Have you ever had a salesperson mispronounce your name?
They call you with the familiarity of a far-removed relative, preparing to pitch a life-altering product with life-changing impact and... They completely botch the sale within the first 10 seconds.
You show great restraint by hanging up the phone instead of condescendingly correcting them. We have patience because, as marketers, we are also in the world of demand-gen. We may not cold call strangers like our sales teams, but we do sometimes feel like we’re yelling into the void to capture their attention.
You’ve heard the phrase and you know it well. Our job as marketers is to cut through the noise.
But how?
Step One: Don’t Mispronounce Their Name
The marketing equivalent to mispronouncing someone’s name is mistargeting. This includes, but is not limited to:
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Sending mail to the office building of a remote employee
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Spending hours perfecting the Call to Action of an email no one will open
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Using a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy
To really speak to your customer, you have to be fluent in their native language. Do your research to fully immerse yourself in their lifestyles and see them as people rather than prospects.
The only way you can get to know your prospective customers (short of actually introducing yourself) is through data.
Step Two: Learn What Makes Them Tick
To pitch your pet food subscription box, you first have to know that your customer has a pet. You also need to know what type of pet. How many pets. The age of said pets. Are they different breeds? Different sizes? What is each pet’s activity level?
All these questions are essential if you’re going to connect with your prospect and sell them your product. You can answer these questions with countless surveys, costly promotions, or the ever-efficient process of trial and error... Or you can do your research.
Step Three: Re-Evaluate Your Results from Step Two
You’ve spoken with sales, collaborated with customer success and created the Ideal Customer Profile. You’ve already given your brand personas their respective names - Discount Deborah, Loyal Larry, Quizzical Quincey. You know their demographics like income level, age range, gender or purchasing power. But how well do you really know them?
Does Deborah perform the household shopping or does her partner?
How many pounds of dog food can really Larry lift by himself?
How much does Quincey spend on food for the human members of their family?
These are the personality traits and behavioral patterns you need to understand before you can properly communicate with your prospects. Learning to speak their language starts with the right translational tool: Data.
Step Four: Canoodle with Your Customer
Consumers are complicated. Demographics, while readily available, barely scratch the surface of customer intel.
Buxton is the largest aggregator of consumer behavior data in the U.S.
We are the experts on behavior patterns, buying habits and purchase motivators. We provide the tools you need to identify your customers, target them efficiently and win market share.
Our data reveals insight into traffic patterns and lifestyle attributes. We can show you where your customers live, work and shop and we’ve developed drive-time parameters so you can see just how far your customers are willing to go to get the goods and services they prefer. At Buxton, we tap into hundreds of industry-specific datasets to bring you thousands of household data characteristics.
Ditching your one-size-fits-all marketing plan starts with getting to know your customers on a personal level.
Still not convinced? Schedule a demo today to learn how Buxton can support your marketing strategy.