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There are a lot of types of marketing out there – content marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing, cause marketing, guerrilla marketing, multi-level marketing…
At the core, all of these styles of marketing should be the customer. That’s why I lead with “customer-first marketing” with all of my clients.
What is Customer-First Marketing?
Customer-first marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on benefits to the end customer throughout key marketing decisions – including pricing and promotions decisions. With a customer-first approach, you’ll leverage your ideal customer profile or personas to weigh your decisions. For example, you may have priced your product at $297. Then when you start thinking through the eyes of your customer, you realize that the $297 may be more than they can budget in a single payment. Rather than just posting your offer and hoping that they figure it out, you decide to offer a payment plan – 3 payments of $115. If someone takes you up on the payment, you’ll make a little bit of extra cash – and make it easier for them to say yes.
How do you use a Customer-First Approach?
The first step in using a customer-first approach is to have a strong ideal customer profile or persona. The easiest way to get started with developing your ICP is to create a two-column table. Column 1 is what characteristics you want your ideal customer to have. Column 2 is why that characteristic is important. After you’ve identified what you do want, spend a little bit of time creating a second table about the things that your ideal clients WOULDN’T have. (Get a sample of an Ideal Customer Profile.)
After you’ve fine-tuned your ICP, then it’s time to review your decisions about how your ideal customer would respond. If you’re thinking about places to advertise, ask yourself if that’s a place that your ideal customers would hang out. Would that new product that you’re thinking of creating catch the attention of those customers.
Don’t stop at applying this approach to the big decisions. You can also apply it to your content creation, graphic design, and copywriting. With a customer-first approach, your ideal customer should be your business bestie. Eventually, you’ll be speaking the language of your customer, so you won’t have to consciously think about it with every decision. But it’s a great tool to come back to when you’re struggling with decisions.
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