Marketing your business to smart customers

Photo by Bells Design

Despite what some marketers would like you to think, marketing your business to some customers is not simple. In fact, there are many smart customers who are weary of bad marketing.

They are over reading the same trite questions on your social media. They don’t give a crap about quantity over quality when it comes to purchases. They could care less about your carefully manicured testimonials.

These hard to sell to customers have seen it all. And they enjoy looking and laughing at bad advertising. They want more from their marketing experience with you then the formula you downloaded online.

So if you’ve got some cynical, smart customer, you need to raise it up to the next level.

Here’s how to improve marketing your business by marketing to smart customers

Make use of content marketing

Smart customers research their bums off. They don’t look at an ad and hit the buy button without checking the product out. So you have to weave a little magic. Help them when they investigate your product, get a sense of who you are.

Market your business through transparency. Give smart customers blogs, social media, raw social media and something to chew on. Make their desire to research you and kick your tyres entirely possible.

Feed them what they need to make an informed consumer decision.

Ban the template approach

Smart customers have heard all the marketing patter. They know your colour-by-numbers sales pages attract the usual pigeons. In fact, it may be something that puts them right off.

Know the rules of what will engage a smart customer, sure. But take the time to break them.

Marketing is a lot like film making or writing a great story. We all know the damaged goods character or the star crossed lover story lines, but it’s what you do with those tropes that matter.

So instead of following the template, bust it up, play with it and make fun of it instead. It’ll make you stand out in the crowd. Marketing your business is about growing friendship, not being the town bully.

Stop being conservative

We receive hundreds if not thousands of marketing and media impressions a day. The businesses that play it safe and colour within the lines haven’t got a hope in hell of being remembered.

96% of what we’re exposed to on the internet and via other media streams is forgotten. So if you’re as beige and boring, forget about capturing your customer’s imagination.

The choice to blend in and not rock the boat means you have to rely on exposure. That means ensuring you are everywhere to make a decent imprint.

It’s far easier (and cheaper) to develop a memorable voice. Build an attractive marketing personality rather than clobber consumers over the head.

Ditch the over-share

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Roosevelt knew exactly what she was talking about when she dished up this sweet as quote.

We all get overwhelmed and can have a bad time. And we all have other businesses that jerk us around. Or make us jealous or drive us a bit nutty. But sharing it like a teen drama queen on your social media is a bit much.

There’s a massive difference between being transparent and milking sympathy. Or constructively assessing a difficult situation and acting like a brat. Smart customers are smart enough to realise places with a focus on drama have too much time on their hands. Or that the business behind the idea could be a liability.

Besides, who wants to work with a witch who flails wildly, looking for the next person to hit? That isn’t marketing your business. It is being childish and weird.

Keep the scraps to the private playgrounds, not your social media.

Recognise smart customers have empathy

Today’s thinking consumers cares about causes, compassion and the use of empathy.

They vote with their funds for social justice causes. They think critically about media and how you portray your target audience. And they’ll care enough to dig up your track record on the environment and how you treat your staff before becoming a paid customer.

So to attract smart consumers you need to clean up your supply chains and pay people a living wage. Stay ethical and have a stance on big issues. And don’t be afraid to wear the causes that matter to you on your businesses’ financial and marketing sleeve.

Take a risk for the right reasons

Smart usually goes hand in hand with curious. It also wanders down the hallway and asks innovation and interesting to the weekly basketball tournament. So the advice here is ditch the safe and the same, same. Look for some way you can take a risk.

Risk taking should never be confused with being ill-prepared, under researched or under rehearsed. Calculate what you need to know to make your risk successful.

But do it.

Launch that new product. Try reaching out in a way no one else has tried. Allow necessity to drive your inventions forward. Solve a problem with your solution, don’t just do it because tip sheet downloads are trendy.

There will always be someone who thinks the marketing you do will be a bad idea. But the smart customers will understand more of the story than the average person. And they’ll respect you for trying to skin the cat in a different way.

If you fail, they’ll still reward the bravery as long as you’ve kept them in mind.

Be brave enough to declare “I’m here for the smart guy”

How to’s and 101’s are great in content marketing. But if you don’t want to work with the person whose first question to you is “Does Google charge me money when I look up my favourite Andrew Bolt quotes?” don’t dumb your business down.

No, I am not advocating for jargon or making yourself sound like a NASA physicist when writing your About Page. But I am saying that smart customers want respect. They want to know that you will help them, but that you won’t make them feel like they are an idiot if they need it. And they don’t want you to break out the Fisher Price blow-by-blow business for dumbo guides either.

Marketing your business to smart customers is about employing smart marketing moves.

Your smartest customer is the one who knows your product solves their problem. They are the one who will tell their buddies about you when their buddies have a problem. And they are the ones who want a long term relationship with your company.

Be open and honest and share with your customers. Treat them as equals as opposed to business shaped cash-happy piñatas. Entertain and excite them. Take a risk rather than being the business that gets forgotten in the 96%. Do stuff that challenges you and do it for the right damn reasons.

Marketing your business doesn’t have to be boring or about dumbing yourself down. Are you my next smart customer? Get in touch now. 

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