How to build a customer profile
Knowing your audience is the most important aspect of your direct-marketing efforts. To grow your business, you need marketing leads that match the profiles of your current best customers.
The quickest and easiest method to identify your potential new customers is to examine your existing customers and create your customer profile. Once you have a profile that describes your best customers, you can build direct mailing lists.
Find marketing leads that match your ideal customer by evaluating the following:
- Who are my current customers? Explore the characteristics that define your current customers. What age are they? Are they typically married? Do they have higher income?
- What do my customers purchase?
- When do my customers purchase? Find natural events that coincide with sales of your product or service. For example, if you own a home supply store, the best time to solicit leads may be when someone moves or purchases a house.
- Where do my customers purchase? While targeting customers within a close proximity of your location works, you may want to market to a larger audience.
Additional questions that will help you identify your best marketing leads include:
- Where do my customers live? Do they live in close proximity to my office? Do they occupy a specific area of town?
- How many times a year do they purchase my product or service? Is the purchase cyclical or seasonal?
- What is the estimated age of my best customer? Do I have customers in several age groups? Are my customers typically the same age?
- What are their estimated household income, age, gender and martial status?
- Do they have children, and, if so, what are their ages?
- How do they spend their fee time? Do they share any hobbies or interests?
- What is their estimated current home value, and how long have they lived there?
Additional uses for our marketing leads:
- Telemarketing
- Network marketing
- Real estate
- Direct marketing
Next steps: Learn how to build direct mailing lists
