Defining Your Ideal Customer for Higher Lead Generation

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Hoping to improve your lead generation results? Knowing your customer on a deeper level allows you and your team to remain in alignment on the who, what, when, where, and how of your customers’ motivations. Your clarity in these areas allows you to build a strong lead generation strategy to guide your marketing and advertising efforts moving forward.  This article will explore how to define your ideal customer profile to better understand your customer’s motivations, needs, and challenges. We recommend that you take this information into account as you think through new ways to reach those customers and encourage them to take action. 

Understanding Your Customer: B2B vs. B2C 

Profiling your customers is helpful for both B2B and B2C clients—however, the approach is different for each. 
  • For B2B customers: Instead of imagining a single individual, you will be building a profile for the ideal business that you would like to work with. You may look at aspects of their business such as size, industry, values, and structure. These elements, and many others you might identify along the way, add up to paint a picture of what types of companies you prefer to work with, and why.  
  • For B2C customers: With B2C customers, you’re focusing on your customer at an individual level, identifying what types of people your products or services are for. Elements that you focus on may be their age, location, interests, needs, and several other factors. 
When determining who your ideal customer is, bring your team in on this conversation. Your perspective alone may not be enough to gather a comprehensive view of the types of customers you typically attract or the prospective customers you would like to target moving forward. 

Leaning On The Data

Your ideal customer isn’t merely a matter of perspective, opinion, or a shot in the dark. It’s also a matter of data. If you’ve been in business a while, you likely have metrics to reference when determining your typical customer. Look at your website, social media accounts, and email marketing statistics to gain an understanding of who your current marketing efforts are already attracting and where you might have an opportunity to expand your reach. 

Using What You Find

This is the best part—using what you discover. Once you’re ready, use what you’ve learned to build a robust lead generation strategy that hinges on your findings.  What does this mean? For example, suppose you found that your ideal customer is a young professional in your area who is motivated by excelling in their career. In that case, you might decide that the best way to reach that person is through targeted LinkedIn ads and face-to-face at local professional organizations.  Take what you now understand about that customer and use it to your advantage. You have the data you need to lead you straight to your ideal customer, and now it’s time to encourage them to take action with your company. 

Build a Lead Generation Strategy with Green Apple

If you want to dig into your customer’s characteristics even further, we recommend checking out our recent article “20 Questions to Ask Yourself that Will Improve Your Customer Profiles.” Green Apple Strategy can help you find your ideal customer and discover new ways to speak to their pain points. Ready to get started? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

3 Leading Indicators Your Marketing Is (or Isn’t) Working

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There are a lot of different marketing metrics you can use to measure success. However, many businesses don’t pay attention to whether or not their marketing is working until sales numbers are slipping. And, by that point, it’s too late. Because a lot of marketing is about generating leads and peaking the interest of potential customers, it’s the tip of the spear for your business development efforts. The question is, how can you measure whether or not your marketing is working before it’s too late? 3 Leading Indicators Your Marketing Is (or Isn’t) Working Here are three ways you can determine if your marketing is effectively supporting your business objectives before you’re in desperation mode:
  1. Your messaging isn’t resonating with people. As a marketer, it’s important to know what messaging works and what doesn’t. If the content you’re creating (eBooks, infographics, blog posts, etc.) isn’t resonating with potential customers, they won’t consider you as someone who can help them solve their problems. Paying attention to which messages resonate (and which don’t) will help you create content that actually leads people towards the path of becoming a customer.
  2. Your sales team is spending a lot of time clarifying your unique value proposition. If your sales team is having to spend a lot of time explaining how you are uniquely positioned to help potential customers solve their problems, it might be a sign your marketing isn’t doing a great job of answering those questions. In a world where potential customers are already halfway through the buying process before they engage with an actual human being, it’s important that your marketing is effectively communicating what you do and how you can help.
  3. You’re generating a lot of low-quality leads. Your marketing efforts should be focused quality over quantity when it comes to lead generation. If you’re generating a bunch of leads that don’t fit the profile of someone who buys, you’re creating a fan base, not a customer base. This is why it’s important to define the exact buyer personas you’re trying to reach.
Whether you’re a business leader, sales professional, or marketing director, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. However, if you can embed these three indicators into your thinking, it will help you keep a pulse on your marketing efforts before it’s too late.

3 Reasons Why Lead Generation Isn’t Leading to Sales

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New leads are the lifeblood of every business, and in today’s increasingly digital world, inbound leads generated through content marketing are a critical area of focus for any business. However, not every business is experiencing wild success from their inbound lead generation efforts. If you haven’t seen incredibly positive results from your lead generation efforts, you’re not alone. Many businesses are still struggling to produce ROI from their inbound lead generation efforts. However, the question to answer is why are so many brands struggling to generate leads from their lead generation efforts? Here are three common culprits that hinder lead generation. 1. The Marketing Team & Sales Team Haven’t Agreed Upon an Ideal Persona. Does it ever seem like the content you create falls on deaf ears, or that the quality of leads you’re generating isn’t worth following up with for a sales conversation? Many times, it’s because marketing and sales aren’t working together to define an ideal persona for prospective clients. Who is your ideal client? It isn’t good enough to simply identify their tile or demographic information. You need to develop a persona that includes their needs, challenges, concerns, interests, and what they’re trying to achieve for their business or by buying from yours. 2. You Haven’t Created Content for Each Step of the Buyer’s Journey. While it’s important to have inbound marketing content that generates new leads by effectively educating people and increasing trust and loyalty with your brand, your content creation efforts shouldn’t stop there. You need to create content that nurtures people through the buyer’s journey and answers the key questions they have at each step of the process. 3. You’re Not Measuring the Right Metrics. Many B2B marketers are making this critical error because they’re not tracking and measuring the relative lead-generating effectiveness of each form of content they produce. For example, your sales team might think that having a new brochure to promote a product is absolutely essential. However, a recent study found that only 9% of marketers said brochures are a valuable form of content. Without measuring how effective each lead generation tactic actually is, you’re just guessing about what will work. If your lead generation efforts aren’t leading to any new business, take time to evaluate your efforts. Determine if one of these common mistakes might be preventing you from experiencing success and identify ways you can overcome your current obstacles to start producing a positive ROI on your investment.