How To Think Like Your Target Customers

October 24, 2018 | Blog, Resources

A laptop showing the MRP dashboard which includes maps, graphs, and data.
It is something that you probably hear all the time: you have to think like your target customers so that you can create interesting, effective marketing and sales campaigns. Unfortunately, there is a severe lack of information on identifying your target market and deconstructing them to create sustainable marketing and sales campaigns.

This happens for a few reasons:

  • Everyone already “knows” their target markets and how to find them; or
  • People aren’t really trying to find their target markets at all.

For so long, people didn’t want to partake in this kind of research because it was too difficult to do on a routine basis – it takes too long, the results are fleeting, and replicating the process is difficult. Many marketers or salespeople will skip it or use old data instead of trying to actually find out how their target customers think.

The time for that has come to an end. The truth is that there is so much information out there about how to think like your target customers – you just have to know where to find it and how to use it. Advanced predictive analytics and inside information about what matters to your target customers is a great place to start.

What You Collect Matters, And You Don’t Want To Go Overboard

When you are looking to get information on your target customers so that you can better think like them, there are some key pieces of information that you may want to collect. These can include:

  • Age
  • Location
  • Gender
  • Income
  • Education
  • Occupation
  • Ethnicity
  • Budget
  • Scope of Projects
  • Pain Points

These are just a few things that you can collect, and you want to be judicious about that information.

Realistically, what you want to do is focus on a few core markets that will set target customers apart from the rest of the crowd and then maybe you want to pick a few secondary markets that will help to flesh out what people may want and how you can reach them.

When you are thinking like your target market, focusing on those core people who will use your products or services will allow you to see what is important to them, where they go, what they do, and what they have been exposed to in the past. When you are able to do this, you can build a picture of their wants and needs.

Learn Why People Buy Your Products

If you understand who is buying your products, you will be better able to understand why they are buying them. You can monitor things about your target customers like those that were mentioned in the previous mentioned and you will gain insight into some key things like

  • Personality
  • Attitudes
  • Values
  • Interests/hobbies
  • Lifestyle
  • Behavior

Now, knowing your target customers doesn’t mean that if they are a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, for example, that you send them tickets to the game. Instead, it means that you connect using football humor or mention it casually at some point to make an impact.

In most cases, you should be able to see trends the emerge that will help you. If you see an outlier, you can use account based marketing to target them. In fact, you should use ABM with all of them, but you might need to differentiate more from one campaign to another. With information about personalities, you will be able to motivate the buyer to take action.

With this information, you should easily be able to think like your clients. This information isn’t hidden and should be readily available to you with the predictive analytics tools and even just paying attention to interactions on social media.

With the technology from MRP, you have the chance to understand your targeted clients better, see why they need your products or services, and even how to connect with them. To find out more about services, connect with us today.

 

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