Today we’re talking about the Five Ways to Determine Your Ideal Customer.
This is your target customer. Picture a bulls-eye. This is the person that, if you figure out who this is, if you can figure out how to message them, you know you have gotten a great first start on your business. It’s hard to catch a fish when you don’t know what bait it likes. It’s hard to catch a fish where you don’t know if it’s more likely to enjoy the sun or it likes to be in the shade. It’s the same thing when you’re trying to catch a target customer. You’re like an FBI profiler.
Who is Most Likely, Cemographically, to Buy and Use Your Product or Service
Let’s create this FBI profile.
- Age
- Race
- Living the country, city, or suburbs.
- Education level
Look at the political campaigns right now. They’re trying to hit every one of these demographics and they have a prediction for every one of these demographics. They don’t act like they’re not important and don’t act like, “Oh, everybody’s the same”. Well, it doesn’t seem to be the same. A Democrat will tell you they do better here, and Republicans will say they do better here, and the messaging that is different. How you target a sub-20-year-old is different than how you target somebody in their mid-30s and married with kids. Much different than somebody middle age, much different than somebody who’s a senior. Somebody who lives in the sub-suburbs probably has a different need from somebody who lives in the country. You just gotta be realistic. You need to create an FBI profile on who is the most likely to buy what it is your selling.
Who is in Most Need of Your Product or Service?
I have home service companies. I do not target people that live in an apartment or rental properties. Why would they make a high-level investment in all the various services that we offer? That is a waste of money. When I do direct mail, I don’t mail to those homes. When I buy TV advertising, I’m going to get the person who’s more likely to own a home, a higher demographic. This somebody probably has a little bit better job and is in a later stage of life. That’s my demographic.
You need to ask who is in most in need of your product or services?
For example, I love teaching people how to start and grow businesses. The pre-30-year-old market, they’re the ones that are most likely active on social media. I happen to know for sure that 3% of all startups are people under the age of 30. That’s pretty alarming. Most people don’t know that. I do know that. I know they may be excited about starting a business, but the question is whether they’re actually going to do it. Do they have the capital to do it? Do they have the experience required? I know that they probably need to be 30 or over to be statistically successful. I started my businesses pre-30, I’m just telling you, statistically, I would target my course to people 30 or over, and actually between 30 and 55 is the absolute sweet spot. What I’m trying to tell you is I want to remove the emotion from this.
Who is Your Competition?
If you see your competition running a TV commercial during a certain show, just ask why. If it’s a company that’s been in business a while and they’re a pretty sharp company, there’s probably a reason for it. If you want to start a business, look for competitive businesses, and mirror what they’re doing.
From what I understood, Hardees would just put the Hardees as close as they could to an existing McDonald’s location. They basically let McDonald’s do the hard work for them instead of doing site evaluations.
Who Can Afford Your Product and Our Services?
I kind of talked about it in the companies that I own. There are people under the age of 30 who are probably are not my ideal demographic. Could they use my company? Yes, but they’re the outlier. I don’t want to market to the outlier, the one in 10. I want to market to the nine in 10. I’m trying to make marketing easy, and that’s why I don’t start businesses where my target customers like a one-eyed leprechaun. After you do this exercise, you might find out who exactly can afford your product or service.
It’s important. Mine is higher-end. My TV marketing is typically higher-end. That’s why I do golf events on Saturdays and Sundays. I use the Hallmark Channel. I love advertising on the Hallmark Channel from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I do the evening news. That’s a great demographic for us. Our digital marketing company advertises the same way. I have a digital marketing company that works specifically with small businesses. We gotta know this information. We’re creating an FBI profile for our target customer.
Survey Your Existing Customers to Confirm Who They Are
What I have learned over time is that my target customer has expanded. It is expanded and their needs have expanded. Your area can become more wealthy. It can become more depressed financially.
It’s possible. We’ve all been in those small towns where all the businesses are kind of boarded up. Why? Because they didn’t keep. They didn’t keep up with the demographic shift. You need to be alert to demographic shifts. You want to make sure that your target customer is not getting narrower and narrower every year or getting more expensive to reach, or what you’re selling them is not as profitable. You gotta keep track of all these things. You’ve gotta know who your target demographic person is just like an FBI profile.
