Even though you may be pretty sure that you know who your customers are, it is always good practise now and then to step back and examine your assumptions.
You should be able to answer these questions for anyone that asks you the questions on “Who is your ideal customer?”
1. Who are your most likely customers
2. What do your customers come to you for?
3. What is your real speciality, your area of expertise?
4. What segment of your business gives you the most pleasure and the most profit?
Answering all these questions will give you a head start when it comes to planning your referral strategy.
It will also give you head start when planning marketing and networking activities – examine every event and opportunity to see whether your target market will be well represented, then concentrate your marketing efforts where they will be most effective.
Simply defined – A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided because of it’s Emotionally Charged Connection to aim its marketing efforts and its merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is a fundamental element to a referral marketing strategy.
Because of this at Asentiv we spent a lot of time helping our clients to develop their target market and the message that they want to deliver to that target market.
Why?
Well it helps them to ensure that the referrals they are receiving from their referral sources and partners and all the activity that they are doing brings in the right people who are looking for the right product and the right price and are ready to buy.
Getting this right ensures that we save time and money.
Think of your network as a big database. If someone can give you a picture and a clear definition of who their target market is you are able to segment and filter down all the people and all the “anyone” and “anything” that you know, you are more likely to be able to identify key people for them rather than come up with no-one.
So, spend some time thinking of your assumptions on your client base and make sure that it is reality.
Think of the message you are giving out at networking and through your marketing – is it aligned with the target market you want to reach?
If not, then answer the questions above and see if it will help you. And if you want to discuss this give me a call or drop me an email on mikeh@asentiv.com and I will be glad to discuss this with you.