How well do you dance with your core customer?
Marketing to your core customer profile gives you that feeling you get when you hear those familiar songs from your younger days. The ones that make you simply want to get up and dance. Whether it’s Abba’s Dancing Queen, Madonna’s Vogue or Primal Scream’s Country Girl, you know your moves to each song. You can also instantly recognise others who love that tune and know exactly how to interact with them on the dance floor.
When you are marketing to your core customer profile, you know the rhythm, and you know what to expect from customers in terms of next moves.
Dancing with a new customer profile
At key points of change in your business, you may decide that you want to target a new customer demographic. This new customer segment may resonate with different songs to your core customer, so you need to learn how to dance with them.
Learn their dance steps – Don’t try and teach them to be like your core customer. They may have different motivations. What problems are they facing, and how can your product or service solve them? Understanding the challenges your persona is experiencing will help you create messaging that resonates with them. This will also help you tailor your marketing efforts to their specific needs, making it more likely that they will engage with your brand.
Let them lead the dance – Consider the communication channels that your new buyer persona prefers. Do they prefer email, social media, or phone calls? Understanding where they are spending their time and what platforms they are engaging with will help you reach them more effectively. By using the right channels, you can connect with your persona in a way that feels natural, building trust and loyalty along the way.
Creating customer profiles for new markets
What happens when you are not familiar with the music? This is what it can feel like when you are entering a new market. Start by looking for both similarities and differences versus your core customer.
Research the cultural differences –Is your new profile results orientated, or more interested in problem solving? Do they prefer short form or long form content? Do they prefer local or national searches? Which platforms do they use? Are certain colours or numbers considered lucky? Getting this right will have a big impact on your SEO.
Consider seasonality – The sales curve can be different in different markets, particularly when you start to trade Internationally. Consider the impact of Religious holidays, School holidays, Seasonal weather events on the way your new target persona engages with you.
Learn buying factors – Are the new market price or value orientated? Do they lean heavily on word of mouth referrals? Do they use comparison / aggregator sites? These insights can inform the visibility of pricing on your site, your promotional strategy, your referral strategy and the use of reviews and testimonials.
Localised content – There are some key differences in words used, even between English speaking countries. As a small example “Pants” mean something very different in the UK vs the US. There are also both legal and cultural no-nos, so do your research to understand when and where to tailor your content to a locale.
Remember, you’ve just arrived at the party
Your new target customer persona may be unfamiliar with you, so don’t expect them to hit the dance floor straight away. Lean on brand awareness communications through PR activity, Social Media and Local SEO to start with.
Summary
Building a useful and usable Buyer Persona is a key step in extending your offer into new markets. There are plenty of templates available for free online, but if you want help in distilling your data and information into something practical for your team, why not ask us to dance with you!
