In today's busy marketplace, it can be hard to make sure you stand out from the crowd. This week, I cover how to determine your ideal customer and your demographic. I cover the difference in determining whether you are a B2B versus B2C, and help you with a list of insightful questions and tactics, such as peering into competitor strategies and tuning into the social media grapevine, to mine the golden nuggets of customer data.
Imagine having the blueprint to your customer's mind, knowing exactly what makes them tick—this episode doesn't just imagine it, it shows you how to do it. By creating an ideal customer avatar, you'll be able to whisper directly into the ears of those who can't wait to become your customers. This is just the beginning; next week, I'll be back with the basics of marketing techniques that dovetail perfectly with your newfound customer insights. So, buckle up, and join me on the next leg of our journey to turn your business aspirations into an empire.
Thanks for listening! I'm glad you're here.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, and share it with someone who could benefit from what you heard. Also, head over to https://theerinolson.com/links and sign up for the email list, and you can get all the downloadable PDFs and tools! News: We finally have a YouTube channel! Visit us HERE: https://youtube.com/@theerinolson?si=xPNSU1-C7Yt9zXgD
In today's busy marketplace, it can be hard to make sure you stand out from the crowd. This week, I cover how to determine your ideal customer and your demographic. I cover the difference in determining whether you are a B2B versus B2C, and help you with a list of insightful questions and tactics, such as peering into competitor strategies and tuning into the social media grapevine, to mine the golden nuggets of customer data.
Imagine having the blueprint to your customer's mind, knowing exactly what makes them tick—this episode doesn't just imagine it, it shows you how to do it. By creating an ideal customer avatar, you'll be able to whisper directly into the ears of those who can't wait to become your customers. This is just the beginning; next week, I'll be back with the basics of marketing techniques that dovetail perfectly with your newfound customer insights. So, buckle up, and join me on the next leg of our journey to turn your business aspirations into an empire.
Thanks for listening! I'm glad you're here.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, and share it with someone who could benefit from what you heard. Also, head over to https://theerinolson.com/links and sign up for the email list, and you can get all the downloadable PDFs and tools! News: We finally have a YouTube channel! Visit us HERE: https://youtube.com/@theerinolson?si=xPNSU1-C7Yt9zXgD
See ya next week! Erin
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, a wife, a mother and a serial entrepreneur. After starting three successful businesses, I've learned some hard lessons regarding the ins and the outs of starting and running a small business. My intention is to share my knowledge that I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks, so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did Each week, I hope, to guide you to the next level in your business or in the business that you're working. So let's go. Hey guys, welcome back to the show. It is me again, erin Olson, your guide to getting you from business idea to big business.
Speaker 1:
Today we are covering the big business question who is your customer? Now, I know that sounds really basic. Your customer is anyone who buys your product or service, right? While that is true, there is so much more to that question that we need to answer in order to help you serve the right customer. That is your ideal customer, or, in business lingo, your demographic. When you can accurately describe your ideal customer, you can then tailor all of your marketing and the products that you develop to that whole demographic. It makes you an expert in a field of many that can set you apart from them all.
Speaker 1:
So let's dive in. The first thing we've got to do is ask if you are focusing on selling to businesses or if you are selling to individuals. By answering this question, I can help you just a little bit better. If you are selling to individual customers, also known as B2C, this is the episode for you. If you are selling business to business or B2B, this is also the episode for you. You will just want to tweak the info I cover to fit your needs a little bit better.
Speaker 1:
All right, let's dig in. So your customers are individual people, but what kind of people? Sorry to tell you this, but not every person needs your product or service, and not everyone that does need it will buy from you. Plus, you really only want to spend your marketing budget and time to sell to people that might actually buy your product or service, right? So then we have got to narrow down who your demographic really is. Like I said earlier, your demographic is the exact group of people who will buy your product or service. The more specific we can be in describing your demographic, the better your marketing attempts will be. So, to help you with that, we are going to get really clear on who your demographic is.
Speaker 1:
Here are some questions that can help you get clear on your demo. What is the average age of the person buying your product or service? Do they belong to a specific generation like Gen Xers, boomers or Millennials? What is their ethnicity? How educated are they? Do they have a high school education, or did they have some college in their background, or do they have a lot of college in their background? Do they work in or away from the home? What is their income? What is their sex? If this does apply to your company, are they parents? If so, what are the ages of their children? These questions are just the basics of determining your demographic.
Speaker 1:
You can certainly ask yourself more, but let's start here. If you have existing customers, you already have an accurate picture of your demographic, so fill in what you've got as far as data. You could also send out a customer survey to get more stats if you feel so inclined. Like I said, the more you know, the easier it will be to target your ideal customer in your marketing efforts. If you don't have any customers yet, this is just a little bit more challenging, but it can be really actually fun.
Speaker 1:
I would suggest looking at other companies in the industry that you would say are winning at business, the ones that you know of as the big dogs, the successful businesses that sell to customers you want to sell to. Well, you have to figure out who are they selling to. How do you find out? Okay, number one who are they targeting in their advertising? Look at the time of the placement of ads, where they're placing them on Instagram, facebook, twitter, maybe even TikTok. Check out and really think about where are they targeting their ads by the timing and who are they targeting them to. Number two look at their reviews on Yelp, google, amazon, angie's List or anywhere that they have a presence or where they would hope to sell their product. Do a little cyber-stocking and see who is the one that's leaving the reviews. I would take note of all of the information you can find out from those reviews.
Speaker 1:
Three, what type of person engages in their social media posts? When they have a post on Instagram or Facebook or any platform, go and look who is liking it and look and see what the comments are about and who is making those comments. Four, social media listening can also help, and no, I did not create that term. This is searches for relevant questions and hashtags, and you can search all of these and they are full of information. I regularly follow hashtags that apply to this podcast, so I know who is using them. Also, there might be support groups centered around your industry that can give you tons of insight. You can become a member and search in those groups to find out more and actually use it for market research. You can ask questions on there and you know what People in those groups are so willing to give all of the information. Another thing you could do is to conduct a survey to find out more and post it on a social media ad geared to the demographic you think fits yours. You can do this very cheaply and you can just get all of the answers, and you can put them into a Google Doc, and then that will help you so much.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so now that you have gathered your ideal customer data, the next step is to create an ideal customer avatar. This is where you really get granular and tactical about who you are going to market to. This may seem kind of weird, but really this is the special sauce to making sure your marketing falls in the laps of people who would actually want to buy from you. Most people never really get this specific in their marketing, and their marketing will lack consistency. It's like shooting arrows all over the place and hoping that some land and stick on the target. This should not be you.
Speaker 1:
So let's talk about your ideal customer avatar. What is it? We're going to call them our ICA for short. Your ICA is a very specific description of the person that will buy from you. So here is how to create your ICA. What is their name? Yes, you need to name your ideal customer. This will help you. I swear, just follow me here.
Speaker 1:
What is their backstory? How old are they? Where do they come from? Where do they spend the bulk of their time, online and offline? What inspires them? What keeps them up at night? Do they read books or blogs or do they listen to audiobooks and podcasts? And if they do, what are they about? What do they do in their free time, if they have any, and what is their biggest pain point? This is what drives them nuts and what do they hate the most about their current reality. That is called a pain point, something you need to know in order to market to them. What do they really want and what do they actually need? If you took even 10 minutes to really think about these questions, you will have an edge that the competition probably won't. Peter Drucker once said the aim of marketing is to know and understand your customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. If you are a B2B business, you should ask these questions maybe just a little bit different about your ideal business account. You will be defining the name of the ideal business account and what makes them unique. All of these same questions are going to be key to helping you find the businesses that you want to sell to. In hey Chicks, our ICA was Nancy, a 40-65 year old woman who has horses.
Speaker 1:
She is still working, possibly full time, and spends as much of her free time as she can with her horse. It is her best friend and her source of inner peace. That time is her escape from life's demands. She wants to feed her horse the best she can, but it seems that her horse eats way too much and food in hay is so expensive. So she is trying to make sure that she feeds her horse in the best way possible that she can afford. She doesn't want to spend all of the time that she has with her horse measuring out feed and she actually wants to ride. She has been told that her horse is too fat and if she doesn't lose the weight she may become unrightable, and that is one of her biggest fears.
Speaker 1:
Now I can mark it to Nancy as a friend. I have been her. I can find her on Facebook and turn her into a raving customer. If I can just get her to hear my message and try the product, then she will tell everyone she knows about how we gave her back her time with her horse and saved her money. Then, nancy, she sells her product for us. This is the magic.
Speaker 1:
Now I do have to say that if you are still having a hard time describing your ICA, there is another way. Most of the time we start a business to serve the exact same person we were before we started this business, and so a lot of times your ideal customer is who you were before you found the solution. This gives you expert status, even if you aren't quote an expert. Knowing your customer and taking him or her into consideration in your marketing and product development will help you to be the go to. So I suggest writing a quick write up of your ICA and posting it on your wall so that you know who you are working for and then you can serve him or her the best you possibly can.
Speaker 1:
Well, guys, this is what I have for you this week on the quality of life podcast. I hope that by drilling down on who your customer is helps you to cater your marketing a little clearer. Next week we will cover some basics of marketing to help you put this new info to use. Until then, get busy figuring out who your Nancy is. If this episode helped you, please share it with others in the business, and I will be back next week to help you get from your business idea to big business. See ya, thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the quality of life podcast Facebook and Instagram pages and our website, thearenolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.