Do you profile your customers?
Profiling has had a pretty bad rap since 9/11 but that's not the kind of profiling I'm talking about. Or, maybe it is. Basically, profiling means grouping people together based on certain characteristics to predict behavior. When it comes to marketing – that's exactly what we need to do.
While marketing technology has made great strides in terms of one to one marketing, before we can even get to that point we need to know how to recognize people who are most likely to buy. This allows us to target our efforts and money to only those who fit certain characteristics – our profile.
This may seem obvious to you but do you have actual, documented profiles? On paper? Or is it only in your head? If it is the latter, I suggest that you get it down in writing. You will probably have several profiles depending on your business.
The characteristics in your profile might be: size of company (by employees or sales), location of company, title of decision maker, industry classification (SIC/NAIS), job function, age, gender, education level, income level, etc. A really good profile also includes psychographic information: needs, values, interests, pain, etc.
Keep in mind, these characteristics must be of those people who are most likely to buy. If you are selling $100K software products for electronics manufacturers you don't want to waste your marketing dollars on managers of fast food restaurants. Ok, that might be too obvious. What might not be as obvious is figuring out the right criteria for the right type of buyer.
I like to start with who is buying now. Your CFO should be able to print reports that tell you who is buying what and how much/often. Using this information you can then start grouping similar companies – A list, B list, C list, etc. You may have to do some reverse engineering to identify things like sales, industry classification, employee numbers or whatever might be missing.
Every time I go through this process with my clients we find interesting things that catch us off guard. For example a recent project found that the number of A list clients was dwindling and that a number of C and D list customers had taken their place – resulting in lower transactions, and lower profit margins.
I have a great worksheet for developing and refining customer profiles. Contact me to request a free copy. You'll be able to spot me. I'll be the short, overweight Italian guy dressed in black.
While marketing technology has made great strides in terms of one to one marketing, before we can even get to that point we need to know how to recognize people who are most likely to buy. This allows us to target our efforts and money to only those who fit certain characteristics – our profile.
This may seem obvious to you but do you have actual, documented profiles? On paper? Or is it only in your head? If it is the latter, I suggest that you get it down in writing. You will probably have several profiles depending on your business.
The characteristics in your profile might be: size of company (by employees or sales), location of company, title of decision maker, industry classification (SIC/NAIS), job function, age, gender, education level, income level, etc. A really good profile also includes psychographic information: needs, values, interests, pain, etc.
Keep in mind, these characteristics must be of those people who are most likely to buy. If you are selling $100K software products for electronics manufacturers you don't want to waste your marketing dollars on managers of fast food restaurants. Ok, that might be too obvious. What might not be as obvious is figuring out the right criteria for the right type of buyer.
I like to start with who is buying now. Your CFO should be able to print reports that tell you who is buying what and how much/often. Using this information you can then start grouping similar companies – A list, B list, C list, etc. You may have to do some reverse engineering to identify things like sales, industry classification, employee numbers or whatever might be missing.
Every time I go through this process with my clients we find interesting things that catch us off guard. For example a recent project found that the number of A list clients was dwindling and that a number of C and D list customers had taken their place – resulting in lower transactions, and lower profit margins.
I have a great worksheet for developing and refining customer profiles. Contact me to request a free copy. You'll be able to spot me. I'll be the short, overweight Italian guy dressed in black.
posted by Pete Monfre at 4:38 PM
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