How To Attract Your Ideal Client

As you research Inbound Marketing, you will hear this common theme. Inbound Marketing is used to attract prospective clients by engaging people using a humanistic and personal approach while providing a solution to their needs.

Most consumers perform online research before making purchases. 57% of purchase decisions happen before a customer decides to contact a business. Therefore, it's critical to make personal connections with people during the various stages of the Buyer's Journey.

With 1.94 billion websites worldwide, it is essential to take a caring and personal approach. How well you execute on being humanistic will distinguish you from competitors. The following tips will assist with establishing a personal connection to prospective clients. 

Buyer Personas: Know Your Audience

Take the time to create buyer personas. Investing time in defining buyer personas could be the difference between minimum growth and breakthrough performance. The buyer persona is a semi-fictional character that represents a company's ideal client. Personas are created using market research, customers' past behaviors, and some speculation. 67% of the Buyer's Journey occur digitally. Meaning, defining persona demographics, psychographics, goals, and challenges should be the basis of planning activities used to attract prospective clients to your product or service.

The Buyer Persona is the foundation of any successful Inbound Strategy.

The Golden Circle: Tell Your Why

The Golden Circle is a marketing concept created by Simon Sinek. Sinek states, "People don't buy what you do; They buy why you do it." Determining the why of your company, besides to make money, is not simple. However, explaining your company's why will create a personal connection with customers and your company vision.

A good example would be the "Be Like Mike" Gatorade commercial of the '90s. The advertisement is considered one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time. Gatorade explained why it made sports drinks, and also connected its vision to the dreams of boys and girls of all ages at that time: to be like Michael Jordan, #TheGreatestBasketballPlayerEVER! How successful was Gatorade during the run of the "Be Like Mike" campaign before Jordan's first retirement in 1995? Gatorade sales increased from $600 million to $1.2 billion from 1990 through 1995.

Take a look at the "Be Like Mike" commercial: 

It is understood; you may not have funding to secure an elite athlete's endorsement. The goal of telling why should be to make a human connection that will attract your ideal client regardless of budget. Why is how people will relate to your brand and sets you apart from others.

Think of this as your X-factor!

Influence: Establish Your Authority

You offer the best product or service around. How do you influence people to consider your product or service? (Search engine optimization and paid ads)

Search engine optimization and paid ads are excellent Inbound methods used to attract customers. However, providing content that educates consumers is how to establish authority and build trust.

Marketing content consists of various types of collateral: videos, webinars, e-books, blogs, social posts, and so on. The humanistic approach requires presenting relevant content to address the customer need based on where they are in the Buyer's Journey.

Gatorade secured the endorsement of the ultimate power influencer of the '90s. Due to the success of the "Be Like Mike" campaign, Gatorade maintains a contract with Michael Jordan to date. Soliciting the help of influencers is another useful Inbound Marketing Strategy, but social media platforms have made it much easier to influence your targeted market without having a hefty budget.

Here are a few best practices on using social media to influence your targeted audience:

• Establish business accounts on social platforms:

  Having a business profile on social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tweeter, Instagram) allows you to connect with customers, highlight specific products or services, and build brand loyalty.

• Create Buyer's Personas:

  Understanding your ideal customer is critical to empathizing with their problems and addressing their needs in a humanistic way.

• Create content based on the Buyer's Journey:

  The Buyer's Journey is a natural progression someone experiences before making a purchase. It consists of three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision. Presenting the right content during the right time of the Buyer's Journey will build trust and establish your authority as an industry expert.

• Post content regularly and during optimal times:

  Influencing your market requires more than an occasional social post. Create meaningful content focused on engaging your targeted audience. Choose topics carefully, create content in advance, and follow a release schedule.

• Respond to questions and comments within 24 hours:

  Routinely check business social profiles and respond to positive and negative comments. Timely, responding to all comments will help control your brand perception.

The best way to influence customers is by showing a personal interest in their habits, understanding their needs, and helping them by providing solutions on the platforms they use.

Knowing your audience, expressing your vision, and establishing authority are high-level suggestions for delivering a humanistic and personal Inbound Marketing Strategy. When evaluating the best approach to represent your brand, you'll quickly realize that Inbound campaigns are complex projects. These projects could require partnering with various stakeholders, market research, data analysis, web development, content creation, copywriting, and more.

For more information on Inbound Marketing, take a look at this HubSpot resource: What Is Inbound Marketing? 

Do you need help formulating your Inbound Marketing Strategy?

Source:

(NY Times 1991)

(Bloomberg 1996)

(USA Today 2016)