As it says “First things first” (focus on what's important!), so: who is your customer?
Such a simple question and so difficult to answer! Sometimes, businesses start without thinking about who is the customer. They start out focused on the product or service with all its attributes and qualities. And time goes by, they sell here and there and suddenly the company is running, selling and earning money, but they still don't know who is the customer. Moving in that way, all selling actions go with the wind.
Other times, the company starts the business imagining a segment and an ideal “Persona”. They start out focused on the ideal customer profile (ICP) and develop strategies to reach them. But, after a while, already established in the market, they still cannot say if the captured customer is the same idealized one. After all, who buys your products and services? Could it be that in a digital society, post pandemic, impacted by the war in Ukraine (and its effects), inserted in an economy of almost recession, the customer who buys your products and services is the same as when you started and idealized the customer?
Knowing in detail and in depth your ideal customer profile (ICP) allows you to develop winning strategies to grow your business. Without this information, every move in the market is a “kick”. It's not strategic, it's trial and error, you're running your business in the dark.
Arian Saddam Hossain, CEO of DdF, often asks entrepreneurs straitly: "How do you intend to grow your business in the next few years?" Usually CEO's and executives return saying the percentage they want to grow. And Arian invariably responds: “Excel spreadsheet accepts everything! Who is your customer? How do you know what needs to be done to grow?” and normally a silence falls on the meeting. It is a must: without knowing who is the customer, all other marketing, sales and communication actions are compromised.
It's necessary to understand that the customer you have, and know today, is not the same as tomorrow. This is what characterizes the digital society and the VUCA world (vulnerable, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). The customer (companies) and the consumer (people) are constantly changing, and increasingly accelerated! According to Arian “things as simple as a well-designed Customer Profile and used by a competent team can generate impacts of more than 30% of year-on-year growth in the business!”
More than ever, it is necessary to adopt new management models focused on the characteristics of the people, based on data, for the identification, monitoring and analysis of interests, needs and behaviors. And now-a-days it is much easier to know the characteristics of this client through data modeling with Machine Learning. What previously needed to be done manually and precariously, advanced Data Science systems keep the profile of your client up to date so that your strategies are evaluated and rethought. More than "customer profile maps", we now have the possibility to use “GPS customer profile".
The customer changes and you can follow the change: how her demography impacts the business, what it is her priority, etc. Marketing platforms, like DdF's Discovery AI, provide insights into how the customer is changing and where the biggest sales opportunities are. They help improve your customer's marketing, sales and engagement (CX) actions.
Customer Profile: why it matters
Today, all strategic areas of marketing, communication and sales must use analytics to find the “Ideal Customer Profile” (ICP). Analyze company's data in deep is possible throughs technological platforms. It makes easy to find potential audiences, and start outlining the persona’s profile and so growth strategies can be established. Data alone does not become actions.
In this way, just the ICP or customer profile is not enough. According to Júlia Ramalho, Co-founder of DdF, "in order to really extract the best from marketing platforms, when the customer profile (ICP) appears, it is necessary to have people to interpret and translate this profile into a Persona, so strategies can be designed for actions. It takes data, leadership and a team to bring impact. That's why we always say there's not just about analytics. It’s about People+ Analytics to Grow strategy!”
The Profile and Persona guide all strategies: market research and attracting new customers, communication in traditional media and social networks, generation of content for blogs and social networks, structuring campaigns, define the sales channel. This data helps keep the focus on the customer experience (CX) by strengthening customer engagement and brands. All these actions taken by managers and their team, based on data, increase the assertiveness of all marketing, sales and communication actions and, consequently, sales and business growth.
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