Spending the first 23 years of my career in the NHS, I never really encountered the idea of ‘marketing’ until I was old enough to separate the smart thinking from the b*llshit and working for a world-class media company.
Maybe it was a little cruel that we always used to ask our wide-eyed overly enthusiastic marketeers what time it was in the hope that one day, one of them would say ‘It’s a twenty-five percent improvement on twelve’ in that chirpy, overly-positive way that only marketeers (and my husband) see the world.
Looking back, we were actually very lucky to have someone else to worry about that kind of thing for us. When you run your own business it soon becomes apparent that not only are the workers and the management, but you are also the IT, HR, accounts and marketing depts too.
Marketing is an interesting one. Many companies confuse it with sales or advertising and that’s not really true. I’ve always seen marketing as understanding who your customer is, what they really want and how you can deliver it to them. And that idea matters because it should be (must be) the one thing that drives every single thing about your business, all the time
Many businesses find this tricky and try to hide behind the idea that they have some kind of universal appeal. ‘We have customers in their teens and others in the 80s’ is a typically misguided way of saying ‘we haven’t really got a clue but some how we are still in business’.
Defining and knowing your target customer is business 101 and is even more vital if you’re a small business because at this stage every single customer counts. The first step is to look at the broader market. What service do I provide and who are the people who need and use it?
Ok, you run a bakery and the broader customer is someone who needs bread and cakes. But they can also buy bread and cakes from the supermarket. What’s different about your products?
The organic ingredients, freshly baked this morning and an ever-changing selection of flavours, types of loaf and pastries based on a different celebrity baker each month. Oh, and you do one-off birthday cakes, award-winning wedding cakes and a special home-delivery cupcake service in the most exquisite packaging too. None of this is cheap, but all of it is memorable and you regularly have customers queuing round the block on Saturday morning.
So, now we know that your typical customer is someone who understands and appreciates the difference between mass-produced long-life chemical-filled supermarket produce and the considered, flavoursome, delight of fresh-baked bread and the kind of confectionery that Instagram was made for. You are a face-to-face business, so look at your customers as they shop. Talk to them, get to know them, start to understand what kind of lives they lead. In time you’ll have a completely instinctive, but massively comprehensive picture of exactly who your typical customer is.
All of this is possible whether you run a gym, a bicycle shop or an online coaching business. And the thing that makes it possible is looking, listening and keeping the conversation going. The most successful businesses are the ones with the biggest (and smartest) ears.
Brilliant, I hear you say, but I’m just starting my business. How do I know who my customer is? In some ways this is easier because at this stage, it’s up to you. Your expertise will make or break the business and part of that expertise is knowing how the market you are entering works. If you’re starting a Pilates business in North London you’ve probably already attended or taught at many different kinds of classes. You’ll know whether to go mass-market in a rented school hall or more bespoke for fewer-but-wealthier clients at home or in a boutique gym or health-spa. Neither is better than the other, what usually drives the decision is the typical demographic of the area or amount of competition in existing sectors.
The other thing that really matters once your business is up and running is to listen and watch. Were you correct or is the actual market different to what you thought (hoped)?
I encountered this when I ran my sewing shop. My vision for the business was all around dressmaking because that was what I loved and was most skilled at. But the town I operated in had a strong community of quilters. They loved my shop and the selection of fabrics I stocked. We were successful and always busy, but the bulk of the business was from crafting, not dressmaking.
I could have fought it, worked harder on the online side of the business, but in the end I accepted that this was what my customers wanted and adapted the business to suit.
That’s not unusual, your customers will quite often have a very different idea of how they want to use your skills than you have. For example, in my current business, I find myself doing a surprising amount of PR for businesses. I never set out to do this – the intention was to teach others how to do their own PR. But it turns out that while they are learning, many business owners like the comfort blanket of having an expert help them out. And the smart ones get a lot of confidence from watching and learning.
And I find that really refreshing. And I still look at my customer profile regularly and adapt what I do accordingly. Currently I’m about to start work on the next phase of my business. You’ll see some changes evolving over the next few months.
I’d be fascinated to hear your experiences on this, what has been your biggest learning from running your own business?
