Examining Your Current Buyers

Finding Customer Patterns & Similarities

When you're trying to figure out your ideal customer profile, the best place to start is by examining who you are already doing business with and looking for the patterns of what makes them similar so you can replicate them in your ads and content.

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The Benefits Of A Good CRM

When we first started this journey, of launching a SaaS platform, one of the first steps was setting up a customer relationship management platform such as HubSpot or SalesForce.

The foremost reason for this step is for this exact type of research. You need a central system to manage all your contact data and marketing and sales engagements allow you to understand where a contact is in the buyer's journey.

Segementing Out Your Customers

Most CRM systems will have built-in reporting and dashboard capabilities, but if you want, you can also segment and manage this data in a business intelligence platform like ChartMogul or Mode to run data and present it in a dashboard visual.

What's most important here is segmenting out those contacts who match an account that is currently buying your platform.

Once you have this list of contacts, you want to pull all the data you have on these contacts from titles, locations, account revenues, employee counts, investment series or other funding, and any other aspect of the contacts and account profile that might be beneficial to understanding who these buyers are.

Once you have the list of contacts, you could also enrich the data if you haven't already with platforms like ClearBit or ZoomInfo.

Finding Customer Patterns

Now that you have this full list of contacts and accounts, it's all about filtering and segmenting to find all the different variables that make these contacts similar and different so that as you move forward, you have a clear picture of whom to target your ads and write content for such as:

Firmographic Data

• Company size (number of employees, revenue)
• Industry or sector
• Geographic location
• Company age or maturity

Demographic Data

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Education level
• Occupation

Behavioral Data

• Purchase history
• Website visits and interactions
• Email engagements
• Social media activity
• Content consumption patterns

Psychographic Data

• Interests
• Values
• Lifestyle
• Personality traits

Pain Points & Challenges

• Specific business problems they're trying to solve
• Goals and objectives

Stage In The Customer Journey

• Problem Awareness
• Product Interest
• Product Consideration
• Product Evaluation
• Product Purchase
• Customer Support
• Customer Advocacy

Engagement Level

• Frequency of interactions
• Recency of interactions
• Type of interactions (e.g., downloads, demo requests)

Technology Stack & Product Usage

• Current solutions in use
• Integration requirements

Budget & Decision-Making Authority

• Available budget for solutions
• Role in the decision-making process

Communication Preferences

• Preferred channels (email, phone, social media)
• Content format preferences (video, text, infographics)

When choosing data points for segmentation, consider your specific business goals, industry, and target audience. It's important to select data points that are relevant, actionable, and provide clear distinctions between segments.

Additionally, ensure that the data you collect is accurate, up-to-date, and compliant with privacy regulations.

By combining these data points, you can create multidimensional segments that offer a more nuanced understanding of your prospects, enabling you to tailor your marketing and sales strategies more effectively.

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Customer Purchasing Behaviors

Once you find what makes your buyers similar, the next step is understanding the behaviors your customers did as they engaged with your brand before becoming a customer, which will allow you to take future prospects through the same journey.

Read The Next Chapter →