I meet with many entrepreneurs and when I ask them who their customer is, a typical response is “everyone!” Unfortunately this thinking is misguided, since it violates the number one rule of marketing: You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone.
When entrepreneurs begin to think about designing their company’s logo, marketing collateral, and/or website, they need to start with identifying their ideal customer. “Everyone” is not an ideal customer. For marketing communications to be effective and compelling, the messaging must be developed with a specific consumer in mind.
You can use demographic targeting to help identify your customer. That can be age, gender, income, urban/suburban, etc. This can help narrow down your customer.
You can use behavioral targeting to help identify your customer. What websites do they frequent? How often do they go out to dinner? Do they shop online?
Just thinking of these two simple targeting approaches will help entrepreneurs hone their message, interest their ideal customer, drive them to their website/store which should feature even more compelling brand messages, and convert them into a lead.
