STEP 7: Build Your Customer Profile
Now, it is time to build your customer profile. In today's dynamic and competitive market, it is mission-critical to understand your customers deeply. Suppose you can't deeply understand who your customer is and know their journey. In that case, developing an effective marketing strategy will be challenging.
Building a comprehensive customer profile, often known as a buyer persona, aids in aligning your product development, sales, and marketing efforts to cater directly to the needs and preferences of your target audience.
Here is an example of a customer persona for the beauty services industry:
Name: Jessica Smith
Age: 29
Occupation: Marketing Manager
Location: New York City
Income: $70,000 per year
Persona Bio:
Jessica is a busy professional who values looking her best at work and social events. While she enjoys treating herself, she also appreciates good value for her money.
Beauty Routine:
She prefers a natural makeup look for day-to-day but loves trying out dramatic styles for special occasions.
Gets a facial every month.
Regularly searches for organic skincare products.
Often, she looks for hair salons that use natural products.
She enjoys pampering herself with a spa day once in a while.
Goals:
Find reliable, high-quality beauty services that cater to her busy schedule.
Keep up with the latest beauty trends and incorporate them into her routine.
Find products and services that are both effective and kind to the environment.
Challenges:
She doesn't always have time to research and try new beauty spots.
Struggles to find eco-friendly beauty service providers.
She wants to find more time in her schedule for self-care.
Shopping Preferences:
Online booking systems for beauty services are a plus for her due to her hectic schedule.
Reads online reviews before trying a new service.
She is willing to pay more for high-quality service, especially if they use organic products.
She enjoys loyalty programs and will return to places that offer good deals or rewards.
Favorite Social Media Platforms: Instagram and Pinterest for beauty inspiration; LinkedIn for professional networking.
Influencers she follows: Jessica Alba (for her Honest Beauty line), Huda Kattan, and local beauty bloggers.
This customer persona provides a clear picture of Jessica, her preferences, challenges, and habits. If you're in the beauty services industry, knowing this helps you tailor your services, marketing, and communication strategies to cater to individuals like Jessica.
Follow this step-by-step guide, and you should be able to craft a well-defined customer profile:
Define the Objective:
Begin by determining what you aim to achieve with the customer profile. Are you looking to enter a new market, launch a product, or refine your marketing strategies? Having a clear objective will guide the depth and nature of your research.
Collect Demographic Information:
This forms the foundational layer of your profile. It includes age, gender, location, income level, education, and occupation. While basic, this information provides a snapshot of who your customer is at a surface level.
Dive into Psychographics:
Move beyond basic demographics to understand the psyche of your customers. Look into their interests, hobbies, lifestyle choices, values, and beliefs. For instance, does your target customer value sustainability? Are they tech-savvy? This data provides depth to your profile.
Understand their Pain Points:
What challenges or problems does your customer face that your product or service can address? They may be looking for time-saving solutions, cost-effective alternatives, or innovative tools. Pinpointing these pain points ensures your offerings resonate with their actual needs.
Determine the Buying Process:
Map out the journey your customer takes from recognizing a need to purchasing. Which channels do they use for research? How do they prefer to shop - online, in-store, or via an app? Recognizing these patterns helps in optimizing your sales funnel.
Analyze Past Interactions:
If you've been in business for a while, delve into your own data. Look at past sales, customer feedback, website analytics, and any available interactions. This historical analysis can reveal preferences, habits, and areas of improvement.
Engage Directly:
Surveys, interviews, and focus groups can offer direct insights from potential or existing customers. Asking open-ended questions about their experiences, preferences, and dislikes can provide invaluable information that secondary research might miss.
Consider External Factors:
Is your customer affected by seasonal changes? Do economic trends influence their purchasing decisions? Understanding external pressures can help in predicting shifts in customer behavior.
Group and Segment:
You might identify more than one distinct customer profile. That's okay! Segmenting these profiles allows for more tailored strategies. For instance, the needs of a 20-year-old student will differ from a 40-year-old professional, even if both might use your product.
Iterate and Refine:
Building a customer profile isn't a one-time task. As market conditions, societal trends, and technological advancements evolve, so too will your customer's behaviors and preferences. Regularly revisit and refine your profile to ensure it remains relevant.
Humanize the Profile:
Lastly, give your profile a face and a name. You may be targeting 'Tech-savvy Tina' or 'Eco-conscious Eddy.' Humanizing the data makes it easier for your team to relate to and understand the customer, fostering empathy and focus in strategies and interactions.
In essence, a well-crafted customer profile is like a compass. It points your business in the right direction, ensuring that your efforts are attuned to the very people you aim to serve. Investing time and resources into this endeavor maximizes ROI and fosters genuine, long-lasting relationships with your customers.
HELPFUL TOOLS TO COMPLETE STEP 7:
For a good video explanation of how to complete a buyer/customer persona, one can be found here
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For a good video explanation of how to do a complete customer touchpoint map, one can be found here.
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For a good book explanation of how to complete a buyer/customer persona, one can be found here
For a good article and customer persona template to use while you build your own, one can be found here
To hire a pro to build your customer persona and buyer journey for just $65, you can find a great resource here or to have our US based experts complete it click here