A “Walking Psychographic”

One of the most common mistakes business owners make when it comes to marketing their business is that they think like… well, a business owner.

Here’s a conversation I recently had with my own mother, who raises and sells native plants:

Mom: “How do I get more people to buy native plants?”
Me: “What does your customer really want?”
Mom: “Plants that are water-wise.”
Me: “Wrong. They want a garden full of pretty flowers. Have I taught you nothing?!?”

(Totally kidding about the last sentence. I would never talk to my mom that way.)

I’ve seen it so many times. It’s completely predictable. Product owners talk about what they know, not what their customers actually want. They sell the features, or even the benefits, instead of results.

• The florist talks about ‘roses’ instead of LOVE, expressed with flowers,
• The eCommerce guy hawks ‘leather chairs’, rather than a comfortable, stylish place to kick back while watching his favorite episode of “Burn Notice”, &
• The consultant sells ‘rankings’ instead of cash-in-the-wallet conversions.

The only way to sell the experience and not just “your product” is to understand your customer avatar really, really well. (I define “customer avatar” as being your most perfect customer.)

What’s his name? Where does he live? Who does she vote for? Does she have an iPhone 5? Like Skrillex or Taylor Swift? Every piece of information you have about your customer avatar is important.

We live in an exciting time for marketers. There is so much data available to us that we’re able to go way, way beyond basic demographics. We know so much more than gender and ZIP Code. We have access to more data than ever before, and, as a result, we can perform in depth psychographic targeting.

What exactly is “psychographic”, you ask?

Marty Weintraub, author of Killer Facebook Ads, said he was walking down the street in New York City one day, and suddenly had the realization that he was a “Walking Psychographic”. He put together this infographic to illustrate exactly what he meant:

See full post here.

See what I mean? That is some valuable data! Can you visualize your customer as a “Walking Psychographic”?

The more you know about your customer, the easier it is to jump right into that conversation already going on in his head.

What are you waiting for?!

Make a “Walking Psychographic” of your best customer and hang it on your office wall. Market to that person. Done.

Andrea Warner
(Who likes: #football mom, #SEOBrainTrust, #George Takei, #travel, #HDR photography, #iPhone5, #Arrested Development, #snowy days, #Atlas Shrugged, #facebook ads, #family)