Users are known to respond well to content that meets their needs. But how to find and attract those people for whom your product will be the best? It is necessary to qualitatively research the target audience and create a portrait of the client (Customer Profile).

In one of the previous publications, we talked about how to determine your target audience. Today we’ll talk about what criteria and why you should pay attention when drawing up a client portrait for retail and B2C (Business-to-Consumer, cost to the consumer).

Customer Persona and Customer Profile: distinctions

Customer Persona and Customer Profile — two marketing tools that help you better understand your target audience and interact with it more effectively. But they are not identical, because they have different characteristics and functions.

• Customer Persona

What is a client portrait

A client profile is a detailed image of your ideal client. That is, a real buyer representing a specific audience segment.
Created based on specific data and characteristics of your target audience. These are age, gender, education, level of income and solvency, preferences, interests, lifestyle, problems, needs, motivation of the client, as well as (important!) personality characteristics. Besides, Customer Persona may include descriptions of clients' desires and dreams.

Why is it needed?

Customer Persona, more personalized and specific, aimed at creating an image of a representative of your audience. Allows you to get a clear picture of who exactly your customers are, what strategies you can use to attract them and meet their needs. This information helps create marketing materials, develop a promotion action plan online store and increase sales.

• Customer Profile

What is a client profile

Client profile — a description of the general characteristics and attributes of your target audience. Helps you understand your target group of consumers without going into detail about the specific characteristics or individual characteristics of each client.

Typical characteristics that may be included in a customer profile are age, gender, location, income, education, marital status, spending habits, purchasing frequency, and other demographic and behavioral characteristics. By analyzing these characteristics, you can get an idea of whom the products or services are aimed at.

What is it for?

Essentially, a customer profile is a general description of the target audience (Target Audience Description). It can be used to develop marketing strategies, create content and identify communication channels with the audience.
In general, the main difference between a profile and a customer portrait is the level of detail in the information.

Criteria for drawing up a client portrait

Having analyzed your audience and by drawing up their profile, you can better understand your customers and develop marketing strategies that effectively interact with them.

Since online stores operate primarily in the B2C segment, in order to create a buyer persona, it is important to study a number of characteristics:

1. Demographic
2. Geographical
3. Psychographic
4. Socio-economic
5. Behavioral

Let's take a closer look at these criteria for creating a customer profile and give examples of how they can help solve business problems.

Demographic characteristics

Demographic characteristics (age, gender, place of residence, education and other characteristics) play an important role in creating a complete and realistic portrait of the client, which helps to better understand your audience and interact more effectively with them.

Audience segmentation

For example, a company that sells products for children can use demographic data (the age of the customers' children) to divide the audience into different segments: young children, teenagers, adult children. This allows marketing strategies and product offerings to be better tailored to the needs of each group. To accomplish what you planned faster, you should order a site, the official online representation of your company on the Internet.

Personalization of marketing campaigns

An online store can use data about the age, gender and place of residence of customers to personalize advertising campaigns. For example, advertising for young people may differ from offers for people of retirement age.

Development of new products

You can also use demographic data to better understand the needs of its customers of all ages and incomes and develop new services or offer new products that better meet their needs. For example, the Glyanec company offers customers to create an online store with Viber- and Telegram-bottom.

Localization of stores and services

Data information about where customers live will help divide the market into regional segments and determine where it is better to open a new store or offer specific services. For example, a restaurant might choose a location based on the income and age of residents in a particular area of ​​the city.

Adaptation of pricing

Information about customer income helps a business adapt pricing to the financial capabilities of different audience segments. For example, it makes it possible to generate discounts or special offers for customers with lower incomes.

Geographical characteristics

Geographic data is also an important business tool. Especially when the buyer’s place of residence, is cultural characteristics of the region and local characteristics are crucial for the implementation of strategic decisions.

Identifying markets and potential growth regions

The company can collect and analyze such data to identify new markets where there is high demand for goods or services. Or to identify regions with growth potential. For example, a convenience food retailer might use geographic data to determine where to open a new location based on population density and resident income.

Optimization of marketing campaigns and advertising

It is important for optimization of marketing efforts. For example, a store can set up an online advertising campaign using geolocation. This makes it easier to show ads only to users who are in a certain geographic area.

Analysis of competition and market potential

Geographic data can be used to analyze the competitive landscape and determine market potential in different regions. For example, a chain of coffee shops may research competitors' geographic areas with high demand for their services to determine the most advantageous location to open a new establishment.

Localization of services and product range

Business can use geographic characteristics to tailor its services or product range to the needs of specific regions. For example, a travel agency may offer different travel packages depending on where clients live. If order site with the necessary set of tools, this will help you quickly achieve your business goals.

Optimization of logistics processes and deliveries

These the data is important for optimizing the company’s supplies and logistics processes, because help determine the optimal routes for delivering goods or locating warehouses closer to key points of demand. If you create an online store with automatic order processing and other convenient functions, this will make your work simpler and easier.

Psychographic signs

Psychographic data includes preferences, lifestyle, values, interests and other psychological aspects that influence customer behavior and decisions. Information about them helps businesses better understand their audience and develop more effective marketing strategies.

Personalization of marketing and advertising

For example, a business sells sports equipment. He can use information about his clients’ preferences regarding sports and types of physical activity to create advertising that will definitely interest the target audience. Professional online store development with the necessary functionality will help you achieve this goal faster.

Audience segmentation

Based on psychographic data, a business can divide its audience into different segments based on preferences and interests. This allows you to create personalized offers for each group and increases the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. For example, a restaurant might create different menus or offerings for several groups of customers based on their culinary preferences and lifestyle.

Increasing the likelihood of successful customer interactions

Understanding the psychographic characteristics of the target audience allows businesses to more easily find a common language with them and create a more emotional connection with clients. For example, a clothing company could use data about its customers' lifestyles to create content that best relates to their interests and values.

Socio-economic characteristics

Socio-economic data is information about income, employment, education, profession, living conditions and other aspects. They help to better understand the economic and social environment in which a company operates.

Defining target markets

Businesses can use data on income and other socio-economic characteristics to segment audiences and identify target markets. For example, a company that sells next-generation computer equipment may be working to attract primarily high-income customers.

Pricing and Pricing Strategy

Knowing the economic status of its customers helps businesses make pricing decisions. For example, a cleaning company may offer different price packages for clients with different income levels.

Development of products and services

Socio-economic data helps identify the needs and priorities of different audience segments. For example, a company selling educational services can tailor its offering based on the education level and income of its customers.

Marketing and advertising

Such data help you choose the appropriate tone and style of communication with the audience. For example, an advertising campaign can be targeted to pre-defined socio-economic groups to maximize its effectiveness.

Behavioral characteristics

Behavioral factors (inclinations, consumer habits, average bill, consumer product mix, seasonality of sales, etc.) influence the development of marketing strategies and interaction with customers.

Personalized Marketing Strategies

Information about customer preferences allows you to create personalized marketing campaigns that better engage your audience. For example, a company can use data about purchases and views on a website to create advertising materials with a product of interest to a specific customer.

Inventory management and demand forecasting

Analyzing customer behavioral patterns helps businesses better understand the demand for their products or services. For example, a retail store can use purchase data to optimize inventory and forecast product demand.

Improvement of products and services

Behavioral data helps develop products and services that better meet customer needs. For example, a company, the gloss that offers creation of online stores, analyzes regularly data on the use of their products to improve their functionality and properties.

Customer service and support

Understanding customer habits helps businesses communicate effectively with customers and provide personalized support. For example, a company can use data on preliminary inquiries or customer complaints to quickly and effectively resolve their problems.

Analysis of competition and market potential

Behavioral factors help to better understand the actions of competitors and identify more successful strategies. For example, analyzing purchasing patterns from competitors will help determine trends and levels of customer dissatisfaction. The results can be used to develop your own strategies.

Conclusion

Creating a customer profile is an important element of the marketing strategy of a retail or B2C business. This helps maintain effective communications with audiences, including tailoring the communication approach and communication channels to their needs and preferences.

It should be understood that working on a client’s portrait is an ongoing process. It's important to periodically update your data and analyze changes in your audience's needs and behavior to better achieve your business goals.