Meeting Your Ideal Customer with Bill Crowe
Written by Madyson Kiepprien-Fraser
Reading time 3:04 minutes
Welcome to the Spark Compass Blog! A place where we summarize the key takeaways from every episode and share some memorable behind the scenes moments.
This week’s episode features Bill Crowe, a professor working at St. Lawrence College for the past 35 years. With his help, we explored what it takes to meet your ideal customers. Bill, if you’re reading this, then thank you for bringing your many years of experience to this episode!
WHAT’S A TARGET AUDIENCE AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?
When you market your business, who are you trying to reach? If you don’t know who you’re selling to or why they should buy from you, then it’s time to meet your ideal customer! A target audience allows you to understand the mentality of your customers, which can make your marketing strategies more efficient over time.
Some quick steps to take before creating your target audience include:
Analyzing market opportunities
Researching markets interested in your product/service
Use the 4 P’s to establish your marketing mix
Manage your efforts and execute with precision
It’s important to understand your business and what it has to offer before investing time into a target audience.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH MARKETING SEGMENTATION?
Market segmentation allows you to break your audience into homogeneous groups. What’s homogeneous mean? In essence, it’s the process of grouping individuals together based on significant similarities. While B2C (business to consumer) groups focus on individuals, B2B (business to business) groups focus more on types of businesses when establishing their market segments.
Once you’ve established your segments, it’s important to consider their values and needs, who you should be selling to and how you can reach them with your marketing.
WHY SHOULD YOU IDENTIFY MARKET SEGMENTS THAT DON’T FIT YOUR BUSINESS?
Just because a segment doesn’t fit your business doesn’t mean you should ignore them outright. Why does that segment not suit your business? Is there a way you can catch their attention and loyalty? Will a new product or service provide the opportunity to engage them?
Don’t discredit a market segment that seemingly doesn’t fit with your business, but you also shouldn’t spend time on a segment that won’t yield results.
WHERE SHOULD YOU START WITH FINDING YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS?
The first step is research. Bill reports spending hours and hours on this step to create a solid foundation of understanding on your consumers. Once you’ve gathered enough research, you can begin segmenting them into likeminded groups. With all of that completed, it’s time to rank your groupings by order of priority and compatibility.
When developing and maintaining your market segments, Bill provided personas to better categorize them.
Suspect: Consumers who might have a need for your product or service
Prospect: Consumers who might have a need and the authority to act upon it
Customer: Consumers who have already bought from you once before
Advocate: Consumers who are a fan of your business and act as recurring revenue
Each persona should be approached differently to develop, maintain, or advance relationships with your customers.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DEMOGRAPHICS AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Demographics is the study of human populations while psychographics is the study of mental traits. Having a firm understanding of both concepts can make your marketing more effective.
Examples of demographic information include:
Age and Gender
Ethnicity and Race
Marital Status and Income
Education and Employment
Examples of psychographic information include:
Personality and Lifestyles
Interests and Opinions
Beliefs and Values
Having answers for demographic and psychographic data allows you to better understand the reasoning behind the purchase-making decisions of your consumers.
HOW DOES TARGETING B2B VS B2C CHANGE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY?
B2B and B2C consumers have differing priorities and preferences for making a purchase. B2B decisions are founded off of reason, focusing on what’s in it for them. B2C decisions are based on emotion and how a product/service makes them feel.
TO SUMMARIZE IN THREE KEY POINTS OR LESS!
Take time to research your consumers
Segment your consumers into like minded groups
Change up your strategy when marketing B2B or B2C
If you want to know more, check out this episode’s video!