NWA Brand: Who is your ideal customer?

Car Dealership: Anyone who drives a car.

NWA Brand: . . . . .

Some companies think that they know their ideal customers but the truth is, most don't.

In order to truly connect with your audience, it's important to realize a few things. 1. not everyone is your ideal customer. 2. It's important to take time to get to know your ideal customers. Your ideal customers are the people who are most profitable for your business and who you enjoy working with. Let's be honest, you're in business you provide a valuable service or product. You provide paychecks to people and encourage your local economy. In order to stay in business, you have to cater to people who are profitable. That doesn't take away from your willingness to serve your community and give to charities. It does show that you're smart about business.

Your ideal customers are the people who are most profitable for your business and who you enjoy working with.

At NWA Brand, we challenge and help our clients to personify their ideal customers so that their marketing efforts are targeted and efficient. Most businesses will have multiple customer profiles. Consider the car dealership. They will have many break downs of their ideal customers because a customer who purchases a Mustang will be much different than the one that needs a new minivan.

An ideal customer profile might look like this:

Bob and Susie live in Rogers, Arkansas. They have two sons and are expecting their third child four months from now. The sons are in kindergarten and second grade. The couple owns their three bedroom home. Bob is employed at Walmart and Susie is an elementary school teacher. They enjoy playing games as a family and going to children's activities. Bob enjoys golf while Susie likes to have coffee with friends and coaching the local cheerleading team. Their household income is $88,400. As a family, they currently drive a Ford Escape and have an F-150 that Bob drives to work. They eat out once a week and try to support locally-owned restaurants.

Now when the car dealership creates an ad campaign for a larger SUV, they will think of Bob and Susie and how to appeal to them. Consider what would resonate with them? What will drive them to action? What platform will they be most active on? Depending on the voice of the business, the campaign should feel like it's talking WITH that customer.

Your personified customer will need to have information relative to your industry and audience but here are some high level recommendations to consider:

1. Geographical Region
2. Home (renting, own, apartment, subdivision, property, etc)
3. Marital Status
4. Gender
5. Family dynamic (number of children, number of people in home)
6. Occupation
7. Income range
8. Interests and activities
9. Organizations and involvements
10. Product loyalty
11. Behaviors

Knowing your ideal audience well will aid in creating custom audiences, encouraging your ideal customer to take action, decreasing cost per engagement on digital ads, and positive brand reputation.

So how do connect with your audience? Get to know your ideal customers.