Among your many customers, some have more precise audience targeting than others. The details they have regarding who their audience is varies because of many factors. They may serve broad demographics, so narrowing the profile down is hard. Others may simply not know where to begin. In either case, you can help them build an ideal customer profile to make targeting more accurate in campaigns.
What Is an Ideal Customer Profile?
An ideal customer profile defines the perfect customer for a company’s products or services. It consists of key attributes and qualities of the group and serves as a foundational piece for targeting. Some areas it includes are:
- Demographics (e.g., age range, gender, parental status, household income, education, etc.)
- Location (e.g., ZIP codes, state, etc.)
- Industry and company size (if the audience is B2B)
- Interests
The more defined the profile is, the easier it is to choose from targeting options available for digital campaigns. Not all digital tactics have the same level of targeting, but fleshing this out is the best approach to ensuring relevancy in ad serving.
So, how can you help your advertisers develop these profiles?
Tips for Helping Clients with Ideal Customer Profiles
When working on this with your advertisers, you’re trying to refine who is the best fit for their offering based on what it is, the costs, benefits and other factors. Here are guidelines you can use in this exercise.
Ask the business about their current customer makeup and any data they’ve collected from them.
Many businesses may not realize the value of the information they have about their customers. This first-party data can include demographics, interests, buying preferences and more. It can be a great first look at whom the company is helping today.
Discuss the current customer base to see if there have been any changes.
Just because they have current customers doesn’t mean they are the best fit. In this step, talk about if the company has evolved its products or services and how that could impact the new customers they acquire.
Define the challenges of these ideal customers and how the business solves them.
This discussion can uncover some more things about demographics and interests. It should also clearly articulate the goals of these groups in overcoming the challenge.
Outline the core attributes a good customer has.
This includes demographics, locations, lifestyle, interests, income, etc. Not all of these things are targetable, but expanding on this can help them with developing campaign offers and creative.
Talk through stereotypes that could be limiting the profile.
Organizations often have preconceived notions about who their ideal customer is, and they can be wrong. Looking at their current customer base can bring some accuracy to the conversation. Encourage them to look beyond the view they’ve had, especially if they’ve been in business for a long time. They may believe erroneous things, like that baby boomers aren’t interested in technology products. That’s a stereotype, not a fact!
Consider how location plays a role.
Local businesses may only target your city, while others have a greater presence. Additionally, for some industries like restaurants or entertainment, it may make more sense to target only those areas within a 10- to 15-minute drive. You can find some information in their current customer records.
Geotargeting and geofencing will only be successful when you determine what location means to the business and campaigns. Other companies may only want to target the highest-income ZIP codes because they sell luxury goods.
At the end of the process, you’ll have a fully scoped profile that will be a great resource to businesses for all types of marketing strategies. This sketch of who the customer is will be very useful in targeting. Developing these profiles isn’t a one-time thing, so check in with advertisers at least annually to update them.
Get more insights on targeting in our post, Audience Targeting vs. Site Targeting: How to Educate Advertisers.
