Leaving Corporate America and launching my business was eye-opening. To say the least! I saw my clients, colleagues, even myself, all working long hours. But not producing the results we desired. If this sounds like you, keep reading.

I saw that we had items in common, spinning on all cylinders and feeling exhausted. Coming up with new marketing strategies when one didn’t work. Long hours spent developing products that launched to dismal sales.

The culprit was one thing- there was no defined business strategy. Not understanding our perfect customer, our market positioning or what was trending in our market left us in a constant “spin cycle”. 

When your business has a strong defined strategy you become focused. You have direction. You spend fewer hours “trying” new ways of attracting customers. Instead, you start spending your time developing and launching products your market and customers need.

I took a year and interview top executives at Fortune 100 companies. I wanted to understand what made these brands profitable and evergreen every year.  What I learned was that there are four strategies that they implement to stay relevant and profitable. Gaining a clear grasp of these four brand strategies will help you get focused, work less and make more.

In this 3 part series I am laying out the four strategies that every business needs.

A Brief Recap:

The first pillar is all about market trends.  Knowing what is happening in your market currently. Transitioning your business to meet technology, trends, and your consumer’s needs. This allows you to stay above the curve. To read more click here.

The second pillar is all about your positioning in the market. The riches are in the niches! I break it all down here.

Let’s jump into the last two pillars.

The third pillar of a strong brand is all about your perfect customer.

If I ask you who your perfect customer is could you tell me? If I landed on your website or social media would I know you are talking directly to me?

Is there a perfect customer out there? The answer is yes. However, your perfect customer vs. my perfect customer… are two different people. But your perfect customer existence! And you need to start attracting them to your business. 

What is a perfect customer? A customer that you know their challenges or pain points and are able to provide the solution.

What do you need to know about your perfect customer?

The first part is understanding your customers’ basic demographics. These are items such as, age, range, financials, gender, occupation.

This basic information is helpful, but just a start.

If I told you that my perfect customer was:

How many people do you know that fall into that category? But are NOT my perfect customer? A LOT!! 

It’s important to be able to dig deep deeper than the basic demographics. Let’s keep going.

Let’s run down a list of items you need to know about your perfect customer and why.

Interest. What are their outside hobbies? Do they follow anyone on social media? What conferences do they attend? What social media channels do they prefer to “hang out” on?

Dialing in on their interest- helps you connect. This takes the guesswork out of what to post on Social Media. What to talk about for blogs or videos. Connecting is the first step in trust. People that trust you, buy from you.

Large companies know their consumer’s interest. They have to.  It impacts their marketing budget and bottom line. Let’s take Fandango for instance. They understand that a large percentage of their consumers attend baseball games. In turn, they sponsor movie trivia at baseball games to advertise brand awareness.  They have a limited marketing budget and have to spend wisely.

Behaviors. What behavior patterns do your consumers fall into?

Are they loyal brand buyers or discount shoppers?

I tend to buy quickly if I find a product I need. Whereas the sales process may take longer for others.

Do your sales funnels reflect your consumer’s behavior patterns? Is it optimized consumers who need more encouragement to purchase? Does it feed into their emotional state of purchasing?

Challenges/Pain points. What are your consumer’s current pain points? Are they finding the solution they need? What will happen if they don’t find the solution?

Are you asking your consumers these questions? This tells you what products or services to launch. This takes the guesswork out.

I promise you that Apple Computer isn’t sitting around a boardroom table.  Wondering what features their consumers’ desires for the next iPhone launch. They are going out and asking and so should you.

Motivation. What motivates your consumer to purchase? This is a deep question that most people will not come out and answer for you. They tend to hide this.

What will emotionally connect for your perfect customer for them to purchase? What will it take for them to pull out their credit card?

Tuning into your perfect customer is awesome.

Once you clearly understand their interest, pain points, what motivates them to purchase.  You will save hours laying out the right marketing plan. No more launching products to crickets. 

Let me explain:

• You start to connect with them. Build trust. People buy from people they trust!
• Quit spinning your wheels on what to say to them through marketing. You know what will motivate them to purchase. You know where to market and spend your time posting content.

Clarifying your perfect customer is a strategy that will boost your sales. Let’s move on.

Let’s get to the last pillar, your products or services. I like to reference this as “your goods.”

The number one mistake I see entrepreneurs do when selling their products online. Listing all the key features of your products or services. 

The first thing you need to understand is that when it comes to selling products or services you have two areas. Your product and your offer. They are two different things.

Your product has key features. But no one buys on key features. Your consumers buy-in on the “end result.” They buy in on how you will make their life better.

Let me give you an example:

You’re at a car dealership and the salesperson is going on and on about the engine size. Explaining the torque, horsepower and other things (I tuned out). You get into the car and you press the gas, your head goes to the back of the seat, you feel the power, you hear the engine rev. The car flies… going 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.

What sells this car is the 0-60. The key feature, the big engine, is proof of the value/long-term impact.

Let’s talk about how you can start pulling the value out of your products or services. Write down all of the key features of your product and by each list, the end results your user will gain. It will guide you on how to start writing the descriptions and marketing your products.

Let’s talk about pricing. It is one of the biggest areas I hear people talking about in Facebook Groups. 

I see entrepreneurs discounting their products. Stop. You shouldn’t have to discount your products. 

Taking into account your perfect customers’ financial state and evaluating your market position- allows you to competitively price your products or services. By clearly showing the user the end result (how amazing your products will impact their life)… you never have to discount your products.

If you are discounting you are not attracting your perfect customer. It is time to regroup and get clear around your business strategy.

Let’s regroup and talk about my original statement, why a strong business strategy helps you spend less time in your office and make more.

Let’s regroup and talk about my original statement, why a strong business strategy helps you spend less time in your office and make more.

You’re not focused or have a clear direction within your brand.

Looking at the first three pillars of strategy gives you direction when it comes to launching products or services.  

• By understanding your consumer’s current needs- you launch products that the market needs!
• You never question your pricing structure. Never discount your products. All because you know your consumer’s demographics, you show the value of your products and you understand your market positioning. 
• Your social media content has a clear direction. You understand your customer’s interest and are able to speak directly to them.

Your marketing strategy is similar to throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks.

This is huge and saves you so much valuable time. All by understanding:

• You know where your consumer hangs out online.
• Their interest dictates how to connect with them.  
• Understanding their buying behaviors guides you on how to set up sales funnels and email sequences to nurture them into a sale. 
• You know what to say in marketing and advertising. 

Marketing made easy. No more “what’s the next marketing tactic.” 

You spend countless hours creating content for different social media channels.

• You know where to connect with your customers. 
• Understand their interest and what their challenges are- to speak directly to them.

You are going to be what I call “uber focused”.  Hello, vacation! 

You have launched products or services and your sales are dismal.

After you go through each step. You may come to find that you need to tweak your product or services. To meet both the market and your consumer’s expectations. But that is OK!

What is awesome though, 

• Your marketing will change, now you are able to emotionally connect.
• Sales funnels use to induce stress- now they are automated and making money for you!

You don’t have a consumer profile posted near your working space.

I have a consumer profile hanging by my computer at all times. I have one for each new product I launch. This is who I work for and it has all the information I need. I stay focused on only meeting her/his needs as I develop, market and launch the product.

This is the number 1 thing that you should have by your computer everyday! It helps you stay on track knowing that you are developing a product or marketing a product that will make their life better. 

Once you have a clear business strategy. All those wasted hours become free time. You start attracting your target customer and start making the profit you deserve.

If you are ready to take your brand to the next step, today is the day. Branding DeCoded is open.

It is a step-by-step method to walk you through having an unforgettable, powerhouse of a brand. It shows you how to get the information you need to expand and grow. I even lay out the exact questions you need to be asking. 

Branding DeCoded are strategies with proven results. This isn’t just something that worked for me and hopefully will work for you!

It doesn’t matter how many courses you have taken or how many masterminds you join. Having a clearly defined strategy will take your brand to the next level.