Who Are Your Customers?

Who Are Your Customers? 

You need to know who your customers are in order to grow a business. We start every project with an exercise to help us create “avatars” (also known as Personas or Customer Profiles) that represent our customers. Picking out a few of the major types of customers for your business and thinking through their wants and needs allows you to better engage these customers. But also you need to understand their levels of awareness. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz does a great job of breaking this down; but the book is several hundred dollars. So here is a bit of a summary. First, we break customers down into four groups:

• Customers who don’t know your product or that they need your product
• Customers who don’t know your product but know that a need for your product exists
• Customers who are aware of your product and they have a need
• Customers who are ready to buy your product but have not yet.

You need to treat each of these customer awareness groups separately. An ad for converting group 4 while they are in your store will work less effectively on someone in group 1. You can read more about this in Chapter 1. Map these stages out and let them influence when and where you communicate. 

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.

Messaging and Terminology

Messaging and Terminology

The way we talk about things can be important to convey what they mean to us. Calling someone who works in your organization a team member rather than an employee may seem trivial, but it can send a different message. When we work with a company, it is important for us to understand why they use certain terminology. Additionally, they might never have outlined for the organization which words to use and why. In some cases, it can make a huge difference. When beginning the marketing process, it’s important to talk through what words we use for which things. Defining the words and terms that are important to your brand can even be part of your branding process with an agency. If you want your “team” to use the word “customers” instead of “patients” then you have to weave those terms into the fabric of your business. Another example would be a personnel company who refers to its staffers as “associates” instead of “temps.” It has a different ring to it and can help direct the parts of your company to treat those people differently.

It is also important to share those terms and meanings with your marketing partners. Using those words internally is one thing, but making sure that the use of those words is consistent externally is also important. The words you use paint a picture of your company to the world. 

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.

Stark Raving Fans

Stark Raving Fans

“Stark Raving Fans” is a term that I came across in Seth Godin’s work. Stark Raving Fans means you go beyond just customer service to seeing every interaction with a customer as a chance to turn them into a marketing channel. If you are so good that your customers love doing business with you, they will tell others. If you make Stark Raving Fans of your business, they will help you grow. How do you create them? By doing business the right way. Under promise and over deliver. Deliver on time. And if something does go wrong, make it right (even if it costs you financially). When we stop seeing customers as a transaction and start seeing them as people and investments in our future, we create Stark Raving Fans.

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.

Do You Deliver Well?

Do You Deliver Well?

If you spend $10,000 on advertising and your customer service or product is horrible, what will the result be? You’ll have wasted that $10k and then some. Why? First impressions matter more to a person than just about anything else. If you fail to deliver on your products and your customer service is horrible, people will tell other people. In the social media age, that is even more true. Even the best brands have naysayers online because it costs so little to leave a bad review. It costs almost nothing socially and it is free to run your name through the mud or sing your praises online. You also lose out on the potential of repeat business which is the lifeblood of most businesses.

You need to ensure your product is ready for the stage before you put a spotlight on it. Customer service is an investment worth making. Have you stress tested your product, your delivery method, and your customer service? What would happen to your business if 10 more customers than usual called tomorrow? What about 50 more? What if 3 more had a bad experience? Considering these things and planning for them is crucial to success in marketing.

One of my favorite books on customer service is: Customers for Life by Carl Sewell. I was on a trip to Texas with my wife when our Subaru started acting funny. We stopped in the local Subaru dealer on a Friday afternoon and desperately asked for help so that we could return home that night. This local dealer was a Sewell dealer and they went above and beyond from every level, so I left them a good review online. While looking them up, I found the owner’s book and it did not disappoint.

Investing in customer service is investing in your customers. It will help grow repeat business which is more affordable than investing in new customers. 

This blog post is a portion of Attention and Action. The book walks you through the marketing process that Adelsberger Marketing follows with its clients. You can read this book for free as a blog on the Adelsberger Marketing website or purchase on Amazon.com.