How will you hit your target market if blindfolded?

If you are a bedroom furniture retailer, who’s the better prospect? Someone actively looking for a bed or someone who’s just purchased?

The answer is obvious. Yet, every day across the country businesses spend enormous resources and big bucks marketing to people who have no immediate interest in their product or service. In many other cases, companies market to prospects in a way that does not engage or compel to look further into the offering. And, countless other sales are lost because trust and comfort haven’t been established. It’s like trying to hit the bullseye while blindfolded.

If you’re on the hook for any of these shortcomings, you’re spending too much money for too few results.

What can you do about it? For starters, put together a profile of your best existing buyer(s). Who are they? Where are they? How did you find them? Why did they buy from you? This is known as a persona, and it gives you a blueprint for how to expand your base of best buyers. Calling this a persona—a term deriving from “person”—reminds all of us that buyers are people whether we’re targeting consumers and/or businesses. It always boils down to what resonates with individuals authorized to make buying decisions.

In some cases, one persona predominates. Other companies have a host of “favorite” personas that can be developed and prioritized—then used as a basis for developing a targeted marketing approach.

Armed with persona(s), reach out both to existing buyers to give them more of what caused them to buy from you in the first place; and prospective buyers.

Most important, don’t offer prospects anything that will tend to alienate existing buyers. For a roadmap of what NOT to do, simply look at the incessant cable and satellite company offers to get new people in the door while totally ignoring existing customers. Offer something comparable to existing buyers. This builds trust, respect and loyalty—which for most businesses are critical to long-term survival and growth.

The last point is key. Increasingly, buyers are heavily influenced by the recommendations of their peers, reviews, social media posts, legitimate media articles, and online forums. At the same time, they have waning respect for traditional advertising pitches or “spin.” So, as part of your redesigned marketing program, rely heavily on positive comments, reviews and endorsements from existing buyers to help bring in new ones.

All of this makes sense, right? Now, all you have to do is develop the right strategy and tactics to get you there. Developing and implementing our comprehensive, common-sense marketing playbook will give you both the tools and right trajectory to hit the mark.

Interested but skeptical? Good. You should be. Give us a chance to convince you with a free productive, eye-opening discovery session that will help you define who, what, when, where and how with respect to your marketplace. Click here or email shara@plumbmarketing.com.