It’s all about the base! Why you need to know your customers…

 

 

 

Small business owners often fall into the “market what I think” trap rather than marketing what their customers want to hear. This often happens and hey, it’s completely natural – you are the business owner, you know your business inside out – who better than to know exactly what to say in your marketing right?

 

Partly yes, but partly no. You may know your products and services well, and what you stand for as a business, but it’s often that all important customer knowledge that is lacking. And yet it’s vital to marketing success. How can you market effectively if you don’t actually know who your customers are and what they need?

 

Ask yourself this - When did you last do some research on your customer base? When did you last pick up the phone and get some customer insight directly?  Do you ask questions about customer needs after every sale? Do you have an accurate, up to date profile of the type of people or businesses that buy your products or services?

 

 

Marketing is all about giving customers what they want, when they want it and in the way they want it. A little bit of customer intelligence goes a long way towards building a credible reputation as a business that actually adds value. Relationships that create mutual value will thrive – fact.

 

There are many ways to collect this essential data. You could consider using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system if you don’t already. There are many online versions that are free like Insightly, right up to the paid versions for larger businesses like Salesforce or SuperOffice. A CRM tool will help you to collect data on your customer contacts, helping you to understand the things about them that made them buy off you, or that make them likely to in the future. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, a CRM system is key and it doesn’t have to cost the earth. 

 

 

Small business often take a scattergun approach to marketing, throwing out messages on advertising or email without truly knowing whether their customers are seeing it or reading it, let alone digesting and then acting on it. This is why customer profiling is such an important tool in your marketing kit bag. You can gather client data from customer surveys, social media reviews, your own CRM system, your sales teams or simply by picking up the phone and talking to them. Wherever the information comes from, you need to build up a profile of your customers – these are called Personas and should tell you things like age, gender, demographic information, their likes/dislikes and where they get their information (social media? Online?). If you are targeting other businesses it may be information like turnover, size, number of employees, business needs, challenges they face and the industry they are in.

 

Once you know some of the influencing factors that bring customers to you, you can apply that same information to your prospects and start to gather new contacts with the same profiles. This makes conversion into a sale much more likely.

 

Before any marketing campaign, you can apply this new-found intelligence on your customers to create a Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) approach. 

 

1) Segment your target audience into their various profiles

2) Target your products and services at the most relevant profile

3) Develop a marketing message that hits the spot with that specific profile

 

 

Another vital aspect in business success is customer care. It can make or break a business, especially in this day and age when customer expectations are very high and the demand for value for money more prominent than ever. Knowing your customers will allow you to offer them the best possible service. You can add value to them by giving them relevant information that is useful and informative in some way. You can show that you understand them by offering them the service they require. You can show that you care about them by asking what they think and what they need.

 

If there is one action you do today, it should be to call a customer. Pick up the phone and ask them what is of value, what do they need, what do they think about your business? Start the ball rolling towards intelligent marketing and see your customer engagement increase for the better.