The more clarity you have about who your ideal customer is, the more effective your marketing will be. In tough times, this is even more critical. If you don’t know exactly who you are trying to reach, marketing ROI will suffer.
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I recently watched the Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood. Set in 12th century England, it’s the backstory behind the legend of Robin Hood.
At the time, archery skills were a key factor in staying alive. Robin Longstride excels in them. The times where he employs his archery skills to take out a bad guy drive the point home.
When arrows are flying all around, Robin hits his precise target from amazing distances.
One of my favorites was set in the woods where Robin and his men are fighting a group of treacherous mercenaries. The bad guys led by Godfrey elect to break off and ride away.
Robin notches an arrow in his longbow and raising it to high elevation shoots at Godfrey. The arrow arcs high and soars through the trees. Godfrey reels in his saddle. He clings to his horse as they whirl and race off into the forest.
Did he kill him? We don’t know. It was a long, seemingly impossible shot.
Later, we find out Godfrey survives. Robin’s arrow did hit its mark. Godfrey’s face now bears stitches from the corner of his mouth outward for two inches.
Having worked with targeting audiences for over 20 years, I’ve seen what happens if you don’t zero in.
It happens all the time in the spa, beauty, and wellness sectors.
You have a variety of offerings that speak to different needs. Beauty, supplements, therapies. What they vary with the products you offer.
If you send the same message to everyone. You don’t get the results that you want.
The broader and more diverse your products the more challenging the issue becomes. Some division feels neglected.
It may be time to revisit your ideal customer profile.
There are a lot of components when it comes to identifying a target audience. Most commonly people look at demographics. Things like age, gender, location, buying patterns, income, and interests.
You also want to take a look at psychographics. Motivations, beliefs, and priorities to start.
While you need demographics, I find psychographics can often give me a better grasp on how to emotionally connect with people and help them take action.
To gain clarity, you’ll need to start with data analytics. Then you can move into creating your ideal customer avatar. And then you’ll stay on top of what the marketplace is doing.
Start with your current customers or the people you think need your product the most. Learn all you can about them.
Discover their demographics. Something as simple as where they live can help you schedule content launches.
Discovering psychographic information will help you move them on their buying journey.
If you are just getting started follow companies who are doing something like, or similar to what you want to do. What can you learn about their audience?
If you are established, reviewing everything you know about your current customers can tell a lot.
Look at the six wellness segments: physical, emotional, intellectual/work, beliefs, social concerns, and environmental concerns. They will tell you a lot about how you can appeal to and market to your group.
Use all the data and analytics you gathered to help create a written description of your ideal customer.
Do you know someone who is an exact match? Use that person can make to pattern your avatar after.
You can create a written description of your own or make use of an online template. Google “customer persona template.” You will find dozens of options to help you make the job easier.
They provide you a spreadsheet with a list of the topics you don’t want to overlook. All you have to do is fill them in and you’ll have a decent reference sheet for developing your marketing.
If you have a customer service team, talk to them. They can offer invaluable insights because they have direct contact with your buyers.
You can also interview colleagues in same the industry as yours to gain their insights.
Keep in mind, you need to continue to monitor and follow your customers to learn more and discover patterns that have shifted.
Start with learning about your competition. Are you both doing exactly the same thing? What are you doing they are not? Is there something you do much better than they do? Are they not doing something you have thought of but not implemented?
Or is there a way to tweak what you are doing to better engage with them?
Listen to what is said/posted about your brand. It can give you many insights. Your social channels are a good place to start. Expand your listening to the other places they hang out including special interest pages, forums, Reddit, and more.
Monitor how what you’re putting out to see what kind of an impression you’re making. Use what you learn to tweak your marketing to them. Need help tracking? There are numerous online tools available to track what is being said about your brand.
We start by diving into their data. What does the analytics say?
Then we review the buyer avatar to look for ways to improve it.
We look at what their competition is doing. If there is something we can offer that the competition does not, that’s an excellent place to explore.
We make our marketing adjustments and track the responses. They monitor what people are saying and we look for more ways to tweak and adjust.
Judith Culp Pearson receives three top honors
at the annual Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals in
Ft. Worth, Texas - October 7-9, 2023
