See things from your customer’s point of view

    Service Quality Marketing Research & Communications (SQMRC) is a marketing research company in Portland, Oregon, owned by independent researcher Carol M. Booton, Ph.D., specializing in helping content marketers create robust buyer personas.

    You need profiles of your ideal customer groups to craft effective marketing messages to them. “Big data” is great, but can only tell you where people have been, not why. To find the compelling story that will move your customers to action, combine your behavioral data with attitudinal (psychographic) data to create buyer personas. Simple online surveys and personal interviews can help you discover your customer’s likes, dislikes, attitudes, paint points, and intentions so you can really see things from your customer’s point of view.

    Your business tells a story.

    In basic marketing we learn that customers don’t buy features, they buy benefits. What does that mean? That means that when they buy the features of your product or service, they buy the benefits of what those features can do for them. Identifying your buyer personas (customer profiles) can help you know the benefits each group finds most important, so you can focus your content on the things they care about.

    It’s a cluttered world. Consumers can’t possibly pay attention to all the marketing messages they receive in a day. Attention is a precious resource. Paying attention to authentic stories is one way to cut through the clutter. You can’t communicate an authentic story if you don’t know who you are communicating to. That’s where buyer personas can help.

    According to this theory, to grow your business, you must:

    • identify the story you want to tell, and
    • communicate the story authentically to the slice of the market that is already predisposed to believing your story

    To do this effectively requires an understanding of your customer at a deeper level than simple demographics and psychographics.

    My story is helping you find your ideal audiences, so you can tell them your story.

    I can help you:

    • Discover your customer profiles
    • Identify and locate the audience that believes your story
    • Protect you from making costly marketing mistakes
    • Reduce uncertainty and give you confidence in your decisions

    Are you ready to find your audience?

    Ask your customers these questions to find your ideal buyer personas

    Ask your customers these questions to find your ideal buyer personas

    Do you ever write a blog post on a topic you think is fascinating, assuming that if you think it is fascinating, all your customers will think it is fascinating, too? (Color me guilty.) How can you be sure you are writing effective content? By effective, I mean content that resonates with your ideal customers and moves…

    How to develop unique customer profiles to create targeted content

    How to develop unique customer profiles to create targeted content

    Today I went to yet another marketing workshop, in pursuit of some insight into marketing strategy for my startup marketing research business. The workshop was taught by a local marketing coach who (of course) was using the 2-hour workshop as a lead generation source (hence the free admission). In her favor, she gave us some…

    Industries

    Entertainment | Marketing | Manufacturing | Higher education | Consumer products | Art education | Faculty development | Organizational development | Financial trust management | Business coaching | Vocational education | Service quality | Services marketing | Apparel | Fine art

    Brands and organizations I have worked with

    A Place to Create | Artisan Creative | Aquent | ASI Entertainment Research | BP Rice Advertising | Concept Group | The Disney Channel | Eaton | Freightliner | Grey Advertising | Hewlett Packard | Internal External Communications | Marylander Marketing Research | MetaStat | Millward Brown International | Oregon Organizational Development Network | Pioneer Pacific College | Small Business Warrior | Smart Hive | Toyota Motor Corporation | Universal Studios | US Bank | Warner Bros.

    Do-it-yourself Marketing Research

    Small business owners like to do things themselves. If you would like to learn how to do your own marketing research, this option is for you. Clicking the link will take you to SQMRC’s small business research training website, where you can read about ways to DIY.

    You were fabulous to work with, jumped in quickly and had great deliverables. Very happy to have found you!
    Theresa Weber, Director of Account Planning and Business Development, Concept Group, Minneapolis