Archive for the ‘Ideal Customer’ Category

Turn Your Business into a Bullet Train

Your marketing engine Attracts Your Ideal Customer so you get more leads and build your list, FAST. It automates tasks so you get leverage and speed to grow.

Your business success starts with your marketing engine. Just like an engine powers your car, your marketing engine powers your business. You need to get your word out to attract your customer. That’s pretty obvious. What most people don’t know is that you then need to provide value to them so that they raise their hand and shout “ME, ME, ME! I want what you have!” And at that moment, you capture their name and contact information.

Why do you need to capture their name and put them on your mailing list? Having their contact information in your mailing list enables you to build a relationship with them. And, as long as you are providing value to them, they will continue in the relationship.

How do you create this marketing engine that attracts just the right customer AND inspires them to raise their hand and shout out “PICK ME!”?

Let’s start with the components of that marketing engine.

At the core of your marketing “engine” is your website and blog with a form for your customer to sign up for something free, like a free report or newsletter/ezine. This is a critical piece. It is the foundation for capturing your customer’s contact information and continuing to build the relationship with them. So you need a website or blog to send your leads to and then on it you need a web form that collects their name and email address. That web form is the place your customer raises their hand and says “I want more”.

When your prospect gives you their name and email, you then add them to your mailing list so you can continue to build a relationship with them. A newsletter or ezine is the primary vehicle that builds and nurtures the ongoing relationship with your customer and keeps you in the front of their mind so that when they are ready to buy, they think of you.

Now on top of that core motor of the web page with web form and newsletter, you have layers of marketing tactics which feed that motor and make it turn. These are the tactics that attract your ideal customers to your engine and fill your mailing list. These tactics are like the gears that turn the motor of your business.

These are some of the things you learn in my “Be Found Bootcamp” which you can learn more about by listening to this free call “The 5 Keys to Attracting Your Ideal Customer” (note, here’s YOUR chance to raise your hand). On this free call I teach you how to add in gears (or marketing tactics), one at a time, and to get the gears to start turning to make your marketing engine more powerful.

Now, if you remember anything about gears, the more gears that work together, the less effort it takes to make them turn and accomplish your task. Remember that? You need to know how to add gears to your engine and get them all working together in unison so you get leverage.

You want those gears to start spinning by themselves so you can walk away and they keep working for you. They keep drawing new customers to you even though you’ve moved on to something else. You want to be able automate or even delegate those repetitive tasks.

To get leverage in your business and to free up your time to focus on your gift, your product or service, you need to think of your business like a bullet train (efficient, automated and fast) and your marketing as the engine that powers that train. That engine contains your core lead collection system and then you add marketing tactics and gears to attract your ideal customer and fuel the train. The more gears you add, and the more efficient they work, the faster your train zooms off to fulfill your dreams.

Why do entrepreneurs and business owners use the internet? How does it help them to attract their ideal client, customer or tribe? What is it they most want to do this year using the internet?

About a month ago I asked this of you, my clients, in a survey and this is what you said…

I want to:

1. Grow My Business
2. Get My Message Out to More People
3. Increase Sales
4. Be More Efficient and Save Time Marketing My Business
5. Increase My Profits

When asked what best describes what you are looking for, you said…

1. All of the following
2. Attract My Ideal Customer
3. Build or Grow My List
4. Get More Leads
5. Attract My Tribe
6. Generate Traffic

Do you agree? How does this compare to your goals for the year?

As an answer to your responses, I put together a FREE teleclass 5 Simple Keys to Attract Your Ideal Customer: How to Get More Leads, Build Your List and Grow Your Business FAST!

Please join us on the call or sign up to listen to the recording.

Happy 2011!

The core thing that influences the success of every business is the viability of your customer list. While there is much debate over quality vs. quantity, I will always take that stand that you need BOTH. You want a large list (quantity) that contains your ideal customer (quality). (I’ll be sharing more about this on my free teleclass “5 Simple Keys to Attract Your Ideal Customer: How to Get More Leads, Build Your List and Grow Your Business FAST!”)

As we enter this new year, I asked you to share with me what are your biggest priorities in 2011. I specifically asked you to tell me what you most needed to focus on most when it comes to list building, lead generating and traffic building. This is what you said (listed in order)…

1. Blogging
2. Referrals
3. Keywords
4. On-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
5. Video
6. Joint Ventures
7. Teleseminars
8. Article Marketing
9. Affiliate Marketing
10. Facebook & Twitter [tied]

So what do you think? Do you agree with this list? What would you add or change?

To be successful in business, you need to know your ideal customer. And I mean really know them. Your success is going to hinge on how well you know and can talk to the needs and desires of that customer. You need to know everything you can about your customer because it makes you a more effective communicator. Knowing your customer’s wants and need lets you talk directly to the customer and target your messages so you can inform them about how you address their needs and desires. You’ll need to know how to segment your customers because you may need a different strategy for each unique segment. Because each customer segment has different needs, you may need to take different actions or use different tactics for each segment. Also if you have more than one product or service, you will need a unique strategy, actions and measurements for each product or service that you offer. This is because each product or service will be addressing the different needs and desires your customer has. These are the numerous aspects of the Ideal Customer that are incorporated into your marketing strategy. You will need to know and to define the following items:

• Your  Client Traits, like what are the characteristics of the clients you WANT to be working with.
• You will need to identify your Customer Segments if there are any. Who is your End User, who is the Decision Maker, who are the people who Influence the decision?
• You will need to know the Demographics, Psychographics, Pain, and Dreams of your customer
• You will need to know your Customer Needs and how the need your addressing fits into their other priorities.
• You will need to know how to Prioritize your marketing tactics and promotions based on your customer’s needs and behaviors.
• You will need to know how to Identify the best ways to talk to your customer
• You will need to know how to Identify the most cost effective means to communicate with your customer
• You will need to Know when your customer needs what you offer
• You will need to know how to Engage your customer so they keep coming back

Here's a chart I use to collect some of this information.

Once you learn this information about your customer, you will need to take it and use it to define your Positioning and the 5 P's of marketing which includes the following items:

1. Your Positioning which means how do you fit into the overall marketplace and compare to other solutions available. Your Positioning Statement is used to clarify you comparative differentiator. Next, your Elevator Pitch is used to help you converse about your company’s solution in a way that is concise and gets your main differentiators and solutions across to your customer and potential partners. Your Unique Selling Proposition is your tagline and is a short phrase that summarizes what makes your solution unique. Your Brand should be defined in a way that supports your positioning while appealing to the desires and dreams of your customer. Your messaging is critical to the success of all communications that you send out. You will need to know how to define your company’s messages, your benefits and how the features support those messages and benefits.
2. Your Product which means how are you going to design your products or services so that they meet the needs of your customer.
3. Your Distribution (Place) will be selected based on where your customer shops and their purchase behavior.
4. Your Promotions should be prioritized in order of the ones that are most effective in reaching your target customer.
5. Your People or staff should be selected to be the best fit for delivering the needs of your customer.
6. Your Price needs to take into account what your customer is willing to pay for your services.

This knowledge about your ideal customer is fundamental to everything you do in your business. It is critical that you take the time up front to learn everything you can about your customer and how you can best meet their needs. From here you will take this knowledge and apply it to the 5 P's of Marketing and create a marketing strategy and plan.