1-4 : Who & When-Your Customer
In this lesson you'll understand who your customer is, use empathy maps and personas, and build a customer journey.
The next part of your marketing plan is who. To whom are you marketing? A customer is someone or some entity you believe is a fit for your business or offer. Who is your customer? If you think your customer is everyone, you're making a classic marketing mistake. When you market to everyone, you market to no one. The reality is, your business has a single type or only a few types of customers, but certainly not everyone. That's why it's important to understand exactly who your customer is. One way to think about your customer is to first think in terms of an audience. There are a lot of different people in an audience. In fact, you can group them. A group is called the Customer Segment. A Customer Segment means that all the customers in that group have common characteristics. Segments can also overlap. These common characteristics could be over demographics, psycho-graphics , lifestyle, beliefs and values, geography, or behaviour. Segments tell you something about your customer type, but to market effectively, you need to also understand your customer at the individual level.
The next part of your marketing plan is who. To whom are you marketing? A customer is someone or some entity you believe is a fit for your business or offer. Who is your customer? If you think your customer is everyone, you're making a classic marketing mistake. When you market to everyone, you market to no one. The reality is, your business has a single type or only a few types of customers, but certainly not everyone. That's why it's important to understand exactly who your customer is. One way to think about your customer is to first think in terms of an audience. There are a lot of different people in an audience. In fact, you can group them. A group is called the Customer Segment. A Customer Segment means that all the customers in that group have common characteristics. Segments can also overlap. These common characteristics could be over demographics, psycho-graphics , lifestyle, beliefs and values, geography, or behaviour. Segments tell you something about your customer type, but to market effectively, you need to also understand your customer at the individual level.
- Understand Who Your Customer Is
- Use Empathy Maps And Personas
- Build A Customer Journey
Empathy Map
The art of marketing includes addressing the emotions of customers, and the only way to understand your customers' emotions is with empathy Who are they? What do they care about? Companies have been doing market research, ethnographic studies, customer research for years But with the advent of web design came a focus on user experience To understand users, designers created empathy maps to summarize customer research And today, most digital marketers use them to understand their customers Most empathy maps have four quadrants, broken into thinking, seeing, doing and feeling To start building your empathy map you have to get to know your customers by using a combination of interviews, visiting costumers in their environments, and data you have from other research You collect all the information you generate, put it on stickies and then place them in each quadrant What did they think and feel? What did they hear? What did they see? What did they say and do? As much as possible, list the actual words and phrases your customers use ,the applications you use, the website they visit, and so on What you collect here will be extremely useful to you as you build out your marketing messages and select your marketing channels Here's an example empathy map for Ezequiel Farca, you can create empathy maps for many different customers Ezequiel for example sells his residential, architectural, and design services to different types of home owners The empathy map for first time homeowner will likely look very different from that of a person about to retire This particular empathy map summarizes the findings from a conversation with the customer going through a major transition With their third child on the way she need to expand and want to update here home to reflect her aesthetic She has seen many examples of homes she likes in magazines like Architectural Digest, pictures on How's and on TV shows But she's feeling overwhelmed and daunted by the prospect of a renovation and all the decisions that go with it Plus, she's busy, she's on the board of a charity, loves to travel, and loves art Summarizing this information helps you keep the customer in mind throughout all your marketing activity.
Thinking
Seeing
Feeling
Once you have your empathy maps,you're ready to create a persona, persona is a fictional character that summarizes and communicates the key characteristics of your target customer When creating the persona, you use the information from the empathy maps to inform what your fictional person looks like Creating this persona is helpful as it keeps you focused on who your customer really is It can also help to get all people in the company on the same page when they think about the customer To describe your persona, this template is helpful You first describe the background and demographics, then hobbies, then layout the goals of your persona You also describe the needs and barriers they face It's a good idea to give your persona a descriptive name and add a picture of what he or she may look like This helps to form a better image of who your persona is Here's an example customer persona we might discover for EZEQUIELFARCA Executive mom Mary is years old, married with two kids and one on the way Her husband is a global executive and they have a household income of , Mary wants to get her home ready for they're expanding family and create a space that reflects the family's global lifestyle She's a sophisticated businesswoman, wife, and mother with luxury taste and a keen aesthetic eye She's busy with community and family commitments and doesn't have the time to manage the build of a new home or the design She wants an expert that can provide the vision and execute on that vision There are multiple ways to understand your customer Metrics and analysis of behaviour will tell you a lot, too You will define and refine your customers a lot over time, you can never know too much about your customer Our partner, HubSpot, has more examples of persona HubSpot spoke with three companies about their buyers' personas and broke them down for your benefit
Thinking
Seeing
Feeling
Doing
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-questions#sm.0001l6650q2kfedtyih24xsgjv28t
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research#sm.0001l6650q2kfedtyih24xsgjv28t
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research#sm.0001l6650q2kfedtyih24xsgjv28t
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-examples#sm.000118qkvc1btje1fyxnwlbh0ar9h
Now you know who your customer is,but do they know who you are? That depends on the customer journey This is the part where we focus on the when in our framework The customer journey is how marketers explain the process a potential customer goes through to become an actualcustomer of your business And it is what helps them to decidewhen to talk to the customer Remember when we used to do this,and we saw marketing all around us? Now we do more of this A decade ago,almost no one had a smartphone Today, the averageconsumer spends five and a half hours a day with digital media How customers find out about yourbusiness could start from anywhere, an email from a colleague, a Facebookpost by a friend, a Google search Traditionally, marketers have describedthe process of how customers find your business online withthe image of a funnel The assumption is that a large groupof users find your company, and they go through increasing levels of engagementto then ultimately buy your product This funnel analogy implies a directroute from becoming aware of a product to purchasing it But consider buying a coffee maker The average consumer might ask theirfriends on Facebook which ones they prefer, then start researching someof the recommendations on a laptop using various websites Then read reviews of some of the modelslater in the day on their iPhone, then go by a store to look at one, then goback on their iPhone to compare prices, and then back to their laptop, anda website, to eventually buy it As you can see, it is no longera straight path from awareness to sale That's why marketers have movedaway from the funnel concept, and now call it the customer journey It's more true to life, most customersdon't step thru stages in sequence, they bounce around
Now you know who your customer is,but do they know who you are? That depends on the customer journey This is the part where we focus on the when in our framework The customer journey is how marketers explain the process a potential customer goes through to become an actualcustomer of your business And it is what helps them to decidewhen to talk to the customer Remember when we used to do this,and we saw marketing all around us? Now we do more of this A decade ago,almost no one had a smartphone Today, the averageconsumer spends five and a half hours a day with digital media How customers find out about yourbusiness could start from anywhere, an email from a colleague, a Facebookpost by a friend, a Google search Traditionally, marketers have describedthe process of how customers find your business online withthe image of a funnel The assumption is that a large groupof users find your company, and they go through increasing levels of engagementto then ultimately buy your product This funnel analogy implies a directroute from becoming aware of a product to purchasing it But consider buying a coffee maker The average consumer might ask theirfriends on Facebook which ones they prefer, then start researching someof the recommendations on a laptop using various websites Then read reviews of some of the modelslater in the day on their iPhone, then go by a store to look at one, then goback on their iPhone to compare prices, and then back to their laptop, anda website, to eventually buy it As you can see, it is no longera straight path from awareness to sale That's why marketers have movedaway from the funnel concept, and now call it the customer journey It's more true to life, most customersdon't step thru stages in sequence, they bounce around
The CDJ
The Customer Decision JourneyAwareness-Broadcast
Interest-Social Channels
Desire - Social + Search Channels
Action-Search
Post-Action-One To One
There are different ways to define thedifferent stages a customer goes throughon their journey.For the purposes of this course,we describe the customerjourney as five stages.Aware, interest, desire,action, and post action.Remember, the journey isnot necessarily linear.The customer can walk this path back andforth and all around.Your interaction with customers,as a marketer,can start at differentpoints in the journey.It's important to understand the journeya customer takes to reach you soyou know how to market to yourpotential customer at every stage.The marketing you do to make a customeraware of you will be different fromthe marketing you do to a customerwho already knows your brand orwho has already purchased from you.The aware stage is how and whena customer first becomes aware of you.This stage requires digital marketingto establish your brand andlet customers know who you are andwhat you do.The interest stage is whena customer knows about you andis interested in what you have to offer.This stage requires digitalmarketing that informs the customerabout your product or service.The desire stage is whena customer knows about you andwants the thing you have to offer.This stage requires digital marketingthat makes it clear why a customershould choose your business for thedesired product or service over another.The action stage is whena customer knows about you,wants the thing you have to offer,and is ready to take action.That could be signing up to an emailnewsletter, downloading a white paper,or making a purchase.This stage requires digital marketingthat makes customers comfortable takingaction.For example,making clear what the price is.The post action stage is whena customer has taken action.It describes how you interactwith the customer after he orshe has taken action.Do you send a confirmation email,instructions on care of the product orhow a service works?This is an often neglected partof the customer relationship, butcan be hugely valuable to your business.There's a lot digital marketers cando to keep the relationship going andcustomers coming back.While the customer journey is lesslinear than original marketing modelsassumed, no matter howsecure it is to the route,the goal of a marketer is to movethe customer along in the relationship.Here's an example of a customerjourney for Ezequiel Farca.Imagine Jason Lau.He's planning a major remodel fora house he owns.Jason has come across a few Instagrampictures that Ezequiel Farca shared.It prompted him to go check outEzequiel's YouTube channel.And he then went on to checkout Ezequiel's websiteto explore his projectsin a bit more detail.Later as Jason was browsingthrough the architizer.com site,he again saw a project mentionedthat was executed by Ezequiel Farca.That prompted him to back to EzequielFarca's website and contact him.And now he's ready toget his project started.
Awareness-This Stage Requires Digital Marketing To Establish Your Brand Andlet Customers Know Who You Are And What You.
Interest-This Stage Requires Digital Marketing That Informs The Customer about Your Product Or Service.
Desire-This Stage Requires Digital Marketing That Makes It Clear Why a Customer should Choose Your Business For The Desired Product Or Service Over Another.
Action-This Stage Requires Digital Marketing That Makes Customers Comfortable Taking action.
PostAction-You Send a Confirmation Email, Instructions On Care Of The Product Or how a Service Works?
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