Business Buzz: Defining your perfect customer

PHUKET: One of the first things you should be focusing on in business is deciding what your niche is and who your perfect customers will be. Most people, in theory, will have done this as part of the initial planning and deciding what business to go into, but sometimes businesses change and go through significant metamorphosis over time, so it’s always good to review who your clients are from time to time.

This seems very simple, but it is often overlooked or not given the weight it deserves. Many people have never conducted a proper market analysis. It is never too late to go back and conduct this exercise, as circumstances and markets change.

Quite simply, if we know who our perfect customer is, then we can work out the best strategy to get our message to them and what it should be.

Something worth noting is that our target market is not always what we think is obvious. I remember when I was doing case studies during my MBA we reviewed Harley-Davidson. Initially it was thought that the perfect customer was the ‘tough bikie’ who loved the sound and image of the Harley, and riding with a gang of other like-minded individuals.

It shocked many (including those at Harley-Davidson) to find out that the real target market was middle aged men, accountants and white collar workers, married with kids in safe and steady jobs, basically having a mid-life crisis and desperate to get the freedom of the road and wind in their hair (or what they had left of their hair).

These days, with the advent of online companies such as Survey Monkey, businesses can conduct very simple surveys at no cost to see what their trends are. Obviously it is important to ask the right questions, and you may need to give an incentive to your customers to complete the survey with a special offer or token gift, but the information you receive may well prove invaluable.

This information should then be used to re-examine your whole social media strategy. Next week we will look at building your biggest asset, and it is probably not what you are thinking.

Remember: if you have any questions, please contact me, and I can select some each week and post them on the Gazette‘s Question & Answer section for everyone to see.

Simon Wetherell is a Social Media expert, Lawyer, Best Selling Author & International Speaker. He now resides in Phuket where he trains businesses and individuals on how to profit from the use of Social Media. For more information go to https://PhuketOnlineMarketing.com or call him on 095 085 3355.