Our short answer: To attract the right customers, you need to know who they are by making personas that accurately describe their goals and their pain points forming a foundation for content strategies like blogging, social media strategies and creating videos.
Who are your right customers? If you don’t know the answer to that question then you’ll remain in the dark until you understand their goals, their pain points, what they do. Part of the answer to identifying who the right customers are for your business starts with buyer personas.
Imagine having a clear picture of who your ideal customers are. Sure, your customers aren’t just one person, but many people. That’s why it’s important to understand their individual pain points, their goals; heck even the reason why they get up in the morning.
In business it’s not as much about what you do, but who you serve. These people - your customers - should be the focus of - every breath you take and every decision you make. So what is a buyer persona?
Buyer personas are individual representation based on data and market research. You make 1-3 to represent portions of people who can help (the number depends on what angle causes them to need your help). Here’s an example:
Let’s say your client is a fundraising organization who run campaigns for non profits.
They are running a campaign to raise money for a schools in South Africa. These are causes that most people living outside the count won’t know about. After speaking with the school head, you realize that not only do the school need basic equipment, but also money for meals for students.
They also have an athletic coach from the Europe who would like funds for sports equipment. Their problem is the surrounding community think that raising funds to feed families should be a higher priority.
The third persona is one of the people in the village who urgently needs funds for food. They feel that feeding students should come before anything else.
As you can see these are all human beings with different goals, problems and they need different solutions.
You also need a clear vision of who your client is, what solutions they offer and how it benefits their target audience: schools in Africa.
They’ll help you focus on the human aspects of your customers: their goals, their problems, and on providing solutions that’ll help them. They will “also align all your work across your organization (from marketing to sales to services)”.
As a result of having a clear understanding of who your client is who they serve,you’ll have a clearer vision of the content you want to create and the campaigns that’ll be most effective.
You may think, “Ok, I understand that buyer personas play a critical role in my business, how do I get started with making one of them?”
Once you have a good understanding of who your right customers are, it’s easier to tailor your services, messaging and content to meet your buyer personas needs.
Here's an example of a buyer persona for a real estate agent:
For example, you may already know that your target customers want to sell or buy homes, corporate offices, but do you know what their individual needs and drives are? How would you describe the typical background of a buyer or seller?
All your customers needs are different, but having a clearer understanding of each of their needs is crucial for acquiring new customers and ensuring that you retain your existing customers.
Use your blog as a vehicle to answer your persona’s questions. Today, your customers are more educated than ever before. They have the information they need in seconds by typing a search query into Google. You want your blogs landing pages and other web pages that are easily searchable.
The way you do that is by writing content that answers your customer’s pain points. Building authority and their trust as the thought leader or company they come to when they need to buy or sell a property or an office space.
There are few great research tools out there including:
Real estate agents like many of us lead busy lives, and need to focus on the social media platform that’ll bring the best results.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 97% of realtors use Facebook. The reason for this is that the user demographics are ideal for their target audience in terms of age and income. Facebook allows realtors to publish listing-related updates and makes it easy to book an appointment and communicate with customers.
Other industries using Social Media the most are retail that have visually pleasing and novel encouraging lots of shares and likes. Social monitoring is also key for this industry as many customers ask questions about products on social network channels.
How to use Google Ads to target the right customers
Google is the place that your customers go to find you. Research shows that there are 3.5 billion Google Searches performed everyday.
According to The Digital Househunt, 90% of all home buyers began their search on Google. By the same token, searchers for realtors have increased by 253% in recent times. For more information on this report click here.
It’s only natural that every business wants to be as high up as possible on Google. The challenge is that there’s plenty of competition. One effective strategy to generate the right leads for your business is to use Google Ads. They’ll position a business’s ad near the top of the search results page using a Pay-Per-Click strategy which is both simple and effective.You also want to use more specific keywords like:
Geotargeting
Google Ads enables you to target your ad to areas where you’ll find more of your customers and help you find more customers, restricting areas where there are less..
Other things to keep in mind
Research shows that more home buyers are using a mobile device for their initial search so for real estate agents, it’s crucial to optimize their ad for this. By adding a clickable number, you can drive up the lead generation of any other industry too for more prospects to connect.
Create copy that engages your customers
The text in your ad will be the first thing that your prospects see, so remember to make it appealing enough to draw the eye. The content is the essential ingredient, but how do you craft attractive copy?
The more specific keywords and phrases you use the more chance that'll attract the right audience. The reason why you want to get this right is because when a customer sees your ad and clicks on it, you’re paying for it. You need to distinguish yourself from the larger companies out there. If you’re make
For example you may want try these:
Today, 61 percent of home buyers find videos useful in their search for a new home. Videos help you to further distinguish your business from the rest. Videos that are shorter and more engaging tend to get the attention of prospective buyers.
Intro Videos: Introduction videos are a great way for prospects to get to know you and your business.Here you can introduce and sell yourself by talking about your specific experience and your certifications, and reputation in your industry.
Product Videos: shoppers main concern when shopping online is the product’s quality. Product videos describe a product’s features and benefits. They help build customer trust and credibility in the brand. Shoppers also feel more ease making a purchasing decision after viewing a video.
Testimonial Videos: Businesses sometimes ask their customers if they would like to share their experience with others. Testimonials videos are much better than written testimonials because prospective buyers can access how authentic the person / people are who are giving a testimonial.
To attract the right customers you first need an understanding of who your right customers are. Once you have that foundation in place, you will be better equipped to answer their questions and pain points in your blogs, able to target them in your Google Ads, and make videos that will be an intrinsic part of their buying process.