail outlet, you want to cast your net where most of your clientele live. If 80% live in Grant City, then you don’t want to run many social media promotions in Titusville. And if your typical customer uses Facebook, you’ll want to reach her there instead of on X (formerly Twitter). Finally, if text is Andy’s preferred method of communication, do you have his number?
Buyer persona
While a customer profile provides general demographics about your clientele, a buyer persona generates detailed insights derived from interview-based research. A buyer persona cannot be developed using public surveys and sources. Instead, it requires personal, in-depth interaction with real buyers.
The creation of a buyer persona takes a similar approach to a journalist researching a topic. Start by identifying people who have made recent purchases, then systematically contact them and speak with them in person or over the phone. Although email or texting may appear easier, this “shortcut” will limit communication and cause you to miss important insights. We’re all more engaged when participating in an actual conversation than when communicating on a phone or screen.
Who should conduct the interviews for your buyer persona research? Good question.
This is not a job for a telemarketer reading a script. It’s a two-way, interactive conversation that has no wrong answers. The goal is to yield insights into the buyer’s decisions and why she chose you.
Often an objective third-party can be helpful in securing these insights. If you have a personal relationship with the buyer, she may not be as forthcoming. In addition, the researcher needs to be personable and comfortable conducting the interview. And she must have time to do it.
What does buyer persona research look like? Here’s an example using the fictitious entity of Remington Pre-Owned Vehicles in Sunbaked, Arizona.
How did you hear of Remington?
If someone told you about Remington, who was it and what did they have to say?
Had you been to our location before making this purchase?
How many auto dealerships did you visit before deciding to purchase from Remington?
How and where else did you shop for a vehicle? For example, Facebook Marketplace, Craig’s List, etc.? If so, what were those experiences like?
Why did you come to Remington?
When it comes to deciding to buy an auto, what are you looking for in a dealership?
What do you want to avoid in a dealership?
Did you have a price range in mind?
Did you have a vehicle to trade in?
Please describe your experience buying a vehicle at Remington, from the moment you identified us as a location to the time you drove off the lot with your new car.
Did you require assistance with financing?
Did Remington assist you with financing? If so, how would you describe the financing process?
What was the most helpful thing Remington did during your buying process? How did that help?
Did Remington solve any problems for you? If so, please explain.
Did Remington provide any extra value? If so, please explain.
Did Remington follow up after the sale?
On a scale of 1 out to 10, how would you describe your experience purchasing from Remington (10 is best)? Why?
What is something Remington could do better in the future?
Would you recommend Remington to a friend? Why or why not?
The questions your business needs to ask may be different. But the point is the same: When flooded with options, why do customers choose you? What needs did you meet? And how was their experience?
In addition to responding to predetermined questions, customers may answer questions you don’t ask. This may be the most important data you receive. Be ready to follow up and do not stick woodenly to a script.
The information gained from buyer persona interviews is invaluable and can only be gleaned from your customers. It takes time and effort, but the information these interviews yield could prove transformational for your organization. This data can move you from relying on assumptions to making decisions based on the reality of your marketplace.
You’ll need to set a goal for a minimum number of interviews that is neither too small of a sample or so large that it becomes impractical. Then compile the information into an easily digestible report for yourself and anyone else inside your company who can benefit.
Act on the insights
Buyer profiles and buyer personas help you avoid answering questions people aren’t asking and selling products they don’t want. They help you focus your message, money and time on an ideal prospect or customer. But there’s a big caveat: You have to take action on the information you’ve collected. If you do nothing, you’ve gained nothing.
ABOUT ROY HARRYMAN
Roy Harryman is the author of “Small Business, Big Impact: A No-Nonsense Marketing Strategy For Companies That Do More With Less.” This column is an excerpt from the book.