Last week we looked at an overview of the 6 Parts of Your Company – The Business Bullseye and over the next few weeks we are going to dig deeper into these pieces of a business to discuss their purpose, opportunities that you may or may not be familiar with and processes & systems that can be implemented. This week we are going to talk about marketing and the art of attraction.
Before a business gets to deliver their product or service, they have to find customers. And for most businesses this starts with the basic process of marketing, or taking people from not knowing who you are, and what you do, to knowing. This can sometimes be an awakening for a business owner, to realize that he is really in the business of attraction and needs to identify his ideal customer; this can be documented and recorded with Customer Persona Profiles.
The Customer Persona Profile
The customer persona profile is designed to capture the critical information related to your ideal customer – Where do they hang out? Where do they find information? What are their pains? Challenges? Motivation? Goals? Aspirations? etc., and what messages will engage them and get them to act?
This format allows you to gather all of the necessary information in a single location to develop appropriate marketing messaging that will engage your target market. Many of you are probably thinking, wait a minute, we sell our products to a lot of people, there is not just one “ideal customer”, and that is okay, you will have one customer persona profile for each target customer group. If you truly think about your best customers, the repeat customers that buy from you multiple times and refer you to others, they can be grouped into a few categories. Your job is to identify the groups that comprise 80% of your customer base, describe them in as much detail as possible and prepare messaging that will get your ideal customers to engage.
Attraction
Now that you know who you want to target, the most critical step in developing your marketing engine is to attract these targets to engage with you and your company with your marketing and advertising activities. One suggestion is known as a lead magnet and offers your target market something they value in return for engagement with your company. You see this in the form of offering samples, evaluations and reports, in exchange for customers contact information and further engagement. And you can do this either live, like after a presentation or at a tradeshow, or online, like with an offer on your website.
Once you capture your prospects contact information, you can now share additional information and directly market to the prospect that has shown interest. This is done by placing your clear, concise marketing messages in front of your target market through email, direct mail, phone calls and meetings.
Also, you can share your story to connect with your prospects on a deeper level. Go beyond the simple product or service that you offer and explain why you do what you do, what impact it has on the greater good or how you are connected to something bigger than yourself.
Remember, the average buyer needs 5 to 7 different touch points with a company before making their buying decision, and for higher dollar purchases the average number of touches can increase. It is critical that you stay persistent and nurture the prospects that have shown interest; keep in touch with them on a regular basis, share information they will find valuable and develop a relationship, without being pushy, so that they think of you when they are ready to buy.
When you implement some of these practices into your business to better focus on your target market, increase inquiries and build stronger relationships with your engaged prospects, your efforts will be returned many times over as your sales process flourishes.
Next week we will take a look at Sales – Create Value and Win.
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