Think about your fave TV show. Now think about your fave TV character on that show. You follow their trials and tribulations with bated breath. You care about what happens to them. You might even hope they’re real so you can marry them.

Am I right?

Now here’s a creative exercise for you, keeping your favourite character in your mind, tell me this: What would they do if they got a call for help from from a past lover who had cheated on them?

I bet you’d know exactly what they’d do, right? Because that’s what it means to be a fan.

Well, guess what? That’s how well you need to know your own niche.

Why? Because it’s only when you know them and their back story, it’s only when you get a feel for them as people that you can build amazing products and services to help them.

Many businesses throw together some basic stats and chase the ol’ AB demographic. But unless you’re selling fast moving consumer goods like batteries or bread and unless you’ve got oodles of cash to buy prime broadcast time, then this is far too general. It won’t serve you. You have to go deeper. You have to understand who your niche really is.

Your niche audience isn’t just a demographic,
they’re a people… err, person

If you want to become a customer magnet you should build a picture of the person you want to service. You should build a persona, or a character profile; and no where do they do this better than in Hollywood.

All good writers and directors can describe their characters vividly, well before they’ve even cast an actor. They’ve got the whole persona thing down pat. Unfortunately, most marketers don’t.

For example if you asked me to tell you about my favourite TV character, I wouldn’t say “He’s a single, white male with low income and no fixed address.”  That doesn’t tell you anything real. That’s not a story.

So let’s try that once more, this time with feeling.

“My favourite TV character is called ‘Dean’, he’s a wise-cracking guy with a strong sense of family who feels compelled to travel the countryside helping make the world a safer place just like his deceased dad did…. plus he’s a serious hottie who can kick some serious supernatural butt.”

Now that’s a story.

That’s a fully fleshed character that you could imagine all kinds of scenarios for (some of them are even G rated).

Why does this matter to you?

If you could understand your niche target market at least this well, then think of the power you would have.

You would have a crystal clear view of the people you want to find and then sell to. You’d know where to look. You’d know how to pitch your advertising. You’d know what buttons to press to close the sale.

Knowing your customers like you know your fave TV character gives you an (almost) unfair advantage

It lets you create amazing services and products that will walk out the door as soon as you make them.

All you need to do is know your niche target market… just like I know Dean.

By the way, from this point on in the article I won’t call your customers your target market. I’ve started to dislike the term as it indicates a crowd of faceless people. They all have faces, unique faces. Each with their own dreams, their own highs and lows, their own unique needs… just like Dean. Just like you.

The problem is when you group people together you’re reducing them down. It makes it easier for you to conceptualise, but you also make it impossible to connect with them. And you need to.

How to connect with your customers on a deeper level

First you need to talk to them. Shocking, right?

Call as many customers as you can and check in. Take a pulse on where they are at, what they need, and how you’re doing. This is going to give you a picture of who they are. Do enough of these calls so you have a reasonable sample size.

Now, if you’re an introvert this might feel like tough work, especially if your business is built around a lack of contact (eCommerce website for example). If this is you, I can relate. As someone who spends most their life behind a computer screen I get it. Contact can lead to scary things like… contact. But it’s important because of the next step you’ll need to do.

Write your own fan fiction

Fan fiction about… your customers? I know what you’re thinking, ‘What you talking ’bout Willis?’

So here’s what I’m talkin’ bout.

How to use it as part of your business strategy

You’re going to do this in pretty much the same way the writer of your favourite show probably did when they were developing your favourite TV character. It’s time to create a character study of your customer. Ready?

It’s easier than you think

You’re going to look at their demographic (age, gender, income, etc) AND their psychographic profile (what motivates them, etc.). This isn’t all pie in the sky imagination work either, because thanks to all those customer phone calls you should already have an idea of what they’re likely to think, want and do.

Here’s how

You need to imagine a picture of your customer (actually you may have a couple of distinct types of personas and that’s OK too).

1/  Take a piece of paper and write down the basics first:

• gender,
• age,
• location,
• socio-economic status, etc.

These are your demographics, and although it doesn’t tell you who they are as a person, it does help you when you’re deciding where they might be hanging out so you can disrupt them with your message.

2/  Speaking of your message, that is what you’ll need the psychographic profile for. Write down:

• their motivations,
• their needs,
• how they see the world
• how they fit in it to their world
• … and whatever else you think is important.

Sometimes it’s as basic as knowing what type of car they’d drive and what kind of coffee they’d prefer to drink… or maybe they wouldn’t go to cafes at all. That’s your job to work out (based on your research).

Remember these are people, not statistics

This exercise needs to be tied in with what you already know about your existing customers. Don’t go loopy and make it all up or it won’t work.

Writers will often get incredibly detailed, their character profiles can go for pages. Luckily you don’t have to go that far. Just a few good paragraphs will suffice. Just make sure you’ve painted a vivid picture.

Be specific and flesh them out

And if it helps, imagine you were telling your nosy best friend about someone interesting you’ve just met.

Once you’ve built that word picture you’ve got a solid target to aim at. You can even sketch a pic of them as a visual reminder, or, you could cut out a picture of someone from a magazine who you think embodies your profile. Anything that helps you see them as a real person.

Once you’ve got this persona, it’s your strategy map. This will help you stay on target when you’re developing new services, when you’re writing email campaigns and when you’re creating sales strategies.

It’s also a great strategy for rebuilding a connection with your existing customers

Reconnecting with your customers and who they are is especially useful if you’ve been feeling a little burnt out recently. Doing this persona exercise is a great reminder that they are not a nameless and annoying group of walking cash dispensers. Well, OK they might be annoying sometimes, but these are real people with real lives and real feelings, just like you.

If you know your customer just like you know your favourite TV persona then everything gets easier.

It’ll be easier to find the right people who love what you do, it’ll be easier to make your existing customers happier and, hopefully, it’ll be easier to turn a healthy and happy profit.

So give it a try and let me know how you go in the comments below!