THE 3 MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE STARTING ANY DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
The start of a new digital marketing campaign can be a nerve racking time for many people in business.
There’s so many unanswered questions… Will it succeed?… Will I reach the right people?… Will I get a return on my investment?… Have we ticked all the boxes?… What If I have made a mistake?… How much will that cost me? Arrgh the stress of it all!!
With so many variables and things to potentially go astray its vital that we be methodical about it and start, FROM THE START! … And thats with OUR CUSTOMERS.
Our customer is the whole reason we are doing this… They are central to everything we do. They support our businesses and make it possible for us to do what we do.
So to ensure we get started on the right foot, we need to take the time to build a DETAILED PROFILE of our Target Customer... Sometimes known as an Archetype or an Avatar… And, No thats not the blue skinned, long tailed, monkey person from the planet Pandora!
This is our representative of who we are aiming our business at. So from now on we will do everything in our power to understand them in GREAT DETAIL!
PLAN! NOT PLANNING IS PLANNING TO FAIL
Its a cliché as old as the hills but its never more true that in digital marketing. With so many opportunities to burn money at a stupidly rapid rate, Its worth taking the time to properly map your target Archetypes so that you will set up your marketing for the best possible result from the start.
Not only can we use all the data and insights that we get on our target customer to reach them though the digital channels that they use, we can also use it to make our message to them SIMPLY IRRESISTABLE, and then MEASURE the worth of each customer coming on board in relation to our Marketing spend (RETURN ON INVESTMENT).
You might find that much of this information comes to mind quickly, whereas some may take some digging to uncover. It might even be worth asking to do a quick survey with a few of your existing customers that fit your idea of your Ideal Target Customer.
So make the time to plan it out in detail… Take the approach of ‘who can see value in my product’ or ‘Who can my product help’? as a starting point. And don’t be afraid to come up with multiple Archetypes!
The more information we find about various sections of our target market means more ways to target them later on.
1. WHO IS MY TARGET CUSTOMER
It might sound simple but often it is brushed over all too quickly. Many business owners will have what they consider a good gauge on their target market… “Yeah, my target market is Men 18+ who like motor bikes” or “Females 21-45 who are into Preppy Fashion”… Thats great, but its still a pretty wide net we’re casting aren’t we?
For the best result in targeting a specific irresistible message through digital media we need to BE HIGHLY SPECIFIC when building our archetype!
- How old are they (exactly)?
- Where to they live?
- Are they single?
- Kids?
- Occupation & Income?
- What are their personal objectives / Or Business Objectives?
- What social media do they use?
- What websites do they visit?
- Books / Newspapers / Magazines / Sports / Hobbies? etc etc etc
Build up a complete picture of them… In the greatest detail possible. And then give them a name!!
2. WHAT ARE THE BURNING QUESTIONS THAT THEY ASK?
Everyone faces challenges in their lives… and from challenges come Questions. For every question there is an answer…. And when the question asked is answered by your product then you know you are on the right track.
For B2B businesses we should look for our customers challenges in business, whereas for B2C think personal challenges. What is the biggest most impending challenge that they face? What keeps them up at night? Are they unable to find a property to buy that they can afford?, Are they spending too much time doing bookwork for their business?, Are they struggling with a sore back from lifting the kids all the time? You get the idea.
The challenges your archetype faces may not always match up to our product… so If thats the case you either find a realistic challenge that is solved by your product and use that one…. Or if you cant match a challenge with your product then its time to admit we are barking up the wrong tree and start again.
Once you have a big challenge that our customer faces (A Problem) and it squarely matches up to the features and benefits of our product (A Solution), then Boom! You’re on a winner!
So from our challenges come our questions. We want to think of the biggest, most important questions that they will ask when facing these challenges, because it is in these that we find our KEYWORDS. For example, the person unable to spend time with his family because he does too much bookwork for his business asks Google “How much does it cost to hire a bookkeeper?”, Or the mother with the sore neck ‘thats been like that for months now’ is asking Google “Where is my nearest Physiotherapist?”
Its worth coming up with variations on the questions if they exist. Once we get our campaign set up we can set these up as seperate groups and measure their performance against each other. Get these questions correct now and you have your specific keywords to target right there ready to go.
3. WHAT IS THEIR POTENTIAL AS A CUSTOMER?
Now take a step back and look at the Archetype we have just made… This person is now for sure one of our target customers… This may be one of several archetypes we have made. Ask yourself… Is this Archetype just any old target customer? Or Are they THE target customer that you REALLY WANT? – the big spending, loyal, dream customer. THATS WHO WE WANT… THE IDEAL TARGET CUSTOMER. Aim high… They’re out there!…
By targeting those who will spend the most, we do what’s best for our Return on Investment. Thats not to say there can’t be multiple archetypes that we target with our marketing… but by looking at them by their potential return we can rank them to determine which one is worth spending the most on to acquire.
Work out how long your archetype will remain your customer (use your sales history data or just make a conservative estimate). Then find the average value of your archetype to your business over a month (or year) in Gross Profit Dollars… Don’t forget to take your cost of sales out of this amount to get GP$!
You can now determine your average Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which is now your most important variable in determining how much it is worth to you to acquire this target customer… But thats getting off track… It’s for another day when we delve deeper into the Return on Investment (ROI) of Digital Marketing.
So thats our 3 important questions… They will play a part in every aspect of your campaigns from now on so you better get used to them!
Get the answers right and you have the foundations of a highly successful Digital Marketing Campaign.
