You want to understand and reach your target market. It sounds easy enough, but actually doing it is a bit more difficult. It’s like the difference between wanting to have read “Moby Dick” and actually reading it. People like to talk about data even more than like to talk about “Moby Dick.” But, if we’re pressed to admit it, few of us actually like using data.
I understand the problem and I have a solution. I’m going to start by talking about the five essential steps involved in target marketing. Then, in my next five posts, I’m going to drill down deep into each step and deliver five tips that will help you successfully complete each step in the process. When we’re all done, you’ll have everything you need to really know your customers and how to reach them effectively. Let’s get started!
1. Gather customer data
The first step is to gather the data you need to understand your customers. This includes learning who your customers are, where they come from (or how they found you), why they like you, what they purchase, and what makes them profitable/unprofitable customers for you. You need to understand your most profitable customers in order to reach them effectively.
2. Analyze customer data
The second step is to analyze the data you’ve gathered. You have to understand the data you have and know what it means. You have to think about it. You have to look for patterns and relationships. This is how you learn what you need to know about your profitable customers.
3. Profile your customers
The third step is to profile your customers using the data you’ve analyzed. You need to figure out the people behind the data. By profiling your most profitable customers, you make serving them the focus of your marketing efforts.
4. Target your customers
The fourth step is to target your customers. You must determine which communication channels work best to reach your most profitable customers. You may think, for example, that your marketing dollars should be spent on your Yellow Pages ad until you discover that your most profitable customers are finding you through social media referrals. If you want to reach the right customers, you have to use the right mediums.
5. Marketing for your customers
The fifth step is to actually communicate with your customers. You need to make an offer. Ideally, your offer will be so attractive that your customers won’t even have to think about it. They’ll already know they want it, just like you’ll already know that they will want it. That’s possible with target marketing.
As you can see, all five of these steps go together to achieve a single goal: Attracting profitable customers that want what you’re offering because you’re offering what they want. It can be just as easy as it sounds if you perform each of these steps. In the next five posts, you’ll learn how you can!
Read our next post in the series: 5X5: 5 Tips for Gathering Customer Data
Read our latest post in the series: 5X5: 5 Tips for Analyzing Customer Data