Customer Demographics – Creating Your Perfect Customer Profile

Years ago, when I started looking how to pick the right customer demographics for my marketing, I only knew about the basics like age, marital status, income and the like. As I got a little more sophisticated (maybe a little obsessed) I started spreading that out to more and more areas of my perfect client's life and was able to better write sales copy and develop courses that would help my target market.

Today I want to let you in on how we figure out our perfect target customer. We do this process:

1. When we are developing a new product or service
2. When we are writing a sales page to sell something that we already have in house
3. When we are working with our clients to get them on track
4. When we are trying to develop an advertising campaign and write ads that convert

The reason it is so important is it stops us from talking about our features and makes it focus on “what is in it for them”. By having a super clear vision of who we are looking for, all the subsequent marketing, posting, branding and everything else just cascades down from there!

Lets Get Started Working Up Your Perfect Customer Profile….

1. Get our ebook, Targeting Your Perfect Customer

As you go though it, I will try to give you a quick overview of each section and item. That said, it is A LOT of info and if you need some help, please check out my “work with me page“!

2. Selling – what you are trying to promote

3. Name – now this is where we lose A LOT of people. They think it is stupid to give their profile a “name” and ask, “Why not just say that it is a woman or a man? Why do I have to pick something? This is stupid!” The harder you fight against it, the more I know that you are not selling to a person, you are selling to “people” – a nameless, amorphous blob who you consider to be customers, not individuals to cater to. Just stop arguing and give them a name!

4. Age, income, occupation, marital status – these are pretty self explanatory and considered “normal” customer demographics.

5. Kids – it is important to know about their home life. A single mother juggling three kids is going to have a very different level of time than a single man with no kids.

6. Car – now this one seems silly too, but knowing that someone drives a crunchy granola 1984 Cherokee versus a brand new leased Lexus is huge difference!

7. Neighborhood – goes along with lifestyle and is a good indicator of where to network and advertise to reach them!

8. Hobbies – can include things like do they golf, volunteer at a food bank, spend time with girlfriends, knit, go to the gun range…all sorts of interesting things that can hook to their political affiliations and other fun stuff.

9. Reason for working – are they the sole support of their families or doing it for pin money for extras? This comes into play when writing sales copy!

10. Financial focus – someone who is 63 and saving for retirement may be much more motivated than someone who is just trying to get a few extras like a trip to Disney World. (I feel like this needs a little explanation…think of MLM or Direct Sales people. Many stay at home Moms go into Direct Sales to get a little of their own folding money. When marketing to them you may need to talk more about getting out of the house or affording a trip. If they are the sole breadwinner and saving for college, their triggers will be very different!)

11. General – anything that you can think of to help describe your person! These are some of the bits that will make them seem more real!

12. Social sites, Internet and Search – where are they hanging out online? How will you try to reach them? Depends a lot on whether you are selling a B2B or B2C service!

13. What style of learning? This will help tell you whether you need to talk about “see how you can make more money” or “have you heard about…” We tend to like people who are like us so I like visual people (heck I named my site Marketing Artfully – I like everything to be pretty!)

14. DISC Personality – Huge for me! I don't have a ton of this floating around publicly but did write a post years ago that might help with understanding this…Using The DISC Personality Profile For Marketing and Selling

15. Generational Beliefs are WICKED cool – these are things that we generally don't even think about having an impact on us but which are very important. I am a Gen X-er and I KNOW that “if it is to be it is up to me”. Part of the latchkey kids, I was responsible for my younger sibling at a very young age and am still willing to jump right into the leadership role. Compare that to a Gen Y-er who would probably be more comfortable with having a friend along to share and help with the work. These generational forces are strong and need to be considered!

16. Worldview – probably the most important part for your marketing message! My worldview is that it is best to spend my business money at the end the end of the year so I don't have to pay taxes on it. I am wide-open to marketing messages that come in during the holiday. Compare that with a single mom who has just spent every penny to put a great Christmas together for her family…the same message sent to each of us would be received very differently!

these next four come from Perry Marshall and his Swiss Army Knife course….gotta say I LOVE that Perry and am pleased to be an affiliate for this product!

17-18. What Your Customer Loves or Hates – this is personal to your customers. Could be something like singing in bars, making money, impressing their friends or the Tea Party. These are all very different things but they add to the framework that we can use to develop a strong marketing message.

19-20. Your Customers Heroes or Enemies – I find this to be very telling. If your gal's hero is Oprah, there are hundreds of touch points that you can use…what Oprah says like “When you know better, you do better”. Having compassion for everyone, not just people you like. If her enemy is Sarah Palin, you can use sayings like “Can't put lipstick on THIS pig” and the meaning is very clear. Now, you don't want to be too polarizing and you might want to stick to general enemies like “working for the man” or “the people who don't understand single girls and give them stupid advice”.

21. Positive Beliefs About Your Product Or Service – this is important. If you are selling a product that is known to do what it says (like the Dyson vacuum that is a best of class product) you have a much easier time than if you are selling a weight loss supplement. These are also sometimes beliefs that are not realistic but are still positive like, “I can set up a Facebook page and all my marketing woes will be gone”.

22. Negative Beliefs About Your Product Or Service – this is where you can get down to the nitty gritty and start making an impact! If you are a business coach and KNOW that people think, “I tried that before and wasted my money” then you can address that right up from in your marketing, setting yourself apart from those “others” who don't have systems or a plan or satisfied clients.

23. Why They Buy – if you haven't sold anything, guess. If you have a track record of sales, reverse engineer what it was that made them take out their wallets. Was it the fact that you have a great track record, was it your autoresponder series that primed them…basically just look at what got them over the tipping point and made them sign up or buy.

24. Albums, Actors, Movies, TV, and Books – These are all great cultural references. I always use the example of Twisted Sister. Saying that to one of my friends who was a teen in the 80s induces feelings of “we're not going to take it”, big hair and Dee Snider in addition to the general term of endearment among my set. Calling someone a twisted sister is a compliment and if you are not of that age, you wouldn't know that.

25. Other Experts – this is your competition. These are other experts in your field that you are going head to head with! While it is tempting to stick you head in the sand, looking them full in the marketing and figuring out how you differ can be a very productive process.

I KNOW that you are probably thinking, bloody hell, how much do I have to know about this person to sell them a toothbrush! That said, all of these touch points will help you to craft a message that will resonante with them and will make your job of crafting a message MUCH easier than if you are just sitting there with a blank piece of paper trying to figure out how to talk ONE MORE TIME about what you are selling

Want some help? I KNOW this can be overwhelming but it is vital to your sales and marketing success. Knowing your customer demographics could mean the difference between selling the heck out of your product and heading back to the cube farm in disgrace (see how I threw in that reference to your enemies!)

How To Develop YOUR Customer Avatar

Here is an additional resource for you to work on your customer avatar!

My marketing bestie and I sat down and recorded 6 videos about how to target your perfect customer and create your Customer Avatar. This is probably one of the most impactful things you can do for your business so we made sure that it was affordable for all of our “peeps”!

You get ALL of the information that you need to fill your business with customers you love! Not just videos but a worksheet, book and even examples of completed sheets that you can use to help make your “perfect customer”!

Nice things they say… “I thought I already knew how to identify a target market but this worksheet and video really opened my eyes up to details I hadn't thought of. Exactly what I needed to improve my my research and products. Thank you!” Rachel