digital marketing
By Carrie-ann | Jun 13, 2017 | Planning Your Marketing

Five Simple Ways To Create Your Ideal Customers Profile

How to Generate Really Effective Customer Profiles
Everyone knows that to grow a business generally needs a marketing campaign. If you are going to launch a marketing campaign, which may well be expensive, then you want to ensure your business extracts maximum value from this campaign. To do this, you need to know who you are marketing your goods and services to.
That is why you need to get a comprehensive idea of who your customers are by profiling them. Armed with this, you can then search for more people like that. In addition, you can create a profile of your ideal customer and use this to help you to not only locate them, but devise the necessary strategies to ensure that they become aware of and devoted to your brand.

How Do I Understand Who My Customers Are?
Your customers can be described by a number of criteria, which include categories such as demographics, psychographics and behaviours.
Demographics address factors that are easily delineated, such as age, income, level of education, profession, and gender. Demographics tell you who your customers are.
Psychographics looks at what type of personality they have, their attitudes, their interests, their opinions, what they aspire to, and a range of other psychological variables. Psychographics tell you more about what motivates your customers to make purchases.
Behaviour encompasses information such as hobbies or sports your customers enjoy and how they like to relax.
For businesses marketing to other businesses, take note of your targets’ business sector, number of employees, balance sheet and revenues, budgets and style of decision-making.

How Do I Locate My Customers?
Get to know your customers better by researching where they like to congregate. Where do they gather physically? Where do they gather online? Examine topics such as what your customers search for online and what they read, both offline and on the web. If you are feeling really motivated, you could even go to a place where they physically gather such as a store, if there is one, and talk to the customers. Ask questions and listen to their answers. You can do this online by asking for feedback, and then engaging with customers by demonstrating that you take their comments seriously. Ask them why they like your products and services and what you provide that others don’t. All of this is great research that should assist marketing.

How Can I Understand My Customers’ Purchasing Process?
Look at why your customers buy your services or products. Research how they do their research, what need they are trying to satisfy and what benefits and solutions your business gives them. If looking at businesses, consider whether they look for referrals, how long the purchase process takes and how many people need to sign off before a purchase is made.

Action List: Put it All Together!
Map out your customers in customer profiles that are realistic, with real motivations to buy your products
Place your customer profiles in appropriate segments or identifiable groups
Label each segment with a written description or persona
Give your personas a name
Give your personas an image
These steps will help to visualise your customers and avoid wasting time on marketing to people who are not going to yield the desired returns.