Knowing Your Customer

I'm an ordinary mum who has taken the plunge to follow a dream by being a mumpreneur. This blog goes through important lessons I've learned along the way and will hopefully help you as you lay the foundations for your own business.  Although being a mumpreneur is a possibility open to all, it's not necessarily for everyone.  You need to be passionate about your business idea and to be prepared for all sorts of untold challenges, setbacks and confidence knocks.  Hence, the idea behind the title ‘A Natural Mumpreneur - tales of the natural highs and lows of a mum’s journey to business success’.

Although when I started my business several years ago, I probably knew some of the things I’m going to be talking about already, in my excitement to get going, I ignored most of what I knew and charged forward full of enthusiasm and dynamism… and wasted a lot of time along the way. 

But here I am today...
Older - definitely!
Wiser? We’ll have to see...

Given that I have a business idea which I’ve developed into a brand with a USP,  I now need to get to know and define my customer.  WHO am I going to sell to, HOW will I find them and, importantly, how will they find ME? I’ve learned that by sussing out your customer first you can THEN work out what your product is going to be in order to give your customer what they want - but of course I didn’t do it that way...

Once you’ve defined your customer, how do you effectively communicate with them?  Tweeting and Facebooking to a few like minded people (as I admit I had once thought was enough!), isn’t going to get you very far.  No, you REALLY have to get to know your customer - you have to BECOME your customer in many ways.

Back in the 80’s when all you needed was a Rowland keyboard and a silly haircut to be a massive pop star, Howard Jones wrote this catchy little number ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’. The song comes to mind now as I think about the next part of my journey.


It turns out it’s all about the letters W and P!  You don’t believe me?  Well see what these two highly genned up women have to say about finding and communicating with your target market…

Cathy Cuzel, founder of The Connected Woman writes for the Women’s Enterprise Centre. She gives succinct and clear information about the 5 W’s of Marketing  (Who, What, Why, Where and When)

And then of course we have The 5 P’s, (Product, Place, Price, Promotion, Profit) so eloquently explained here by Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady

So here’s a list (we like lists) of the things we need to know in order to get down and dirty with our customers:

  • What gender they are?
  • Where they live (country, county, town, street)?
  • How old are they?
  • What do they love?
  • What do they believe in?
  • What do they read, watch, look at, listen to, engage and communicate with?
  • How much money they spend on the sort of thing I sell?
  • Who else do they buy from - in general and for the sort of thing I sell?
  • When do they shop for the sort of thing I sell - time of year/season/month/ time of day?
  • Where do they choose to shop - online, highstreet, upmarket, bargain, boutiques, market stores?
  • What social networks do they inhabit - Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest?
  • Is there a demand for what I sell?
  • When they are looking for products in my category what are the difficulties and challenges they have? (accessibility, choice, value etc.)
This important research will allow us to target the right people through the right channels and to build a relationship with them which will hopefully result in sales. Once we’ve pinpointed our customer, we have to work on communicating with them - lots and lots.  
SEVEN times is the magic number when it comes to effectively repeating a message to a customer apparently! FOUR contacts to get them to notice you and SEVEN for them to maybe buy from you.

Because of what I produce - ie ethically produced organic and eco children’s and baby clothing, I’m selling to people who inherently care about more than just the style and price of a garment. For this reason, it’s not all about the sell, sell, sell.  Yes I need to solve their shopping problems,  but MY customers want to hear the story behind the clothing, they want to tap into a certain amount of expertise and knowledge about my area of business so I need to engage with them on a practical, informative and emotional level.

Thank you so much for reading this.  I'd like to give you a gift of a £10 voucher to spend on any SuperNatural Products.  All you have to do is to fill in this short questionnaire and you will automatically be sent a voucher code to redeem at the checkout on a shopping cart of £20 and over.   As I said, I may be doing things a bit back to front - but I AM getting there and I really want you to come along for the ride.

Love and Peace

Jenny

For much much more on developing all aspects of your business, in this case finding your target market, take a day to study all the pearls of wisdom on Marketing Donut - it’s awesome!!!