Recent blogs have focused a lot on the branding part of marketing and an important part of it all is making sure you know who your ideal customer is.

The more you know about who you want buying your product or service, the more effective you can be in launching an appeal to them. You probably have a lot of information about these people already, or at least your salespeople probably do. You just might not have summarized it in a way that someone else, say a content marketing expert, can use to create content that is appealing. Let’s go a little deeper with this one.

What you need to know about your target audience:

Some branding experts want to know details about your ideal customer that might even include the kind of toothpaste they use (yes, there are times when that could be important). But, generally speaking, here is what will be helpful to know:

Demographics

The people who are creating content (or logos or websites) on your behalf need to know as much as possible about your target audience, specifically their:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Occupation
• Income Level
• Status: married, single, children, retired

Geographic and Lifestyle Factors

How do the people you are trying to attract live – and where?

• Are they rural and have to drive everywhere?
• Or do they live in cities and take transit to work?
• What kind of weather is typical for the area?
• Are they spenders, or are they conservative with their money?

Customer Needs

What does your ideal customer need? What pain are they in, and why? For example, is just-in-time delivery important to them? Or has safe storage of supplies been an issue lately? Are they under increasing pressure to “green up” their processes?

Behaviours

When you look at your customers’ behaviour over the past few years can you see any trends? Will they sacrifice quality for price in some areas but not others?

Psychographic Details

Are there any personal traits typical to your ideal customer? Are they early risers? Fans of one sport over another? Do they favour Android, Blackberry or iPhone? Do they get their news on TV or via the internet?

Once you’ve found answers to all of this information you can start to put together a detailed profile of your ideal customer. In marketing-speak, we call this a “Persona.” You may have different personas for the various products or services that your business offers. Give them each a name, a code word that represents all of the people who might possibly want what you are selling.

You can then produce content with your personas in mind to help you stay on task and on target and, again, so you don’t waste valuable marketing dollars trying to appeal to the kind of person who is never going to buy from you.

If you would like to connect with me to find out more about how Crossman Communications can help you tell your business story through your online content, please connect with me directly at susan@crossmancommunications.com. If you’re in a hurry, book yourself in right away for a free consultation at www.meetme.so/susancrossman.