Today for Reverie Rendez-Vous we are talking ideal clients, stalking and marketing strategies. Our guest Ronii Bartles who is an Operations Marketing Rockstar to creative entrepreneurs who want to understand their tribe to build products + services that sell, takes us through three strategies to get in the hearts and heads of our perfect clients (because there’s a little stalker in all of us). You can download the her opt-in here which is perfectly aligned with this article.
“It sounds bad, doesn’t it? Stalking. But admit it… we all have a little bit of a stalker tendency. We’ve all been sucked into the Facebook vortex at some point during the day. And probably clicked on your ex’s profile in the name of just checking in on that they’re doing good and if they’re happy. But have you ever considered that getting sucked into the social media rabbit hole could result in understanding your ideal customers better?
Have you ever gotten an email or a blog article from your favorite business strategist and thought, “How is she reading my mind? Is there a hidden camera in my computer?” Trust me there is not a secret camera spying on you. She has just done her homework.
Every business guru on the planet will tell you that you need to develop a target client, or customer avatar. And a few go a little deeper by saying, just ask your audience questions. But… What questions? Where? How? All this advice leaves you with more questions than answers. So, in the end, you just end up guessing who your ideal client is and making up an imaginary friend.
While that’s a good start, have you noticed that your marketing isn’t getting the conversions you want? That’s because you are guessing at what your ideal clients want to hear and aren’t developing marketing campaigns based on facts and data. Here are 3 strategies for getting facts that lead to understanding your clients better:
You’re already there. Don’t lie. I know you are. Turn your Facebook stalking into a business strategy to find out facts about your ideal clients. Hop on a few people’s profiles and answer these questions: What books have they read? What is their favorite color? What was the last thing they posted about? Do this for several people that you would love to work with. Aggregate those answers and weave a story together that includes your special talent. New blog post done. Boom!
This is a go to for understanding your audience. You may already have a Survey Monkey account or Typeform. But what questions do you ask of your audience? The obvious is, what is their biggest challenge right now? I like to ask my clients, that if their business was a person what are the adjectives that would describe her? This will give you an idea of the values that your customer has. Personality questions are always great insights into what they value. Many times what people say about themselves is what they seek in working with others as well.
Throw a party for your favorite peeps. That can be in person or virtual but create a brand experience where you invite your favorite/ideal clients or people you would love to have as clients and have a “getting to know you” party. Have a list of conversation starters handy {Danielle LaPorte has a few blog posts for this and an app I think} and start some conversations and just sit back and listen. Listening is the key to any good research approach.
There are lots of ways to gather information about your clients. I find these to be the most helpful when I’m developing customer profiles for clients. Once my clients have their customer profiles, they find so many ways to use them. Many use them to develop products and services that solve specific problems. Don’t you just love it when someone has solved your problem and saved you time on Google? Others use them to develop very targeted ad campaigns so they are getting better conversion rates on Facebook ads because they are saying the right thing to the right people at the right time.
About Ronii: Through her straightforward blog posts, resultsdriven workshops + Champagne Thursday brainstorming, she’s here to teach you how to get in the hearts + heads of your perfect clients {because there’s a little stalker in all of us} all while sipping on bubbly + making it feel like you’re partying with movie stars. And when she’s not channeling her inner detective, you can find her indulging in soul fulfilling girlfriend talk, feeding her Instagram addiction + the occasional sparkling glass of champagne {well, not so occasional}.