If you ever feel stuck or blocked when it comes to figuring out what to say to your audience, you are not alone.
Dear g-d, please trust me, you are NOT alone.
Of COURSE it becomes challenging to come up with words that resonate with our customers because, well, we are (mostly) doing everything ourselves. We are the product designers, the marketing department, the HR manager, the fulfillment center.
It's exhausting, isn't it?
It stands to reason that we don't always have the energy to pull new content out of thin air.
HOWEVER, there's a way in which you do not HAVE to pull new content out of thin air.
Don't know what to say to your audience? Start here.
A truly great business owner always has a backlog of content and product ideas because they know their customer deeply. They have a true understanding of what they want to learn, need to hear, and have interest in.
And you, my friend, are destined to be (if not already) a truly great business owner.
So how do you get to know (or become reacquainted with) your ideal customer?
Go ahead and pull up a new word processing document (such as in Google Docs or Microsoft Word) and jot down your notes and you work through these questions.
Question One: Who is this person?
To find out, we first need to build an ideal customer profile (that's what the word processing document is for). There are two primary ways to do this - you can build a profile for an existing customer, or one for an IDEA of a customer.
The easiest option is to choose an existing customer. This may be someone who buys everything that you put on offer and is loyal to the teeth. You find them a joy to work with and you wish every customer was just like them.
If you’re just starting your business, however, you may not have a customer like this yet. An alternative would be to consider what kind of person would most benefit from your offerings (as well as what kind of person you would love to work with).
Either way, it will be simpler if you are basing your ideal customer off of a real person that exists in the world, or at least off of the characteristics of a few people that you know.
Question Two: What is their generation?
When it comes to our values and our habits, they tend to be determined by our age group or generation. I find a generation to be a much better way to focus on a customer, rather than trying to pinpoint them being exactly 45 years old with long eyelashes and legs for days.
What really matters is how they behave in the world and what they care about.
Someone who is of the Baby Boomer generation is going to have wildly different ideas about, well, pretty much everything, than a Gen Z-er. They also will shop and spend their money differently (in-person vs. online, etc.).
Learning to understand the quirks and characteristics of specific generations can open up an entire world of insight to us as business owners.
You know your Baby Boomers will be hanging out on Facebook and your Millennials will use Instagram until they die, and that kind of information will help you immensely in figuring out where YOU should be spending your marketing efforts.
Step Three: What are their day-to-day challenges (as they relate to your offerings)?
Our offerings must serve a need and purpose for our customers. They can’t simply exist for our own pleasure (otherwise, no one will buy from us). We are self-serving creatures, and as consumers, we want to know “what's in it for US?” Always.
We can look at their worries, fears, anxieties, insecurities, or other negative feelings, to help guide our conversations and decisions. Obviously, we are business owners, and not therapists, but having a positive experience when purchasing a product can be a boost in many ways.
When you consider the struggles and questions of your ideal customer, I want you to remember to leave both time and money off the list unless your product specifically addresses those things. Typically, all humans want more money and time, but our offerings don’t solve those issues.
Instead, dig deeper into feelings and how you can serve those. We make buying decisions based on our emotions, after all.
Step Four: What are their dreams and desires?
In our industry, we typically don’t have huge “challenges” that require solutions. We don’t NEED yarn or patterns, not really. We buy these things with expendable income.
Instead, a lot of what we buy is a reflection of who we want to be in the world.
How does your customer want to be perceived by others? What will reflect their identity? What brings them joy? What makes them come alive?
In a way, it’s more difficult to address these kind of desires and needs rather than clear “problems”, but it's also more fun. Coming from this angle can lead to a lot more innovation if you’re looking at how to add value to someone’s life, rather than trying to fill a gap.
These really are the primary things you need to understand your customer. When you find this person (or people), you will know they are YOUR person (or people), and you’ll have the opportunity to speak with them and learn more about their inner world.
THAT is the treasure we seek here – true understanding of the person we’re serving so that we can serve them BETTER.
And make money while we do it.
The end.