Every call we get for marketing services starts pretty much the same way. The caller says “I need a social media plan” or “Can you do SEO marketing?” or something similar. They ask us to perform a tactic. We get it. For example, if we called you to order your sensor for gas turbines, we’d probably say “I want something that allows me to have fewer broken turbines.” We wouldn’t necessarily ask how you built your tech to withstand extreme heat and pressure and wirelessly transmit info to monitoring equipment. We’d just ask for a solution to our problem. So when you call us, you ask for the aspect of marketing you best know. You’re naturally thinking that tactic is what you need to sell as much of your nanotechnology solar panel cleaning solution as possible (or your better carbon nanotubes or your mining extraction process). But without choosing your marketing tactics based on an effective marketing strategy, you’ll burn through your marketing budget with nothing to show for dollars spent.
Put another way, it’s like sourcing machine parts without a design. Without an effective marketing strategy, you can’t even begin to determine which marketing tactics you need to use.
STEP 1: Effective marketing strategy starts with your customer profile(s)
Effective marketing strategy begins with the customer profile. “But, I’ve already done my customer discovery process,” you’re thinking (at least that’s what you’re thinking if you’ve gone through any lean start-up course. If you haven’t and are a high-tech company, we recommend looking at NSF’s I-Corps Program). Building an effective marketing strategy is not customer discovery. The discovery process tells you nothing more than that there are enough potential buyers who perceive your product or service will solve a pain or bring them great gains. The customer profile process tells you what those customers will respond to based on their typical habits, their interests, their greatest joys and their biggest fears.
Before deciding you’re going to commit dollars to SEO or social media or tradeshows or any other tactic, before you come up with a creative campaign and — if you’re wise — even before establishing your brand identity, you must determine your customer profile(s). This profile will help you “live where your customers are.” It will help you determine the channels they most monitor (social, video, TV, audio, events and even good old-fashioned print!). It will help you know what emotions move them to take action — are they moved to purchase by joy and laughter or a healthy dose of nerves and fear? It will reveal their basic likes and dislikes — do they love rolling countrysides or are they city-dwellers. Do they drive through every morning at the Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts? Those identifiers can help you with brand imagery or promotions.
Knowing those types of things can help you build an effective marketing strategy that includes creative, channel and content tactics that will reach those customers.
For example, we built the following customer profile summary (with supporting spreadsheets of detail) for a current client who is targeting a special niche within the property management industry:
XYZ co’s secondary target decision maker is typically 45-54, male and making $125K or more. His title is typically President or equivalent but he still has more “title” to gain by acquiring more properties. He may not have a secondary degree, having gone directly into the workforce after high school, but being a bit younger than the primary target market decision maker, he is more likely to have a two-year or bachelors. There is a preponderance of this group in the South and Southern-Midwest. He works a standard 8a-6p (maybe 7p) day, but will spend after hours and weekend time on the hunt for more properties. He wants to be a large property owner. He uses lunchtime to find new business contacts.
He’s a recreational exerciser. He used to do more, but his work and a bit of mid-life laziness has set in. He has buddies he participates in sports with, and he’s working on his golf game. He likes beer, whisky and a bit of red wine. He’s got kids, 10-15 years-old and they’re at the age they want him less involved in their extracurricular activities. But he still makes it to some of their events and sports. He and his wife have one good couple friend they hang out with every other week. They may have a senior dog or are “in-between” pets.
Saturday mornings and afternoons are work-related to stay abreast of the market. Saturday night might be a kid event or family outing or home with the wife, but Sundays are family day off. He MIGHT work on a golf game Sunday mornings. The family has an SUV/Larger Minivan and a Lexus and he and the wife swap off who drives which vehicle based on the days’ schedule.
His concerns are making wise investments to become a larger property owner. He’s determined to not just keep up with, but to be one of the “Jones’s”. His stressor is a mistake in his business derailing all he is building and paying for the kids’ school.
So what can we know about this customer from this profile? Well, we know where to geographically target our content. We know that he needs to look like a hero to his boss and that he is very afraid of making a business mistake — so content surrounding our client’s product reliability, testimonials and revenue-calculators will appeal to his need for security. We know a fine Scotch or crystal scotch decanter and glass set may be a nice giveaway to make him feel like he’s in the league with “the Joneses”. We know he wants to feel like he’s an important man of some stature so imagery, colors and font choices should reflect that. We know he’d probably call a campaign like this cheesy! We also know he avoids social media if at all possible — he’s not that guy. And those are just a few things we can surmise that will help us build a more effective strategy for reaching this decision-making buyer.
But until we had this, we might have just rolled with the tactic that the client asked for when he called and said: “can you do a social media campaign for us?” Instead, we’re developing a highly targeted direct marketing and event campaign placing us directly in his path with content and promotions that will generate maximum response.
So start building your effective marketing strategy not by picking tactics — but by first building a complete customer profile!