If you needed a needle would you look in a haystack? Of course you wouldn’t. You would look in the sewing box, the haberdashery department or that emergency repair kit you picked up the last time you stayed in a posh hotel. You would look somewhere where you would be likely to find that needle quickly. So why do so many business owners continue to look for needles in haystacks?
- Would you look for a needle here?
OK, well perhaps not literally but are your attempts to find new customers any more effective than looking for the needle in the haystack? Could you describe your target customer? What age are they? Are they male or female? What type of business do they run or work in? How long have they been in their present role? How much money do they make? What interests them? What problems do they currently have? What are they called?
I could go on with the questions but I suspect you’ve already got the message. The more you know about your target customers the easier it will be to find them. Why? Because if you know who they are you’ll know where to go looking for them.
Please don’t tell me that everybody is your target customer. They are not! Nobody sells to everybody, not even Tesco. The trouble is that when you speak to everybody you speak to nobody. Nobody will realise that your message is meant for them. Unless, like Tesco, you have the budget for 80,000 different marketing messages, your communications will be much too bland to appeal to anyone. OK so if you have the right offer that happens to land on the right doormat you might get lucky. But luck shouldn’t come in to it.
When you know exactly who you are targeting and what problems you could solve for them your marketing will be pushing at a door which is slightly ajar. You still have to get the marketing message right but you will at least be looking in the right place.
So our tip for this month is work out who your target customers are. Look for common features in your most regular and most profitable customers. What are the most typical problems you solve for people? When you know who your best customers are you can then go looking for more people like them. Your marketing materials can be written in a language they will understand. You will be looking for your needle in the sewing box not the haystack.
N.B. You might find you have more than one target but that’s OK because you can group (or in marketing speak, segment) similar customers together for different approaches. After all you shouldn’t use the same size needle for every sewing project!
If you would like some help to establish just who your target customer is drop me an email at glenda.shawley@thetrainingpack.co.uk.
