Recently, Constant Contact conducted a national survey of small business owners. From the resulting data, they determined 93 percent of small business owners are not tuned into the most important part of their business: their customers.
The results also revealed most of their small business owner clients perform their own marketing (95 per cent), are self-taught (64 per cent), and do not consider themselves savvy marketers. And really, what with running their business and staying on top of their own industry, how could they be?
The result is marketing produced at the last minute, marketing when sales people come calling with a pitch, marketing initiatives created at the end of a long day, and an unfocused strategy that isn’t client focused.
Given all that, you CAN quickly shift your marketing towards a customer-centric model.
Four Strategies to Help You Focus on your Clients
You really don’t need access to big data (though we recommend you get access to your industry data), to accomplish a more customer-centric marketing strategy. Just start getting into the habit of talking to your clients, asking them questions and learning more about what they are looking for.
Set a goal to talk with ten of your customers and ask them two or three useful questions about their experience with your brand. Set a deadline to complete this because you know it won’t happen otherwise.
Ask the tough questions you might be uncomfortable getting an answer to. Customer-centric communication isn’t always easy, and sometimes you need to hear and process the things that are going wrong with how your customers are experiencing your brand before you can create a better strategy and move forward.
If you’re just getting your business started, create a profile of your ideal client, then seek them out and ask for their help. Almost everyone will respond positively to you if you personally ask and you give them a specific and relatively easy task to complete (a questionnaire).
Some Guidance About the Questions You Might Ask Clients and Potential Clients
- In what scenario would you consider buying our product or service?
- What would you need to have/be/feel/think for this to be successful for you?
- If this could solve one problem and make your life easier, what would it be?
- What can be done to help alleviate what frustrates you most?
- How does this challenge get in the way of your progress?
- What would a solution to this challenge allow you to do?
- Where do you go to find answers for your challenge?
- What do you think you would value most about our product or service?
Never Stop Conversing with Your Clients
Your customer’s needs are going to evolve over time, and so is your business. Why? Because once you successfully solve a problem and/or meet a need for you client, they are free to move forward… until they meet with the next obstacle. It makes sense to anticipate their next need and build a solution for them, even before they know they will need one. That’s how your products and services will grow with your market. That’s the true meaning of entrepreneurship.
The only way you can do this successfully is with a marketing strategy – a communication strategy – that helps you to listen to your customers regularly and responds meaningfully.
Are there questions you’ve asked your clients where the answer transformed how you deliver your products and services? Let us know.
Mathieu Powell I President