What Kind of Ice Cream Does Your Customer Like? And Why You Should Care...

The way we consume content on the internet has been experiencing a fundamental shift over the last several years. Users are in more control than ever--they create custom radio stations on Spotify, pay a premium on Hulu to avoid commercials of any kind, and banish undesirable posts from their social media feeds with the swipe of a finger.

To put it simply, users do not want to be bothered, they want to be ENGAGED.

In today's internet, individually curated content is the norm, not the exception. So what does this mean for advertising? It means that the old in-your-face ways of selling have gone by the wayside. In today's internet, it's all about the pull, not the push. You must pull your audience in by being more transparent, more entertaining, and more informative than ever before.

So what does this mean for the way your business interacts with your audience online? How can you engage with your customers in a more meaningful way?

1. Develop a Buyer Persona: A customer avatar, target customer profile, customer bio, whatever you want to call it, take the time to get to know your ideal customer deeply. You should strive to understand your target customer on an individual level. What does their average day look like? What type of job do they have? Do they have kids? What kinds of publications do they read, movies do they watch? What do they do in their free time? You should create individual profiles for different customers that your business serves or would like to serve on a regular basis.

These exercises may feel contrived, but the point is not to get a bunch of made up details on a piece of paper to gather dust--these are thought exercises designed to connect you with the day to day life of your customer.

For example:

John is a speaker and consultant, he wants to connect more with his audience online. John helps startups create healthier team dynamics and improve comunication. John finds that he works mostly with brand new startups, or startups that have recently experienced significant growth.

So, armed with this information, what should John do? The old ways tell John to focus on demographics. He may say something like "my target market is startups that have been in operation anywhere from 1-5 years, have a staff of 50 or less, and are primarily in the non-profit sector." This is a good start, but it is still not enough. This information may tell John where to look for his customers, it may inform him about some of the industry-specific language they may use, and help him understand their business model.

But this information tells John nothing about what resonates with his audience as individuals. In order for John to truly engage in a way that is authentic to his audience, he needs to dive deep, to understand what their motivations, goals, problems, and desires are.

Hubspot has put together what I'd consider the definitive resource on developing quality buyer personas, you can get started here.

Once you understand your customer as an individual person, you can begin to build a relationship with them online. Which leads me to my next point...

2. Create Content That Adds Value to Your Customer: utilize your buyer personas to create content that meets a need for your target customer. Sure, John could create a thinly veiled "Why You Should Hire Me to Rescue Your Startup" blog post, slap it up on his website and call it a day. But people would smell his sales pitch from a mile away, and frankly, people today just aren't buying it--and really John, you're better than that aren't you?

What your audience is looking for are answers, so I tell you this boldly, give your customer all of your knowledge for FREE. John knows from his buyer personas that his customers struggle with managing team dynamics once their startups grow beyond their core team. What John could do then is create a series of blog posts with tips and exercises used to bring cohesiveness to a new team. As branding genius Nicholas Cole puts it:

"You want to monetize your work? Give away 99% of it for free"

This seems counterintuitive and insane, but let me tell you IT WORKS, and it's the one thing that is going to separate the winners and the losers in this newest age of the internet. People buy from people they like, PERIOD. Let's put it this way, would you rather bring in a consultant who told you over and over again how qualified he was, or who PROVED it by already helping you improve your team through the brilliant content he was putting out on the web?

3. Engage, Engage, Engage: building a relationship with your audience is a commitment. Much like any other relationship it involves a steady back and forth, when a customer takes the time to ask a question, make a comment, or otherwise show you and your business any attention, make sure you RESPOND. This step is vital to building a loyal following online and will give you valuable information about your customers that will help you to further sharpen your buyer personas, thus creating more valuable content for your audience.

Get a negative response online? The worst thing you could do is ignore it. Ignoring bad reviews breaks trust with your users and shows a lack of transparency on behalf of your business. Take negative comments seriously, respond to them promptly and thoughtfully, and truly attempt to remedy the problem for your customer.

So there you have it. To build a loyal following on the internet you must listen, act, and respond. Although it sounds simple, many businesses are still getting it wrong. Commit to being different.