I love September, it always has that back to school feeling, a sense of a fresh start and new beginning. For many it also signals one of the most productive times of the year as the nights draw in. For many small businesses it is also the perfect time to review how things are going and ensure our marketing is helping us to achieve what we need it to. With all of this in mind, now is a great time to check in with our marketing strategy, reset objectives if needed and of course confirm that our target audience is still in alignment and a true reflection of our clients.
I talk a lot about the importance of understanding your target audience and there are many different ways to define who they are. For some it is easy because it is a very specific industry, sector or demographic, but for many others it is less straightforward.
I had a client, come to me some years back and claimed they had eight target audiences, through discussions we managed to get them down to three, by considering their role, but most importantly their mindset and where they were in their career. This client also had a significant ‘lightbulb” moment, once they had identifying their target audiences, they realised the tone and focus of all of their communications was totally wrong. They were positioning themselves as a revolutionary, industry leading business, where as their audience were seeking reassurance and proof that what they were doing, worked. A change in their approach had a significant difference in their performance.
So, what key things do we look at when defining our target audience?
There are four core segments to consider when defining our target audience, they include:
- Demographics: think about their age, demographic, life stage, financial position and background.
- Dreams and aspirations: this is a golden nugget, by understanding this, we can focus our marketing approach and content to show that we can help them to realise their dreams.
- Pain points, this is also really important, once we identify these we can start to show how our product or service can help them to overcome the challenges they face.
- Other media and lifestyle learnings, this is also really useful to define because it might present other content or partnership opportunities, to enable us to connect with our target audience. With this undersatnding it will help us to evolve our marketing strategies.
There are a couple of steps in defining our data, I always start by working with a client to visualise this and define what they know. Using AI as a tool in this process is becoming increasingly common. Once we have this we can and evolve and verify our thinking through market research. There are two different types of research to consider:
- Qualitative research: This is typically gathered as a survey and we would mainly expect to gather statistics from this type of project eg: “50% of our visitors book at least a week in advance.”
- Quantitate Research: Is typically gathered in the form of an individual Interview or focus groups. It is more in depth and provides us with real opportunity to dig deeper into what the customer thinks of our product or service.
Click HERE to read one of our recent articles “Using Market Research to Better Understand your Customers” where we explore this topic further.
How to find new clients
This is a question I get asked a lot and have written quite a bit about it, click HERE to read one of my more recent articles around the topic. The key thing however to finding new clients is to have a clear definition of who they are (see above). If you are not sure on where to start with that then another good source to guide you is to look at your business data. A couple of things to consider:
- Where your current clients are coming from?
- Who do you enjoy working with?
- Who do you not enjoy working with?
With the above thinking to hand, brainstorm what your ideal client might look like. An important factor in this is to also ensure they are in the right mindset, ready to work with you, appreciate the value you will bring to their business and have the budget to invest in your product or service. I had a discovery call with a potential client, some years back, they had reached out because they were looking for growth and wanting more business. In speaking with them it became clear they did not see the value in having a website or investing in marketing, needless to say our conversations did not progress further.
Once you are clear on who you want to work with, creating your marketing communications to attract and connect with them will be key. As an example, if you are an accountant, HR consultant or marketer, it may not be right for you to position your retained service to new businesses, as they may not yet have the budget or inclination to invest. Alternatively offering a workshop or group programme may work better. Be clear and specific on the pain points you solve and how you can help your audience.
The best way to attract new clients
I am not going into the detail here on the specific media to use in attracting new clients (see the above article for that). I do just wish to note that is really important to have a mix of strategies available to start to promote your business. Some will drive awareness and others will be more tactically focused. There is no question that referrals, recommendations and word of mouth are the strongest and best form of advertising.
What strategies you chose to use will depend upon your budget. To drive awareness of your business you might consider radio, podcasts, networking, presenting, editorials, local media, PR and even TV if your budget can stretch that far.
For more tactical results sharing social proof of how you can help people through case studies and testimonials should form part of it. Media such as email marketing, digital advertising and social media very firmly sit at the core of everything.
Creating that connection with your client through the know, like, trust model is hard. It takes commitment and consistency to help achieve cut through in a busy cluttered digital landscape. Throughout all marketing activity, it is also important to measure what is working and what is not. Simply do more of what works. Click HERE to read a bit more about this in our “7 Key Marketing Campaign Metrics for 2022”.
As a service business, signs that they are not your ideal client
As a service based small business, when you first start out you are keen to work with anyone, working on any project to get started. I know myself that there were a couple of occasions where I worked on a project with a client, but my gut instinct was telling me not to. I ignored it. Without fail each one of these projects did not work out. I capture some thoughts below that might indicate perhaps they are not your ideal client for you.
- Your gut instinct or sense when you meet someone that you are not in alignment in approach.
- If you have a trial session or send a proposal and they ghost you. We are all busy and to follow up a couple of times is being proactive, but it does not take much to send a quick email. Maybe this is a sign that they are not quite ready to work with you.
- Communication is at the heart of all relationships, you need to be in alignment and speak the same language for it to work. Catching up regularly can help to catch any concerns early on in any project.
- Values, do they seem to be in alignment?
- Chemistry or trial sessions can often be useful to start to understand their way of working and values. If they cancel last minute, turn up late or unprepared, for example, is that OK for you? Remember these sessions are often an interview for you as they are for the potential client.
Remember as a service based business in particular, you have to work with and get on with your client, so it is worth considering your onboarding process to ensure you have the best chance of success.
Signs that they are your ideal client
In many cases this is the reverse of the above, but you would expect your ideal client to be:
- To have a positive mindset and seem enthusiastic to work with you.
- Compliment your way of working.
- Takes time to explain the businesses, processes and expectations.
- Clear expectations are set on deliverables and actions, on both sides.
If you would like some help resetting your marketing strategy for the final quarter, gain clarity on your ideal client and set a clear plan in place to grow your business this autumn, get in touch to see how we can help.
