HOW TO SEGMENT YOUR CUSTOMER
Introduction
This piece of content has been written towards the completion of the 2nd assignment in the 2nd batch of internship with Digital Deepak. It will cover what was taught in the 2nd session of the class, how to create your customer avatar or how to segment your customer and it will also include a survey directed towards your customer avatar.
What was taught in the second session of the internship
· Introduction
Digital Deepak started with informing his students that the assignment completion rate for the 1st assignment was very high. This was because there was a positive pressure to complete the assignments in the form of a carrot. The carrot was the payout that is scheduled if the students complete the assignment. He further informed his students that his team was working on the ratings and feedback for each assignment. Digital Deepak also talked about how the payments for the completed assignments would be done. He also warned his students that as they progress in the course, the assignments will start getting tougher and that they will have to pull up their socks.
· Focus on the class
Digital Deepak told his students that distraction is more harmful to the brain than drugs. Therefore, he asked all his students to attend the webinar to put their phones on airplane mode so that they are not distracted by phone calls.
· The Golden Triangle: Learn>Do>Teach
Here, Digital Deepak discussed that when a student learns something new, he does not understand it totally. He will only understand completely if he implements that learning. In other words, if his students learn and then do, their learning will become concrete in their minds. Further on, if we learn, do and then teach someone, our confidence in our learning and understanding will reach its peak. Therefore, he advised his students that whenever they learned something new, they should teach it to someone.
· Mistakes are future-benefits
Digital Deepak stressed the importance of doing something by the deadline. He said that even if something is not perfect, the doer should submit it if his deadline is near. The doer should not worry about the perfection of the activity being done. Digital Deepak is of the view that it is important to complete and submit an assignment in time rather than to submit a perfect assignment. He further says that perfection will come with time. He cited the example of Google. The company had a very ugly looking website when it started off. However, today, it is a multi-billion dollar company. This has happened because Google stuck to its deadlines without worrying about the quality.
· Marketing is all about good conversations
Digital Deepak started by saying that generally, people have a perception that marketing is all about giving a presentation about a product or service to sell it to customers. It is all about talking to customers to convert them into buyers and take their money. Actually, marketing is much more than that. Marketing is about having good conversations and connecting with your customers. If you are able to have a good conversation with your customer avatar then you will have a good conversation with many others. If you are able to have good conversations then your audience will become your customers. Digital Deepak further gave his own example when he was prospecting for an internship. He said that while he was doing it, he was actually having a friendly conversation with all his prospective students. When they liked what he was saying, they decided to sign in as customers and started paying him. He said this became possible because Digital Deepak was successful in having a good conversation with his customer avatar. He was successful in talking on a 1:1 basis with his target customer. That gave him success in conveying the message to many people. Therefore, Digital Deepak says that in order to succeed to have good conversations with many people and connect with them, it is important to start having a good conversation with one person. Digital Deepak’s antidote to improve our conversation ability is to write whatever we want to say in the form of an email to one friend in an informal tone.
- Be authentic to communicate better
Digital Deepak says that one of the best ways to have good conversations with your customer avatar and attract him is to be authentic. He said that in general people are tired of marketers who have a fake social persona and who sell fake products and services. They are tired of marketers who are pretending to be someone they are not. Everyone is attracted to real people. They are attracted to real people who sell genuine solutions to other people’s problems. Digital Deepak further said that there will be many people who will not like you when you are authentic. But, you have to stick to your guns. Be frank in saying what you believe and convey your ethics and principles to your target customer. Only then will you be able to create a fan following for yourself.
- Who is a better marketer
Digital Deepak told his students that only those people who have more life experiences can become better marketers. Therefore, he exhorts his students to travel far and wide, learn a new language and try to do new things all the time. This will not only make you discover yourself but it will also make you a better marketer. Digital Deepak says that marketing to women online is the real challenge. This is because not many women are comfortable talking to strangers over the internet. However, he feels that there is an equal number of women who are online and who have successfully created their own personal brands. Therefore, Digital Deepak requests all his female students not to fear stalkers on the internet and be bold enough to come online. However, he cautions them against divulging any personal information like their cell phone number, their home address, etc.
- Who is your audience
Digital Deepak says that in our anxiety to become a better marketer, we forget to tailor our conversations to our target audience. He tells his students to find out their target audience and tailor their communication to that audience. If that audience likes what the students have to say then all the people across all strata of society will start liking what his students have to say. Therefore, Digital Deepak emphasizes that it is very important to know your audience before you can decide how to convey your marketing message to him or her. He says that it is necessary to know in-depth that one person to whom our marketing message should be targeted towards.
- How to define your target customer
Here, Digital Deepak talked about the main part of the lecture. He discussed ways to define the target customer. He said that only by understanding the demographics and psychographics of their customer can his students define their target customers. Digital Deepak tells his students to write to one single customer at a time. He further says that although his students have a large audience, each customer is sitting alone with their individual computers. He exhorts his students to connect with the audience at 1:1. He says that because of this fact, email communication is more potent than social media communication. Digital Deepak tells his students to write in such a way that their first sentence sells the second sentence; the second sentence sells the third and so on and so forth. This writing should be in a conversational tone.
- How do I know my target customer so well
Digital Deepak knows his target customer very well because he addresses him by his first name; writes emails to him like he is writing to a friend; joins the conversation going on in his mind; sends emails to his target customer. People feel that they know Digital Deepak already when they meet him because of his brand recognition.
- Focus on the center, not on the border
Digital Deepak exhorts his students to focus on the target customer and tailor their communication to him only. He tells them not to be indirect in delivering the message to their target audience. He further says that his students should talk 1:1 to their target customer and not touch the border.
Live Example: 5 minutes exercise on how to create your customer avatar
Digital Deepak then conducted a live survey during the lecture to show his students how to create their own customer avatar. He made his students fill up the survey form and then collated the results. He singled out the population that had the maximum representation from among the results and thus he created his own customer avatar. He finally posted on the Face book group the parameters that represented the maximum number of his students. He asked his students to comment on the Face book group; those who represented the maximum population. This is how he created his own customer avatar. He will now tailor all his communication to this customer avatar. Digital Deepak then asked his students to come up with a name for their customer avatar and tailor their marketing messages to him.
Customer avatar survey link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/154bb3axtcuiAMgCpUqCiDIJiTOSS_6NT6YD0tVydMUQ/edit
Awkwardness is a measure of learning
Digital Deepak then went on to tell his students that if they find it awkward to accept new things then that is a sign that they are learning new things. He further said that awkwardness brings out the challenges that his students will face when they have to unlearn what they already know and create new beliefs and new ways of thinking.
Thus, we have seen what was covered in the 2nd lecture of the internship by Digital Deepak. We also came to know how to create a customer avatar. Below, I present an analysis of my customer avatar.
Analysis of my customer avatar
A cursory analysis of the data collected shows me that my customer avatar is between the age of 30–40 years, he is employed in a job, takes vacations once a year, travels by public transport on vacations, uses Uber and Other private taxis for vacation and local travel, travels by private taxis in local travel once a month, he does not have a personal car, he plans to buy a personal car, he is ready to take a loan to buy a personal car, he plans to buy a personal car later than one year. So this is my customer avatar. I will have to tailor my marketing messages to this target customer. I will have to design products and services for this customer. If I am successful in communicating 1:1 with this customer avatar, I will be successful in communicating 1: many.
