Finding the right customer

Who are my most likely customers and what do they really want?

The fact is, you can’t market to everyone – it’s too expensive for one thing. But even if you had the budget of a Coca-Cola or Nike, trying to market to every woman and her dog wouldn’t be very smart either. A busload of middle-aged Japanese men could decide to make a detour to Derry to check out your fantastic new hair salon - but it’s not very likely.

The only way to make sure you get the best possible return from the marketing and advertising that you do is to decide who you should target and, in turn, what they really want from you. By being more specific with the people you market to (and therefore what you say to them) you save wasted expense and have a much stronger, better targeted, and more effective message.

The best place to start is with the question; why would someone buy from you? In answering that question, you have to focus on the things that make your business different from the rest – the things that make you unique. That list could include features like your location, the products you sell, the services you provide or even how you go about providing them.

The next step is to take that list and decide who is most likely to benefit from each of these unique points. For example, if the location of your corner shop makes you unique then the people most likely to benefit are those who live or work near by.

Once you start identifying how your uniqueness can benefit certain groups you can also start putting those groups into order – from most likely to least likely. As a beauty salon you might stock an exclusive range of hair care products that make you unique. Of course, you can sell these products to both men and women but you’ll be able to guess which of the two is more likely. Because you have limited resources in terms of money, time and (most importantly) customer attention, you need to prioritise.

Now you know who your most likely customers are, the next stage is to do some homework. To create a business that appeals to them directly and specifically, you’ll need to know what they really want when they buy products or services like yours.

Continuing the salon example, customers might be looking for a nice hairstyle or a new colour? But it could be they simply want to feel better coming out than they did going in. If that’s the case, you’re no longer selling a new hairstyle or even beauty – you’re selling a luxury experience.

Of course, there’re also a few practical points about your potential customers that you’ll want to know too. What newspaper do they read (helping you place your advertising)? What shops do they shop in (creating ideas for joint promotions)? Does price matter and if so, how much (helping you maximise your returns)? Do they use the Internet? Do they like getting text messages? Do the like special offers and promotions?

Anything you can find out about your potential customers can help make a difference, but you need to keep your focus on your most likely customers. An ad in the paper designed to appeal to young affluent women is not likely to appeal to middle-aged men in the same way.

Yes, that does mean that you’re not likely to attract as many middle-aged men but that’s a lot better than a more general, untargeted ad that attracts no one at all.

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This article was originally published in the Derry News, August 30th, 2007

Why would someone buy from you?

People do things for a reason. That reason might not always seem the most logical or vital but there’s always a reason. Figuring out the reasons a potential customer would buy from you is the first important step in creating a marketing plan for your business – and probably the most important question you can answer.

The easiest way to start is with the basics. Why would a customer buy at all?

A customer buys something because they want to fill a specific need or want. People buy food because they don’t want to be hungry, they buy accountancy services because they want their taxes filed and they hire a painter because they want their walls to look good.

Of course, most customers want more than just the basics. They need food to avoid going hungry but they’re also likely to want it to taste good. They may also want it to be healthy, or cheap, on convenient or to make an impression at a dinner party.

These are all specific reasons why someone would buy from a particular business. The problem is that everyone will say the same thing. Everybody offers ‘a great service at an affordable price’, every car insurance firm says they are the cheapest, every restaurant has great food and every taxi firm has a ‘fast and reliable service’.

When everybody says the same thing, customers simply ignore everyone. Then it’s down to who’s got the biggest budget.

So if you haven’t got fortunes to spend, need to say something different. In other words, you need to identify the benefits that you can offer that are unique to you. Here are a few examples:

• People will buy from a corner shop because it’s the closest shop to them, if they don’t live nearby they won’t. Their location and convenience make them unique.

• Fashion conscious shoppers will buy from a retail outlet because they are the only place that stocks a particular brand, people who aren’t into brands won’t care.

• A bar could attract a specific clientele because they’re the only place to have live bands on a Friday night, people who don’t like live music will go elsewhere.

Take away the unique points from any of these businesses and customers wouldn’t seek them out – there would be no reason to. Likewise, if what’s unique about you doesn’t interest your potential customers you’re no better off. A shop full of high fashion brands that nobody likes (or has even heard of) won’t succeed.

Bring that all together and you get a simple process:

1. Make a list of things customers want – i.e. reasons why they buy
2. Make a list of benefits you can offer
3. Rule out anything that the customer can get somewhere else just as easily – i.e. things that aren’t unique to you
4. Whatever’s left are the reasons customers will buy from you and the most effective marketing message you can use

Now that you’ve identified what makes you unique, the next step is to start figuring out the groups of potential customers that your ‘uniqueness’ is most likely to appeal to - and how you can build it all into a powerful and effective message.

A nice article ...

Just came across this nice little article by Jay Abraham on using marketing partnerships to grow your business - or as he calls them Host / Beneficiary arrangements.

Where to buy a chicken dinner

Let’s say you really fancy a fried chicken dinner this evening.

You don’t feel like cooking, so you start to think about takeaways that might be able to satisfy your poultry loving hunger. Of course, there are dozens of places you could go that sell fried chicken, but chances are, there’s one fast food brand name that will certainly enter into your thoughts. After all, it’s right there in the three-letter acronym. Problem solved.

Fried chicken aside, focussing your business on providing a particular type of product or service is one of the most effective and practical ways to market your business. It comes down to the reasons why people buy – and why they don’t buy.

When people buy a product or service, they’re looking for a solution to a specific problem or to fill a specific desire or want. When I’m hungry I don’t just want to be full. I want the food to taste good and perhaps be healthy, or inexpensive or convenient – or all three. My wants are actually quite specific and I’m going to search for a solution that most closely fulfils my needs. If I’m looking for that healthy option, the takeaway up the road will not be my first port of call – no matter how delicious it may be. A shop that’s called Healthy Options would probably be more likely.

This is great news for small businesses. Since customers are looking to fill very particular needs it means there’s no need for you to try and be all things to all people – you can become a specialist. Simply put, customers have more choice and are more discerning, so for an increasing number of firms, attracting a large percentage of a small pie is more profitable - and more likely - than going head to head with the bigger players with bigger budgets.

To get a feel for the effectiveness of specialisation you can draw a comparison with magazine titles. If you were searching for information on interior design you might find it in a general lifestyle magazine but you’d be much more likely to pick up a copy of Interior Design Monthly.

You’d expect the editors of Interior Design Monthly to know something about interior design even before you open the cover or read a single line. By focusing your own business and marketing message, you can achieve the same immediate level of trust. In other words, you can become the most natural and obvious solution to potential customers’ needs - simply by saying that you are.

Obviously if Interior Design Monthly didn’t live up to your expectations you wouldn’t buy it again and likewise, delivering on this initial level of trust is vital to building a successful business. But, by setting your stall out as serving a particular set of needs (ex. those of would be interior designers) you immediately communicate that you understand their needs and imply that you’ve helped fill the needs of other people just like them.

That aside, the really good news for small businesses with small budgets is that focusing your message has a number of ‘knock on’ benefits as well:

• Targeting a smaller market can help keep your advertising and marketing costs low
• Your message becomes more effective
• You’re more likely to benefit from word-of-mouth
• A compact market is easier to tap into and may have more obviously routes in
• You can build a reputation as an expert within your chosen speciality – opening new doors and opportunities
• Focusing allows you to deliver a better, more tailored, service
• Your message is more credible – no one believes you can be a specialist or expert in everything. i.e. a student bar doesn’t easily double up as chic yuppie hang out.
• You stand out amongst the more general businesses and general marketing messages.

Of course, there are obvious exceptions that may come to mind. Your local supermarket for example. They might well sell insurance, credit cards and loans. However they first became the place to buy your groceries and then used that trust, brand loyalty and footfall to move into new areas. Having said that, these forays into new arenas are not always successful and many brands end up shelving new additions to ‘get back to their knitting’.

Regardless of how you go about it, marketing your business is about positioning yourself as a solution to specific customer needs. The more directly you address those needs the more effective your message will become. Decide what makes you unique and then find the customers who are most likely to respond. Focus.

After all, you wouldn’t want go to a seafood restaurant to buy that box of fried chicken.