Are You Blind to Your Competition and Your Ideal Customer Avatar?
You may think you already know your audience, which, you very well may, but I’ve found that most businesses haven’t truly identified their ideal customer avatar. Let’s use the example of a plastic surgeon. He or she may think, “my customer is anyone who is looking to improve their appearance.” In the grand scheme of things, they are right. In most cases, their customers would be people looking for self-improvement.
Even so, when you dive deeper, there is a lot more to that customer than first meets the eye. Consider these 3 things:
- It is harder to identify this large group of people making it tougher to advertise to them.
- Many of these people may want to improve their appearance, but don’t have the money.
- Some of these people are so demanding and take up so much of your time and energy that you end up losing money on the product you’re offering.
It is clear then that you have to spend time identifying your ideal customer. Otherwise, you won’t be able to have the kind of success that’s possible.
Your Ideal Customer Avatar
So, imagine your best customer, the one you have enjoyed working with the most and who brought in a solid ROI. As you’re thinking about them, here are some questions to answer. Remember, this is your ideal customer:
- What do they do for a career?
- How much do they make?
- What is their family and relationship status?
- What do they enjoy doing in their spare time?
- Where do they like to go online?
- What keeps them awake at night, eyes open, staring at the ceiling?
- What are they afraid of?
- What are they angry about or who are they angry at?
- What are their top 3 daily frustrations?
- What do they secretly desire the most in relation to your business?
These 10 questions will help you identify that ideal customer avatar, and where you should be “fishing.” By fishing, I mean, which online advertising platforms will make the most sense for this audience. Where best to cast your net.
The last essential part of this strategy is to identify who your strongest competitors are and what are they doing online.
Watching Your Competition
The nice and convenient thing about digital marketing is it’s much easier to find out what the competition is doing and saying since it’s all online. But, you need to know where to look.
One thing that’s resonated with me for a while is the phrase “don’t re-invent the wheel.” Someone once told me, “You can always tell who the pioneers are because they have arrows in their back and are lying face down in the dirt.”
Your competition is out there spending and losing money, testing ad copy, landing pages, etc. to figure out how to generate an ROI from ad spend. They are the “pioneers.” You, on the other hand, can become a fast follower and utilize their data to help minimize ad spend risk and avoid the arrows.
From working with clients, I’ve found most of them have never spent the time evaluating their competitors’ online marketing strategies. Usually, it’s because they don’t know where to look or didn’t even know there were tools available to give them this type of data. So, let me ask you this, wouldn’t it be nice to know what your competition is doing online… like what kinds of ads they are running… and how much money they’re actually spending?
Well, let me show you a free tool few people, outside of digital agencies, know about. This tool gives you incredible data and the best part about it; it won’t cost you anything.
It’s called SEMRush.com.
This tool gives you incredible competitive insight and ways to model your campaigns on what is and isn’t working to avoid wasting money. You can see what your competition is spending on paid advertising, what keywords are bringing in the most customers, how much traffic their website is getting, where they’re ranking in the search engines… it’s fantastic info.
It’s as Sun Tzu said in the Art Of War:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, forevery victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Next up: Why You Can’t Target Everyone with Your Ads. (The second key strategy in understanding digital marketing and targeting your ideal customer avatar)
E
