How do you build the physique of your ideal customer?
An idea alone is not enough to build a successful business. Even if you think your product or service is a hit and everyone will want to have it – unfortunately, the reality may be different. Of course, there are cases of successes that in theory were not supposed to succeed, but these are such rare events that they are not worth taking as good currency. Therefore, to succeed in business, you should answer one question: who is my potential customer? In this article, we’ll tell you how to build the physique of your ideal client.
The target group is the basis for a successful launch.
Understanding your target audience is not only a key element of a successful marketing strategy, but also has a significant impact on whether you will be successful. Analyze your product or service and define your ideal customer based on that.
Who will my offer make life easier? What group of people will benefit the most from my product? Who has the means to allocate money for my services? Without getting to know our customers deeply, we can’t provide them with the right products and services. Therefore, it is important to build a silhouette of your ideal customer, which will help you better understand their needs, preferences and goals. Counterintuitively, and the wider the customer base, the more difficult it is to run an effective marketing strategy.
Conduct market research.
When doing business, it is extremely important to conduct market research and determine what target audience your competitors are targeting. You may be able to respond to their other needs and dreams. For example, if you want to enter the publishing market, you will have to fight against strong competitors who already have a powerful author base. Therefore, you need to find an untapped niche in this area, such as betting on authors of only the younger generation, or betting on recycled paper and thus attracting customers for whom it is important to care about the environment.
Determine what kind of customers you want to reach, what their demographics are, what problems they want to solve, what goals they want to achieve. Such data can be collected through a survey, relying on comments, online forums, demographics or analysis of competitors’ activities.
How old is he and who is he?
Based on the data you collect, identify the key demographic characteristics of your ideal customer. This includes such information as age, gender, education, income, geographic location, etc. Keep in mind, however, that such data is not everything, and perhaps the detail will depend on your industry and the type of services you provide. Such information may not be enough, however, as it is necessary to analyze your ideal client’s goals, desires and challenges in order to fully build a silhouette for them. Will your service or product help them? If you are able to provide them with valuable solutions, that’s perfect. You are already closer to being successful.
Identify a pattern of activity.
It is also extremely important to determine how your customer works. You already know what he’s looking for, but on what basis does he make his buying decisions? Why did he choose this service and not another? Where does he look for answers to questions and what tools does he use? How does he spend his free time? This information will help you tailor your marketing strategy and communications to the preferences of your target audience. And this will consequently translate into lower costs that you will spend on advertising, since you will immediately target the right group.
Many budding businessmen make this mistake and target their promotional efforts to a large number of potential customers who may be even vaguely interested in the service. Such decisions consume money and ultimately do not produce satisfactory results. It is much better to base your advertising on the ideal silhouette of your customer and narrow down your target audience based on that and ultimately target them.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
In order to build an effective silhouette of your ideal customer, then you need to “step into their shoes.” For a moment, don’t think like a businessman, but like a buyer who is looking for the best service or product for himself. Only then will you be able to assemble the collected information into a complete whole and distinguish the possible paths a customer takes from the moment the need arises to the purchase. An important consideration is whether he pays more attention to price, quality, appearance or availability of a product or service in the market.
This will help you better understand who you are creating your products and services for. This will also help you choose the right form of communication to build a bond with your customers and tie them to your brand.
But why?
On the surface, it may seem that such procedures are unnecessary when planning or developing your business, but nothing could be further from the truth! A properly developed customer silhouette allows you to better understand the customer, and thus tailor your communication, the form of “serving” and advertising of your product or service precisely to this ideal audience, which is more likely to become your customers. In turn, this will not only allow you to grow your business, but also save costs allocated for marketing activities.