Let Me Tell You About A Man Name Jed…

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well
that the product and service fits him and sells itself.
– Peter Drucker

Several years ago we had a new client by the name of Jed* who was a financial advisor. Prior to hiring us, he had spent a lot of time determining who his ideal customer should be and even more time and money marketing to them. Yet he wasn’t getting much of a response despist having a consistent drip marketing campaign.

Looking over the material he had been sending out, it was pretty clear why. Most of his articles were often long, boring and did not relate to the interests of his ideal client: Young Professionals in their late twenties to mid-thirties. While he knew the demographic of his ideal customer, he didn’t really understand who they were or how to connect with them.

While we were helping him dig deeper, Jed and his wife had their first child. As most new parents know, you don’t get much sleep with a newborn! He was exhausted, had no energy and his creativity was gone. One night around 2 AM, while trying to get his newborn to sleep, he looked over his to-do. That’s when he noticed he was behind on writing his latest blog post. Too exhausted to write, he kept it short with a simple update that showed a picture of his new family and a short caption underneath that read:

Not Getting Much Sleeping… Send Coffee!

Much to his surprise, his audience responded!

For the first time he received email responses, comments, phone calls and some even went so far as to send coffee.

Why? For the first time since he started marketing to his ideal customer, he was speaking their language. He was finally connecting emotionally to his audience! It turns out many were also in the midst of raising a family and found themselves reading his post at 2AM while trying to get their own newborn to sleep!

I tell you this story because it’s an excellent example of what happens if you don’t understand who your ideal customer really is.   In my last several posts (Click here for original post), I’ve been talking to you about how powerful a Drip Marketing campaign can be to your business to create a steady revenue stream. But that’s only part of it. To create a successful drip marketing program, you also have to create content that speaks directly to your ideal customer as if they were the only ones you were marketing too.   Don’t do this, and your marketing material will be plain, generic and ineffective just like Jed’s was.

If you haven’t determined who your ideal customer is, before you start your drip marketing campaign, I would suggest you begin there. Next, before you create your marketing material, decide how, when and where to drip the material out, set aside time to mentally observe your Ideal customer. Walk in their shoes and look at life through their eyes. Picture them getting up in the morning – what is their routine? Are they single or married? Do they have kids and if they do, what are their ages? What worries your customer? How  do they spend their free time? What do they like to eat, where to do they for vacation? What time do they go to bed? How do they spend their money? Once you answer questions like this, you will have a good understanding of how to write and produce the right kind of marketing material that will connect with your audience. In turn it will help you determine where to spend your time and money on your marketing efforts.

Once you get the hang of it, don’t be surprised if creating your marketing material comes easier, you’ll write quicker and you’ll start to trigger emotional connections that will cause customers to come knocking on your door!

*Client’s name has been changed to protect privacy.

Copyright 2016 Sherry Carnahan