In the competitive business world in which we operate, it is vital to understand your customers.
We always recommend that clients profile their top customers once a year, to understand their communication channels, preferences and needs; this then leads to a more planned and targeted marketing approach.
In this blog, we’ll discuss 5 great ways to profile your customers:
1. Understand their communication channel preferences
Once a year it’s a good idea to take a section of your top clients and analyse the communication channels that they prefer.
For example, do they have a tendency towards email, telephone or online? This enables you to tailor your messaging to them specifically.
It is also a chance to understand their touch points, i.e. which magazines do they read, which events do they go to, which social media channels do they use?
By having a clear grasp of this, you can identify how to put yourself in front of these customers as well as potential customers of a similar personality.
2. Define their triggers
Can you look back over the bigger clients you have and define the exact trigger as to why they came to you? Was it a new objective set for them, did they need additional resource, did they have an urgent requirement?
Understanding this can enable you to tailor your marketing messages for the future, in order to target new customers who have similar challenges and triggers.
3. Look for gaps
If you have a superb client on a particular business park, would it also be great to work with their next door neighbours?
Analysing where your clients are based can help you to approach new potentials as a happy client next door surely gives you a foot in the door.
These approaches can also help you have more clients in one concentrated area, making visits and client meetings more efficient and timely.
4. Draw up key personas
Spend time understanding the personality characteristics of your client base, as this helps you create a visual persona of the types of clients you want.
For example, if you are a car retailer, you can define the type of person who buys a family car and their characteristics, versus one who buys a style of car.
Again this gives you a guide for how to market to these personas and tailor the messaging to suit them.
5. Make sure they're happy
At the end of the day, it’s all about having happy clients: If you understand them better, you can tailor the messaging and client support to them, even down to the types of client hospitality or gifts you offer, to ensure they receive a personalised service.
