A customer profile provides
valuable information that gives online businesses more insight and direction in
the marketing strategy. Customer profiles enable digital businesses to target
their sales audience more effectively, leading to larger customer bases and
increased sales. In this article, Rory Angold, a
results-driven Executive Vice President, discusses the process of creating a
customer profile.

1. Study
Your Existing Customer Base

The best source of information
about target customers is often the group of existing customers from your
database. The people who currently do business with you can provide valuable
feedback about what causes them to buy your products and services. Online analytic
data about shopping and purchasing information is becoming more important all
the time in understanding existing customer demands and preferences. However,
old fashioned direct interaction with customers is often still the top source
of insightful information about your existing customers. Surveys, rewards
programs, social media, and other methods of direct interaction provide ways
for customers to tell you what is working and what isn’t with existing marketing
strategies.

2. Develop
a Broad Description of Ideal Customers

The key here is to keep your
thinking broad — you are looking for a general description of prospective
customers from 30,000 feet. You do not need to have specific demographics in
mind, but instead, you should profile what your company offers and what kinds
of people are interested in what you have to sell. You may find that you have
several different groups of potential customers. For example, if you sell
health insurance services, one customer type would be a human resources manager
for a small company, and another would be a self-employed contractor
responsible for their own insurance coverage.

3. Collect
and Analyze Data

There are many software
applications available for collecting and analyzing sales and marketing data
that will assist your efforts to profile and address target customers. Patterns
in sales behavior and responses to different advertising and marketing
techniques can show which customers are responsive to different methods in
varying locations and times. Customer preferences and buying habits will
typically help locate new business from potential customers with similar habits
and demands.

4. Model
Your Customer Profile From Your Most Profitable Revenue Streams

Businesspeople and marketers are
all familiar with the saying that you spend 20% of your time making 80% of your
money. When you understand where your company’s most profitable sales are
generated, you can focus on developing more business of the same type. The
obvious implication is that the customers in the most lucrative areas should
form the profile for targeting new customers. As every company grows, its
profit profile changes over time. It is critical that a customer profile
anticipates where the company’s sales are heading in the near and long term.

5. Maintain
Your Customer Profile as an Ongoing Project

Always remember that a solid
customer profile is a moving target at all times. As your company’s capacities
and goals shift, so will customer demographics and demands. All of your market
research and current customer sales and feedback data should continuously be
considered in how your target audience is identified and marketed to. Stay
flexible and resilient when demographics or market conditions change.

About Rory
Angold

Rory Angold has two
decades of work experience in leadership and executive positions. He last
managed field teams in California, Nevada, Hawaii, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado, and Wyoming for Zurich Direct Markets, a $1.5B business. Mr. Angold,
now serving as Executive Vice President at United Car Care is a results-driven
specialist in automotive dealer consulting, training, and reinsurance with a
proven track record of developing people, putting together a winning team with
an infectious culture that empowers people to want to win.