Building customer profiles is like playing the Sims

Today we have part two of a series on audience targeting and customer profiles. Also, we’re trying a new sending time today as a nice little A/B test. Fun.

If you have any thoughts or feedback, feel free to tweet at @MarketMix_. You can also DM me at @bradmichelson.🔺

Last week we covered a lot of ground. We talked about audience targeting and why it's so important to define who you’re talking to with each part of your marketing’s messaging. Millennials are different than Boomers. Women want to be marketed to differently than men. Even people from different cities could require unique messaging.

At the end, we used Millennials as a case study. I outlined a number of data-based facts about this audience. Just to recap, this is what we came up with:

68% use a second screen while consuming content

• They watch TV while on their phones

• They watch internet videos while on their phones

• They can afford multiple devices

1 out of 3 Millennials uses an ad blocker

• They don’t like invasive ads

• They don’t like being tracked online

• They like the choice of opting out of ads

90% is on social media of some type

• Community is entertainment for them

• They visit places where they are heavily advertised to, despite the volume of advertisements served

• They crave engagement

57% have impulse purchased a product on social media

• They can have short purchase journeys, sight unseen

• They likely have disposable income to impulse buy

• They like seeing products next to their friends and entertainment

35% of Millennials prefer digital video over traditional television

• They may stream more than they watch cable

• They mostly use platforms without ads, which means the ads they do see are more noticeable

• They prefer having more choice, but on their terms

At this point we have a number of educated assumptions about our target audience. This is great for a couple reasons. First, we have more informed ideas about this group’s tendencies. Second, and more importantly, we have a better understanding of their worldview and values.

This provides us with plenty of ammo for one of the most important things a marketer can do when they’re just getting started at a new job -- building customer profiles.

What is a customer profile? Well, they are made-up characters of your most ideal customers.

But Brad, that’s dumb. These people don’t exist so how is this helpful?

Well, think about it this way: is it easier to build messaging to target a data point or a theoretical person? From my perspective, if you know something about a person, you’re able to better anticipate the things they like, the things they do, or the things that might catch their attention. Again, this is informed using the data you have (from existing customers) or have acquired (through research) about the people who interact with your product, brand, or service.

Ok that’s a bit out there, but at the end of the day, this is a framing exercise that helps contextualize customer data in a way that our brains can better synthesize into actionable strategies.

So, just like in the Sims, you get to build your own group of customized people to help form your world. In the context of marketing, this is called customer profiling.

Get it?

Now you can start building a pretty detailed profile of who you are talking to, which will inform the rest of your strategy.

So let’s do one profile as an example. What should be included here?

Well, think about it like a social media profile. What might you see there?

• Age

• Gender

• Location

• Interest

• Job

• Income

• Purchasing habits

• Challenges and goals

Alright, let’s make some assumptions about one of our ideal customers. Remember, we’re a crypto (financial services) company. We’re consumer-facing. And we’re emerging tech.

• Name: Wendy

• Age: 29

• Gender: Female

• Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA

• Interest: Movies, Travel, Technology

• Job: Project Manager at an insurance company

• Income: $110,000 + bonus

• Purchasing habits: Online shopping, credit cards, rarely uses cash due to inconvenience

• Challenges and goals: Looking for ways to build wealth toward buying a home

Now that we have Wendy’s basic profile broken down, what assumptions can we make about her when overlaying that information with the Millennial demographics?

Let’s assume:

1. Due to her above-average pay and the average cost of living in Philadelphia, we can assume she has a reasonable amount of disposable income

2. She is an online-first consumer, both for her entertainment (social media + digital media) and her purchasing habits

3. She is interested in technology and is a bit of an early adopter with a short purchasing journey

4. She is already very comfortable with digital payments and prefers them over cash

5. She’s not a fan of ads and prefers being marketed to on social media through influencers

6. Has a stock portfolio and disposable income for some alternative investments, but hasn’t found the right platform that matches her experience level

Now that you’ve met Wendy, what’s your next move? What can you message out to her to get her to try your product, service, or platform? Where do you say it? How do you think she wants it to be said? The above exercise gets you directly to the point where you can make additional educated guesses to answer and execute on these assumptions.

For those taking notes, here is what you should ask more specifically:

• What kind of value propositions do you think will work for Wendy?

• What platforms do you want to use to reach this person?

• Do you want to buy ads, and if so, on which websites or platforms?

• Do you need to provide and offer to attract this person or is your brand’s USP (unique selling point) strong enough?

The great thing about marketing is that everything is testing. You never get it right on the first campaign or activation. Use this as a starting off point until you can back each and every assumption with data.

At some point I’m going to write another article about how to build a marketing mix for building campaigns, but that’s not for this week.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. If you have any feedback, just reply to this email. I love hearing your hot takes.

Who’s Hiring Marketers in Crypto? Me. I am hiring.

• Brand Marketing Manager @ eToro US [APPLY]

• AUM Marketing Manager @ eToro US [APPLY]

• Email Marketing Lead @ eToro US [APPLY]

• Social Media Lead @ eToro US [APPLY]

• Copywriter @ eToro US [APPLY]

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