Indiscriminately trying to sell to “everyone” can dilute your message, muddy your image, and waste your company’s resources. To market effectively, you have to know your customers. Remember: Satisfied customers come back, and they generally refer others. Here’s how to get started:
- Think about your typical customers: ages, interests, gender, aspirations, and financial and social status. In order of importance, list what customers are looking for when they come to your business. Do they seek selection, quality, price, service, or some combination? Is efficiency, expertise, or willingness to accommodate special requests particularly important to your customers? Do they demand convenience, or are they looking for atmosphere, ambience, or status?
- When creating ads or other marketing tools, emphasize what your clients value, and communicate in their manner and style. For instance, low prices may not appeal to those who are more concerned with status, and ads to sell power tools rarely feature people in suits.
- Getting to know your customers is mutually beneficial. You provide products and services that customers find valuable while at the same time creating revenue opportunities for your company. And isn’t that win-win dynamic the reason you started your business in the first place?
