Your Perfect Customer is real only in your mind. He or sheis the one individual most representative of your target. Theone to whom you always speak one-on-one in your newsletter andon your site.
To bring this person to the forefront of your mind incrystal clarity, here are examples of the kinds of questions youneed to answer. And your answers need to be reevaluated now andthen, as your understanding of your customers grows.
Male Or Female
Your Perfect Customer is male or female, but not both.
Consider an oil additive. It doesn't take long to decideyour Perfect Customer is male. Consider face creams. Female.
Name it, then put a sex to it. Even if your target isroughly split between male and female, you need to add a sex toyour Perfect Customer.
Why? Because regardless of your sex, you can talk moreeffectively to men or to women than you can to both. It's amatter of voice, which includes tone and words selected.
A person selling a car to a married couple talks to both atthe same time. But the key dialog is directed at the decisionmaker, male or female. That directed to the spouse is quitedifferent, and is intended to specifically address his or herconcerns.
On the Web, we can't switch between two modes of dialog.Thus we need to settle on male or female.
There's No Loss In This
In the end, there is no loss in making this decision. Ifyou decide to address males, females will listen withoutreservation provided they are also interested in what yourproduct can do for them. And conversely.
All you need to do is avoid sexist related dialog. "Menjust don't get it," will cost you the male vote. "Women justdon't understand these things," will cost you the female vote.Avoid such blunders at all times. They put your business atrisk.
In deciding between using "he" or "she" when speaking toboth genders, use "she" exclusively if your target is intopolitical correctness. Use "he" with those over say 55. You'llhave to do some figuring for a target in the middle somewhere.
Your decision will probably be the gender most likely to buyyour product. But do make a decision. The "s/he" bit annoysall.
Turning To Age
You need to assign an age to your Perfect Customer. Again,so long as the dialog is authentic, people older or younger willfollow along without difficulty. Confusion arises only when wetry to speak across too great a range. In doing so, we loseauthenticity. And all fails.
The Demographics
Is your Perfect Customer single? If so, is marriage likely?In either case, are there children? Or have the children leftto build their own lives?
What career is being pursued? Is it a work-at-home bit?Caring for a home and raising kids? (While certainly the latteris a career, I'd refrain from using "housewife;" many womendon't like this label much.)
What is the household income? Is the dwelling owned orrented? What part of income is committed to the dwelling?How much discretionary income is available?
What level of formal education has been achieved? Is therea continuing effort to achieve more?
Is your Perfect Customer a member of a specific culture?If so, which one? What languages are used? Do you expectany buyers from other cultures?
What does your Perfect Customer do in their free time?Watch TV? Travel? Go fishing?
Is religion a factor? If so, which one? To what degree isit significant relative to selling your product?
Actually, there is no end to questions such as the above.The answers to many of them mean more with some products thanwith others. Consider hot water heaters, for example. Onlyhome owners will even be potentially interested. But manyproducts do not depend upon specifics. We all bath, and dowhatever we do with our hair, regardless of where we live orwhat we do each day.
What Of Hopes And Dreams?
You want to trigger a need for your product by tapping intothe hopes and dreams of your Perfect Customer. The needs toaddress are a function of your product and who your PerfectCustomer is.
To see how best to make this happen, there's no betterapproach than to study TV ads. A typical commercial grabsimmediately at a specific hope or dream common to the target.And there is only about 30 seconds to a minute to get themessage across.
Sure, some commercials are better than others. So focus onthe best of them. However, major bucks were spent in theproduction of most of them. You'll be exploring the results ofthe thinking of many of the most successful promoters in theworld. It's difficult to imagine a better forum from which tolearn.
Getting It Done
The more you know about your Perfect Customer, the betteryou will be able to communicate. You'll come to know what doesnot need saying. And what needs to be spelled out in detail.Take the time to come to know this person as well as you knowyour best friend, and the effectiveness of your messages willincrease accordingly.
Never, Ever Release Any Of Your Rights To Anyone
One of the grandest scams on the Web, which goes largelyunnoticed, is for a web-based bookseller or publisher to requiresome rights to your work in exchange for the service to beprovided. Many demand the electronic rights, for example.
Who Are Your Visitors, Really?
Marketers and others are fond of categorizing people intosubsets of the general population. If you know the type ofperson your potential customer is, you have a better notion ofhow to make your sales presentation.
The Hits That Matter Most
So you know what hits mean. Unique hits or user sessions,I mean. And you know what CR means. Right? If so, you're ingreat shape, for many people don't. They think they do. But they've got it wrong.
