Introduction
Let’s start with a principal fact: business is competition. And there are a few things to give you an edge over your competitors. One surefire way to achieve this is by truly understanding your customers. Everyone knows it, but most underestimate its depth and importance.
What does it involve? Diving into the minds of your customers means more than just surface-level knowledge. It’s about identifying the bullseye of your market – your Dream Buyer – and then focusing all efforts on them for a crystal-clear business strategy.
You might think, “We’ve already defined our customer personas.” However, a ten or 20-sentence persona is just the tip of the iceberg. To truly understand them, you must dedicate at least a week to this task.
David Ogilvy, known as the “Father of Advertising,” spent 21 days with half a dozen writers under him to create the famous Rolls Royce headline. He spent his time in the factory and with customers. He called this ad his biggest success and never attributed it to creativity but to meticulous market research. To him, 21 days was on the lower end.
Now, building a multi-million dollar business, it should take you much more than that. Thankfully, with modern tools, we can have a good starting point with a week’s work and, ideally, continuous research on the go.
How to Identify Your Dream Buyers
Ogilvy said 80 cents of your dollar should be spent on writing headlines. This is known as the Pareto Principle, and you’ve probably heard this multiple times so far. But what most people miss is you can apply this principle to itself and have a 4% to 64% ratio.
4% of your customers bring 64% of your revenue. They are the ones who bring in the bulk of your business and whom you can help most effectively. Wouldn’t it be wise to find and serve them? Remember, if you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one.
One effective way to find these customers lies in numbers. What was the last time you’ve dived deep inside Excel sheets? When you’re at it, look beyond surface-level revenue figures and focus on profitability. It’s not just about who is buying, but who is also bringing the highest profits with lower expenses.
Well, not every startup has a customer base. Diving into numbers is one effective way, not the only one or the strongest. The strategy we will reveal is the most robust way to understand your prospects. And it’s an excellent opportunity to lay solid foundations for your startup.
Know What Your Prospects Are Asking
Let’s start with a short story. Tim Cook wanted to understand global Apple customers and started traveling. In the United States, the iPhone Mini was the darling of the crowd, a nod to Steve Jobs’ legacy of prioritizing thumb-friendly designs. Through his travels, however, Cook revealed a strong appetite for larger screens, especially in the Asian market. Defying the skepticism in the US, Apple made a bold move to phase out iPhone Minis. Since then, Apple’s sales have only skyrocketed.
We’re not suggesting you pack your bags and circle the globe (though it sounds exciting). We live in an online world. Just as you’re searching and exploring on Google, so are millions of others. They’re not just passively browsing, either. They ask questions, share their stories, and even their deepest desires. Today, every click, post, and comment is a window into what people really want.
To find the desires and concerns of your prospects, you can start either directly on Google or head over to a keyword research tool, like Answer the Public, that suits your taste. Once there, start typing in keywords that resonate with your service. This will unfold a panoramic view of what your prospects search for. But to get to the heart of it, we must delve deeper.
Take the most searched keywords you’ve discovered and run them through Google. Your mission is to get into the depths of forums, Facebook groups, Reddit, Quora, and similar platforms. You don’t need to scrutinize every single keyword – use them as a compass to guide your exploration.
Unless your business operates in an exceptionally niche sector, you’ll likely stumble upon a treasure trove of user-generated content. This content is a goldmine of insights. It will reveal the real-world questions, needs, and problems your potential customers are grappling with.
To accelerate, skip the blog posts or well-crafted content and direct your attention toward the raw, unfiltered user comments and entries. These are the real gems where genuine customer sentiments lay. As you go through these conversations, take an analytical lens. Look for patterns and themes in their burning desires, dreams, questions, worries, and fears. Pay attention to demographics like age and location, any barriers they mention, and references to books, videos, and influencers. Organize these insights into clear categories for easy reference.
Focus on the posts that are buzzing with activity and discussion – these are the hotspots of valuable customer insight. Consider segmenting your findings into different demographics based on factors like experience.
Remember, this is not a task to be squeezed into an hour a day over a week. Dedicate at least a whole week and immerse yourself completely in your research. This investment of time lays a solid foundation for your business strategy.
Also, remember the 80/20 rule: 20% of your findings will likely yield 80% of your actionable insights. You don’t need to be overly strict but maintain focus and commitment and cover a broader area.
Now, study your notes harder than you’ve studied for the SAT. This is where you transform raw data into deep, actionable insights. Read the books your target audience reads, at least the summaries. Seek recurring patterns inside your notes. Use keyword density tools to find the most repeating words. The goal here is not just to observe but to genuinely immerse yourself in their world.
Get Into Their Shoes to Get Into Their Head
This is a really fun and rewarding technique. Leverage your new insights, dedicate a day, and get into their character. It’s easier to start as soon as you wake up. Adopt their lifestyle for a day. Eat what they eat, speak as they would…
And even more rewarding, get into a buying process from your competitors. First, it provides direct insight into what your competitors are doing right or wrong. You’ll learn firsthand about their strengths and weaknesses from a customer’s perspective. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it allows you to experience the customer’s buying journey. Two birds with one stone! This firsthand experience is invaluable. It will inform and improve your business strategies.
Create Your Dream Buyer Persona
Armed with your rich collection of insights, you’re now ready to construct a detailed and realistic buyer persona. This is a critical step in tailoring your marketing and product strategies to meet your target audience’s specific needs and preferences.
Start by delving deeper with tools like Facebook Audience Insights and examining profiles on platforms where users use their real identities. This will add authenticity and depth to your persona.
Discover where your target audience spends most of their time online. Understanding this will help you reach them later on. Also, observe the time periods when they are most active online. This information will guide you in timing your ad campaigns effectively.
Pay attention to where they seek answers to their questions. Is it a particular forum, a social media platform, or a specific type of blog? Also, take note of the vocabulary they use, as this can help you communicate more effectively in their language.
Equally important is understanding what their day looks like. What are their daily routines, challenges, and work activities? This knowledge will help you to resonate with their everyday experiences.
Once you have all this information, the next step is to distill it into a concise, easily referable format. Write a few paragraphs describing your dream buyer with the most crucial findings. This persona should be a living document, one that you refer to whenever you’re making decisions about your products, services, and customer interactions. Keep your dream buyer persona at the forefront of your operations to ensure that your business remains closely aligned with the needs and preferences of your target audience.
Results Demand Action
Understanding your customers in great detail is a significant step, but it’s just the beginning. The key to success lies in using these insights to take decisive action. Not capitalizing on this deep understanding would be a missed opportunity, as it sets the foundation for making informed, strategic decisions.
It should guide the continuous improvement of your product and the refinement of your offers. Make it a habit to refer back to this persona regularly. Before implementing any new strategy or making any business decision, open your dream buyer persona and read through it. This simple act ensures the alignment of your actions with the needs and desires of your target market.
Make Your Offer So Good That Guaranteeing Result Becomes Easy
There’s a universal desire that applies to any customer: guarantees. If you knew you could return a product within 90 days, no questions asked, wouldn’t you feel more inclined to make the purchase? A strong guarantee can significantly enhance the attractiveness of your offer.
Most offers come with a legal obligation to provide a certain level of guarantee. Why not make this a crucial part of your communication? Enhance it by adding extra guarantees beyond the minimum requirement. This simple step can make your offer much more appealing.
Furthermore, offer extended guarantee periods. Short-term guarantees, like 3 or 7 days, often prompt customers to scrutinize the product more and think about returning it since the option is available for a short time. On the other hand, a longer return period, such as 90 days, usually leads to customers forgetting about the return option, getting accustomed to the product, or even becoming too complacent to initiate a return.
Spice up the appeal of your guarantee by giving it a dramatic name, but always ensure that you include the word “guarantee” in it. This approach adds an element of excitement and attention to your offering while conveying the assurance and reliability that come with it.
Conclusion
Understanding your customers is crucial for business success. It involves more than just creating buyer personas; it requires immersing yourself in their world and continuously using these insights to improve your product and marketing strategies. By addressing their burning desires, fears, and pain points, you’ll not only address the 3% buying now but the whole market, including those unaware of their own needs.
Emphasize the power of strong, appealing guarantees in your offers to build trust and confidence. Committing to this deep understanding and applying it actively sets your business up for enduring growth and competitiveness.
Ready to hit the bullseye of your market? Let’s take this journey together. Reach out to us today, and let’s craft strategies that resonate deeply with your dream buyers.
Free Killer Offer Formula by CLC
- Understand your customer’s DREAM OUTCOME. The more important that is for them, the better.
- Increase the actual and the “PERCEIVED” LIKELIHOOD OF ACHIEVEMENT of that dream outcome through your offering.
- Convince your prospects that they will achieve their dream outcome in a much SHORTER TIME with your offer.
- Convince them that the EFFORT AND SACRIFICE to achieve their dream outcome will go down when using your product/service.
- Help them understand there is SCARCITY involved. It could be:
- Limited Supply of Seats/Slots
- Limited Supply of Bonuses
- Never Available Again
- Help them understand there is URGENCY involved, such as a time-limited offer.
- Rolling Cohorts
- Rolling Seasonal Urgency
- Promotional or Pricing Urgency
- Exploding Opportunity (countdown clock until offer expiration)
- Help them understand that a killer GUARANTEE is involved so that the risk of accepting the offer goes way down.
- Unconditional
- “No Questions Asked” Refund
- Satisfaction-Based Refund
- Conditional
- Outsized Refund
- Service
- Modified Service
- Credit-Based
- Personal Service
- Hotel + Airfare Perks
- Wage-Payment
- Release of Service
- Delayed Second Payment
- First Outcome
- Anti-Guarantee
- Implied Guarantees
- Performance
- Revenue-Share
- Profit-Share
- Ratchets
- Bonuses/Triggers
- Unconditional
- Reward your customers with BONUSES after purchase to increase the likelihood of the initial purchase and their lifetime value.
