When creating ideal client profiles (also called ‘avatars’) for targeted marketing, it is always a good idea to look at your current client base. Properly knowing your existing customers is a short cut to working out what type of clients you actually like working with.
Are any of your current clients ideal clients? They can be used to identify common characteristics and help target your marketing message.
Apply this process across your customer-base to identify your ideal clients
- Make a list of all your current clients, with their company size, role and service/product they purchase from you.
- Identify where you first connected with them (e.g. industry event, LinkedIn, webinar etc.) and which marketing activity was being used.
- What were their pain points? What problem did you find a solution for?
- Do you like working with them? Why?
- Are they good payers or do you have to chase them?
- Are they high maintenance?
- Do they communicate well or do they disappear for weeks at a time?
Surveying your customers
Another way of knowing your existing customers better is by conducting surveys. This method can also help to identify your USP.
This can be done via online software which creates the surveys and collects the answers on your behalf. However people rarely complete online surveys and are not always perfectly honest (e.g. ticking all the middle of the road answers). Therefore the information gathered may not be that useful. There is also a heavy reliance on you knowing the right questions to ask without suggesting the answer.
A more effective way is to commission an unbiased inhouse or third-party organisation to carry out a survey. They can do this via the phone, video conference call or face-to-face. You can build in room for follow-up conversations and free form answers. A study by Szolnoki in Science Direct showed that respondents reacted better with face-to-face surveys rather than over the phone. They responded better over the phone as opposed to online surveys. If the interviewer is not connected with your company they are more likely to be honest.
If you would like help with gaining insightful information about your current clients or how to create an ideal client profile, contact Priddey Marketing today and let’s start on that road to business growth.