To be successful in your business, you must have a well-planned marketing and business plan. Within your business plan, the marketing strategy carries an important value to the business. It is essential for business owners to decide who their customers are before their marketing process and campaigns launch.

Having a clear understanding of the customers and their profiles or personas is crucial to help businesses strive in their industry and stay ahead of the competition. Take the time to think about whom you are targeting, and doing some customer research can help you save time and increase sales down the road.

Customer profiles can be created by analyzing customers’ demographics, locations, buying patterns, as well as what influences their purchase decisions. By knowing what the customer wants, it is easier to align the business goals to meet their needs, and increases the likelihood of your success.

To create the “perfect customer profile,” here are some things to consider:

1. Who are your customers?

Look into the customer’s demographics to see what similarities are present.

• Name
• Gender
• Occupation
• Religion
• Race
• Income
• Age

Some of the psychographic questions to ask are:

• “What do the customers want and why?”
• “What are their values?”

Whereas demographics show factual information about customers, psychographics display the way customers feel towards products and services.

2. Where are your customers?

Research the places that your customers enjoy spending their time to have a better idea on how to target them.

• Where do customers physically spend their time?
• Which places are customers visiting online? (Websites, social platforms, and search engines are they using)

3. Why do customers buy your product?

Gather information on the value your product or business has to the customer and why they need to purchase it.

• What is their purpose when purchasing?
• Does anything influence their purchase decisions? (Family, Cost, Accessibility)
• How do customers find your product? (Word of mouth, internet search, storefront, print ad)

To find this information, you can conduct surveys, or phone interviews, gather observations, host focus groups, and collect feedback reports.  You can also gather some general demographics by going to the census based on the states and cities, or from a variety of syndicated providers such as the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Simmons Market Research Bureau, or Yankelovich,etc.

Once all of this information is gathered, the final client profile can be created. This is a written summary of certain segments, and how this customer can benefit the business. With a particular person or group of people in mind, marketing the business will not be as difficult because you are now only focused on reaching the customers you want.