By Lauren Littlefield, director of marketing for Right On Interactive
Do you know who your customers are? What percentage of them are your ideal customer? These are important questions to consider before implementing any new marketing strategy. For organizations looking to win new business, keep current customers and grow the right relationships, it’s necessary to first identify who your current customers are and of those, which are “ideal.”
According to Seth Godin, an ideal customer is someone or another organization who…
- Wants your products and/or services;
- Has the ability to pay for the product and/or services; and
- Has the authority to purchase your product and/or services.
So how can you identify the ideal customer, win more of them in the future, keep them as a customer over time, and grow them into loyal customers and brand advocates?
Well, if you already have a customer base you can begin to identify customers who are ideal. The amount of money a customer has spent with you along with how engaged they are with your brand, are key indicators of customers who are most likely to buy more and stay brand loyal. Additionally, you should work to identify which customers are satisfied and happy with your products and/or services. This can be a contributing factor in determining who is ideal as well.
Once you have identified a few customers you consider to be ideal, compare their attributes and look for similarities between them. You’ll then need to group these ideal customers into a segment so prospects and new customers sharing the same attributes can be easily identified.
So why go to the trouble of identifying your ideal customer? If you know who your ideal customer is, you can market to prospects who are a profile fit for your brand with personalized communication to build engagement. Likewise, you can communicate with your current customer who fit your ideal customer profile to keep them engaged and grow their relationship with your brand.
The value of personas
There are four key customer personas, or profiles that represent your prospects and customers, to consider when creating your ideal customer segment.
- Not a profile match & not engaged
- Profile match & not engaged
- Not a profile match & engaged
- Profile match & engaged
Personas are critical in determining how you communicate or market to your prospects and customers. For example, the contacts in the second quadrant (Profile match & not engaged) need some nurturing to increase their engagement with your brand. In contrast, the contacts in the fourth quadrant (profile match & engaged) are ready to move into the next stage of your customer lifecycle.
Are you ready to find out who your ideal customer is? Check out this infographic on the Super Powers of Lead Scoring to learn how profile, engagement and lifecycle stage can work together to identify your ideal customers and, ultimately, increase revenue for your organization.
About Lauren
With over nine years of experience in technology, marketing, public relations and higher education, Lauren joined the Right On team in April 2013. She is a 2013 graduate of the Hamilton County Leadership Academy (Ind.) and a board member of Girls on the Run of Central Indiana. She has previously served as the vice president, programming and the secretary of the Indianapolis Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Lauren earned her BA in Communication from Hanover College. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, running, IndyCar and the Indianapolis Colts.
