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When I sat down to write this article, I did my research as always.  Went over some swipe files, looked at what others are doing, yada, yada.  I got as far as sitting here writing down 1500 words article draft.

Well, I scrapped it.

Not that it wasn’t good, it is good.  But, here is the thing.  It was written like a marketing agent, with marketing jargon.

Could you imagine, me boring the hell out of you with a 7 minutes article.  One, you might not even read to the end.

So here it is a primer, a starting point and the one I use with my clients.  It works!  One of the reasons is because your local competition is to lazy to do it and it will keep a line of people ready to do business with you.

What does your competitors do?

They post pictures to Instagram, Facebook, maybe a post to Google+ or their own blog.  With no target, doing something to do something.

This is no good.  This is not how you market a business.

Here is the 5 steps, speed market persona of people who buy from YOU.

Step 1

Where did the last 10 customers come from?

This will tell you where your prospective customers are looking for your service. Was it a web search, Facebook Ad, referral?  You MUST know this information.  It is one of the first things I ask my clients.  It gives me a place to start my work for them.  No sense in re-inventing the wheel and that is what most marketing companies do.

Step 2

Why did they buy your service?  Don’t guess, ask them.

Every business should have at least a ten questions survey sheet.  One of those questions should be why did you choose my business?  The answers could be anything under the sun, but when you ask enough customers a pattern will emerge.

Are you the fastest, best quality, did your reviews sell the project, are your prices the lowest, etc.  You need to know and for me as a copywriter and marketing consultant, I need to know.  Because people didn’t buy M & M’s because they were cool, they bought them because “They melt in your mouth, not in your hand” a benefit for the buyer.

In marketing, understanding WHY they buy from you is very important in making good ads, good sales letters, emails, website copy, etc.

There is no sense wasting your marketing dollars on a message that means nothing to the reason why they buy your service.

Step 3

Where are they geographically located?

You can say they are from all over the place.

But, this is being lazy with your marketing strategy.  Geography is one thing I look for when working with a client.  What type of area are the customers coming from?  If possible, the zip codes, as this is valuable at targeting Google and Facebook Ads.

If you took a list of say 100 customers, what top five zip codes come up?

This is geo targeting and it works because more of your prospects live close to your customers.  They have things in common.  Their homes ages maybe the same, the yard sizes, the income levels, etc.

Step 4

What is their age range?

I know in your head, you are thinking I have 25 years old customers and 65 years old customers.

But again, here is valuable information, because, you will see patterns happen.  Your 25 years old customers maybe buying, because your price is a bargain and your older crowd of customers may buy from you, because you are dependable.

All important information when making your marketing and ads.  Each age group has a different WHY they buy.

Step 5

What is their income level?

This is important in determining their purchasing power and if you are using Facebook Ads, you need this information to target them in your ads.

How to use step one.

Using the information from step one.

Pick the top two tools you used to get those last 10 clients and put 70-80% of your marketing dollars into those tools and improve on them, using the information you gather from steps 2-5.

If it was referrals, you need to get more.  Email campaigns and newsletters is the way to go to get many more of those referrals and faster.

You do have their email don’t you?  How about CRM or Excel sheet with your customers information?

The smartest companies, have the best data, the best information on their customers.

How to use step two.

When you know WHY, your marketing efforts get better returns for your time and money.  If your customers are bargain shoppers, you can offer coupons or discounts.  If they are high value purchasers, you can display your high value products or service.

When you have customers that say dependable as a buying factor, you should use that FACT to your advantage, every chance you get.

Write things like “On Time, Every Time” or “On Time or Its Free”.  Not that their pizza is any good, but Domino’s built their business on a nationwide scale with “Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s FREE”

Think of how you can use your customers WHY, so you can attract more prospects.

How to use step three.

When you know WHERE your customers come from this helps everything in your marketing.  You now can take any marketing tool you use and put it to use in those areas that get you the most customers.

For example, if your company vehicles are in the are working on a home, prospects see you, even if just a nosey glance.  Now when they see your geo targeted Facebook Ads, your geo targeted Google Ads, that flyer canvasing, the yard signs, etc. they think “Hey, this is my areas go to plumber, lawn care, painter or whatever it is you do.

In the real estate world this is called “Farming”.  When you know the area your customer comes from, you can target more of them digitally and traditionally.

There is nothing better to have YOUR turf, your farm to pick from.

Another article to read about marketing area

How to use step four

When you know your customers age range, if for nothing less, you know how to talk to them in your marketing.  You can get a good feel of their values, their experiences, etc.  When you know their age range, you can calculate their life time value.

If you are a roofer and sell a repair or new roof to a 30 years old customer, chances are later on when they are sixty, they may need another roof, they may buy another home that needs a roof, they sure will have friends and family they can refer you to.

If your customers are the older crowd, you can think of other services, upsells to sell them to make life easier as they age.

Generational Marketing

How to use step five

Your customers income levels are important in targeting and knowledge of their buying power.

The prices of the solutions you offer impact the people that can afford them, or do buy them as well. It normally takes someone with above-average income to purchase high-end, relatively expensive solutions. In contrast, a fixed-income or lower-income buyer is more interested in low-price or value-priced offerings.

Home values correlate with income levels or, sometimes, can act as a substitute when determining the purchasing power of a target market.

If your customers income levels low to high, you can position your marketing to the segment that makes you the most profit.

Final words

As a marketing consultant and copywriter for contractors and home service businesses, it is my job to ask my clients or their customers these questions.  I need to know this information to market you to get the best results for your marketing dollar.

If your ads are costing you a penny to reach each person in your Facebook ads, and you are spending $100 per ad and getting 5 calls, chances are you are broad stroking your market and not targeted specific enough.

Take that same ad spend and use the information you gathered from above and target based on this information, your chance increase greatly to get more calls for the same ad money.

You can segment your ads so maybe $50 goes to one segment with a message and ad that targets them and another that targets another segment with an ad message for them.

You need to know the WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN and WHERE to know HOW to market to your prospects and customers.

When I see businesses just putting up the “For All Your Homes Needs”,  I think to myself, pal, if one of your competitors calls me to work for them, you have a good chance of losing A LOT of business to my client.   Because I do the research, collect the data and work with that.  That is where the action and profit is.

Stop being lazy,

RJ Cooper

Master Marketing Misfit

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