Zen and the art of effective customer acquisition
Understand your customer persona by remaining focussed
No No!! I am no Robert Pirsig! (of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance fame)
I just chanced upon this quote this morning which almost magically gave me an impetus and inspiration to write this second blog post.
On a side note, carrots are hard to resist and I am a morbidly sincere types.
Let’s get to the main idea here:
How does being in a state of Zen help you become a better marketer, help focus on your target audience, drill down to a customer avatar and consequently sell better?
This isn’t as complicated as it sounds nor am I using some new age jargon to get better views on my blog, though I hate to admit it, I love a little attention once in a while :) (blushes **)
I assure you both the concepts of Zen and Digital Marketing fit beautifully like two pieces of a puzzle.
Okay so read along and you may resonate with what I am expounding here:
MISTAKE(s)
noun
an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
a misunderstanding or misconception.
How many of us can call ourselves perfect and claim to have never made mistakes in life? No one right? Unless you suffer from a narcissistic personality disorder.
read Donald Trump.
We are all human enough to make mistakes and must bear the consequences of those mistakes. In hindsight, many such mistakes even seem like great learning experiences that help us avoid similar situations in the future.
Zen teaches us a single-minded effort not to be free from mistakes but rather to practice honestly and sincerely living consciously in the moment.
So celebrate your mistakes for they make you who you are.
Mistakes are future benefits, the value of which is waiting to be realized
For instance, think about Google and its website when it was launched way back in 1997. Look how tacky and artistically challenged it looks:
Series of improvements without getting stuck on their mistakes led them to where they are now. What they did in the past helped them get to better in the future. They incorporated enhanced design ideas and also improved their search capabilities and added many new features with each consecutive release. Today it is the most intuitive tool available. Period.
Google has become synonomys to “finding information on the internet” or “SEARCH”
CONVERSATION(s)
noun
talk between two or more people in which thoughts, feelings, and ideas are expressed, questions are asked and answered, or news and information is exchanged
How important are conversations in real life? I personally feel very frustrated with people who can’t hold genuine conversations in the moment, it irks me to see people get distracted, reach out to their phones to cover up for their lack of interest in the conversation, grow distracted or have superficial small talk.
Zen teaches us to listen mindfully and express our fullest and most authentic self while speaking or communicating.
Do conversations in marketing have to be any different? Nope.
Marketing is all about good conversations!
How many us realize the power of making persuasive conversations to our audience? Do you know where the secret lies? The secret lies in making communication personnel and exclusive. Everyone enjoys exclusivity!
This means even though you are making marketing conversations to your audience, start by conversing like you are conversing with someone 1:1 Everyone on your audience needs to feel like you are speaking to them personally. Everybody loves a bit of attention you see.
Keep the lines of communication clear and friendly. A better marketer is also someone who has a richer and varied life experience whether it is by being a world traveler, an artist or by simply being more in line with your authentic self and by being someone who is willing to be open and vulnerable to what life has to offer.
TARGET AUDIENCE and CUSTOMER AVATAR
The Buddha had a target audience in mind, a handful of earnest souls who were seeking enlightenment. An audience who could resonate with what the Buddha was teaching. Not just anyone and everyone.
What about you?
If everyone is your audience, then no one is your audience!
Follow the Buddha’s example and have a niche customer segmentation in mind. Target your customers using Demographics and Psychographics and come up with an ideal customer avatar
Forbes defines a customer avatar as:
a detailed profile of your ideal customer. It doesn’t make assumptions or categorize people into groups. The avatar focuses on one person and outlines everything about them. It goes into much greater depth than a regular marketing persona, providing marketers with many more targeting tools
How to Market to your Customer Avatar?
Businesses/Brands interested to know their target audience and buyer persona can easily create a custom audience survey and zero in on a customer avatar.
Zen says find your center and find what you need there.
Go from the periphery to the center
In this case a customer avatar
A customer avatar would authentically represent the perfect and ideal customer for your business and for who you can create laser-focused communication to enhance your brand value
Steps to accomplish this:
1. Create a customer survey using demographical and psychological questions pertaining to your business niche
2. Gather the data points and zero in on your most preferred customer avatar based on their preferences and your service/business
3. Create authentic and 1:1 communication themes including:
>Go the American way, address your audience with their first name. This creates a feeling of connection and breaks the ice
>Become a part of their mental conversations and be intuitive about what the prospect may demand and devise future conversations based on this
>Prefer having email conversations over social media conversations; Many times social media tends to invoke “information overload” over “intelligent insights”
>Each thread of communication must be tightly coupled with the previous threads so that look like it all looks like one single unit
A guide to finding your Customer Avatar. An example:
I created a survey for an interior design company InterioScape, offering niche turnkey interior design solutions for homeowners in India. InterioScape is looking for their typical customer avatar
Link to survey I created to drill the avatar down is here
The survey gave me excellent data points on the audience InterioScape needs. Many multiple customer avatars could be created with the data points. However, one strong theme emerged. It is pertinent that the brand sticks with one customer avatar which is distinct and devise their strategy around it.
Finally, who is the customer's avatar?!
Hold on girls, he's not your dream guy!! stop swooning….
Meet Harsh Rai. He is a Senior Consultant with one of the BIG 4 consulting companies in Gurgaon and has earnings in the sweet spot of INR 20,00,000 to 30,00,000 per year. Harsh is married recently and his wife runs a small business. He recently bought his own 2500 square feet house in Gurgaon in an upscale location. Harsh is a mission driven professional who has a say in everything he does. He is a perfectionist and prefers people around him to be the same. He is also an advocate for animal and child rights.
In conclusion, the world of Zen and the world of digital marketing isn't very different.
Buddha may be termed the world ‘s best marketer even though he surpasses all such superficial titles which are inconsequential to the great being that he was.
He knew his target audience well and his customer avatar (read Ananda, his close companion, and disciple ). His communication was authentic, and he preached the truth. His intensity was laser-focused and he knew that he needed to strike meaningful 1:1 conversations with his disciples and help them experience truth themselves.
Finding a customer avatar and enhancing your business is no different, remember the Buddha and Zen when you get stuck!
Until next time from one seeker to another. Namaste!
