Why research into who your customer is, is vital for success

by Natasa Denman

The biggest and potentially most damaging things business owners fail to do is understand their target market and understand them intimately. A sure fire way to go broke is by trying to be everything to everyone. I have heard some service based business owners, which is the space I mentor in, wrongly assume that ‘everyone with a pulse’ is a potential client. Lucky they aren’t a funeral director or they would even miss the mark there too.

Where this falls over is that although they all might indeed have a pulse, each age demographic, socio-economic group, sex and religion have very different wants, needs and desires and will be attracted to a varied service based provider depending on how that business owner is communicating their message.

If you fail to identify, and therefor fail to connect with your target market, you can still be seen as professional, knowledgeable and integral but in reality, you are broke or at least working 5 times as hard to attract clients.

First thing is first which means you need to identify your ideal client. You need to know the type of person you want to work with before you can start attracting them into your eco-system. How old are they? Are they married? Do they have kids? What do they value? What is there income? Where do they live? Where do they hang out? What are their interests?

All of these questions are just so important as without all of the answers to these questions, marketing and finding these people is very difficult as you will have to spread your marketing online and offline very thin and you might never hit the right target.

This type of research is often call identifying your avatar for your business and is often not done by SME’s very well. Don’t make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone. Your sanity and business depends on you getting this right.

We buy from people we like and trust so make sure you are talking in their language. In other words, we buy from people that are like us. I previously mentioned identifying your ideal client, so you will have painted a very clear picture of who they are. Now that you know who they are, it is very important if you want to magnetize them into your eco-system that you speak their language.

Whether they are young or old, male or female, it is very beneficial to your ability to connect with these people who you want to work with. The great thing is, by you being your authentic self, you will never have to fake it or be something you are not. This is where telling our story has its greatest effect and where we can really build up some interest and trust with our potential clients.

Most SME’s don’t have the marketing budget to cover all bases and be everywhere all the time like the large corporations. Therefore, we need to be strategic in our marketing and make our dollars count. One of the best ways for small businesses to attract clients is to form a relationship with them online on Social Media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter.

If your ideal client loves watching ‘how to’ or educational videos online yet you don’t do videos for your business you are missing a huge opportunity to build a connection with these potential clients. Go where they are and build a relationship so you and your business is top of mind.

Make sure you take the time to tell your story and keep it real. Show your passion and share your business ‘WHY’ and your cream market will start to appear.

Source:

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/small-business-resources/finance-cash-flow/why-research-into-who-your-customer-is-is-vital-for-success.html