7 Fatal Mistakes That KILL Local Businesses – Part 1 – Lack of A Customer Avatar

This is a seven part content series where we uncover the 7 fatal mistakes businesses are making – and how you can fix them.   These are, by far, the most common and the most dangerous mistakes businesses are making.   Ignoring these mistakes WILL kill your business – it’s only a matter of time.   Master these 7 areas and your business will thrive.

Our list begins here:

Fatal Error #1 – Lack of a true “Customer Avatar” – a customer avatar is nothing more than PROPERLY identifying WHO you want as a customer.   We are talking demographics AND psychographics.  Most businesses that do any type of online (or even offline) marketing or advertising simply expose themselves to the masses without digging deep and identifying WHO it is they truly want to work with.   This is a HUGE mistake!  Paying for marketing and advertising and then attracting the wrong customers will KILL your business, demoralize your sales team and waste a bunch of money in the process.  It’s kinda like putting the wrong profile on a dating site – you will attract the wrong people.

To fix this, take the time to drill down who your ideal customer is by answering the following questions:

Demographics:

• What age is your ideal customer?
• What gender are they?
• Are they single or married?
• Do they have a family?
• Where do they live (geographically)?
• What race are they?
• What is their financial status?
• Do they own a home or rent?Psychographics (behavioral)
• What are the problems your customers are having?
• What are their most urgent needs?
• What are their spending habits?
• Where are their core interests?
• Where do they hang out online?
• What type of media do they consume (TV, Movies, Books, Magazines)?
• What specific media do they like (which TV shows, which movies, which books, which magazines)?

There may be more based on your industry – but you get the idea.

Why is drilling this down your customer avatar so important?    TWO main reasons:

1. Your marketing message – the types of content you share in your marketing and advertising needs to speak specifically to these people.   Your sales process should include the same messaging as your advertising and marketing – so you MUST get this right.   Example:  Men and Women’s purchasing behaviors are completely different – so your messaging must speak to each one differently (so should your sales process).   A successful marketing or advertising campaign will speak to each customer avatar differently (different ad campaigns and different advertising copy for each.

2. Targeting – Sites like Facebook (which EVERY business should be advertising on in 2017) allows its advertisers to show ads to specific people based on the data they have on its users. You can literally save thousands of wasted advertising dollars if you only show your ads to the most qualified people that buy from you.    This type of advertising has never been seen before and many businesses are missing the boat by NOT drilling down who their ideal customers are.   They show ads and marketing to the general masses and then get frustrated when they are not getting the results they want.  Unless your brand is huge (like Coca-Cola huge) – your marketing and advertising SHOULD only target the types of customers you actually want.   Save yourself the headache and create your customer avatars BEFORE you actually spend a dime on marketing or advertising.

Special note on customer avatars:  You will likely have multiple avatars for each product or service you sell.  That’s perfectly normal; however, each product or service you sell should have a separate customer avatar AND your marketing/advertising and sales process should be properly aligned.

Up Next:  Fatal Error #2 – Lack of a Lead Generation System