The Knowledge Catalyst Institute for Business Success

Getting new customers is essential to the growth and profitability of any business. You can create customer personas that accurately reflect your ideal client by having a thorough understanding of the needs, pain points, and interests of your target audience. After gathering this data, you can utilize it to establish marketing strategies that are specifically aimed at your ideal client, enhance customer support, and provide goods and services that will appeal to them.

This is the final episode of our three-part series on Branding. In episode 6, we discussed the impact of the Customer Experience on building trust and increasing sales. Then in episode 7, we explored the importance of the Customer Journey. I encourage you to listen to those episodes as they are a critical part of how to solve the customer acquisition puzzle.

A fictitious representation of your ideal customer is called a customer persona. Although it is based on your experience, study, and data analysis, it is not based on a real person. A customer persona may be generated by using actual consumer information, such as age, gender, education, income, occupation, hobbies, pain points, and habits.

Customer Persona Benefits
Improved Understanding of Your Target AudienceIncreased PersonalizationBetter Customer SegmentationImproved Decision-Making and Resource AllocationShow Notes

Visit the Show Notes for this episode on our website for more information, templates, and resources (https://theknowledgecatalyst.com)

As a small business owner, do you struggle with the financial side of the business? Managing your financials can be a challenge for a number of reasons. For example, are you using an accounting system, do customers pay you slowly, or does your record keeping need improvement. Cash flow and financial management is the lifeblood of any business. If some of these issues sound familiar, stay tuned, your business transformation begins now.

Managing your cash flow and finances is crucial for the success of your business. Without proper financial management, even a profitable business can run into difficulties. Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business and It's essential that you're able to meet your financial obligations, pay your bills, and invest in the growth of your business.

One of the first things to understand about cash flow is the difference between profit and cash flow. Profit is the money left over after all your expenses have been paid, while cash flow is the actual cash coming in and going out of your business. Even if your business is profitable, it doesn't mean you have positive cashflow.

When it comes to financial management, one of the most important things to do is to keep accurate financial records. This means keeping track of your income and expenses by using an accounting system. This will help you to identify any financial problems early on and to take corrective action before they get out of control. Here are few tools you can use to manage your finances and cash flow:

1 . Accounting Software. Accounting software can help you to track income and expenses, create invoices, estimates, and generate financial reports.

2. Budgeting software. Budgeting software can help you to create and manage a budget. Budgets not only can be used to track your income and expenses, they can also provide insights into where your money is going and uncover opportunities to reduce costs.

3. Financial Dashboards. Financial dashboards can help small business owners to visualize their financial data rather than reading reports full of numbers.


the key takeaways in this episode are: Use an Accounting system to improve your recordkeeping. Create a budget to gain insights into where your money is going and look for opportunities to reduce costs. Use metrics such as financial ratios to manage your business. And finally, maintain a good relationship with your bank to get access to credit when needed. Cashflow and financial management are essential to your long-term success.

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As a small business owner, you might be wondering: What is Branding, and why is it so important? A strong brand identity is one of the most crucial components of any organization, whether large or small, retail or B2B. In increasingly competitive marketplaces, having a solid brand strategy gives you a significant competitive advantage over your direct competitors. But, technically, what branding your business mean? What impact does this have on a small firm like yours?

Building a strong brand identity as part of an overall marketing strategy takes time and effort. Your ideal customer or target audience will recognize your company more quickly if you have a branding strategy. A strong brand attracts more attention, and target customers tend to remember it. Without branding, you may miss opportunities to sell your products or services.

In this course, we discuss successful brands, what makes a good logo, how to create a mission statement, how to protect your brand, and the characteristics of a solid brand. This course contains ten video lectures, a 200-page book on branding, a branding checklist, and more.

If you are a small business, entrepreneur, or someone interested in learning about branding, sign up today. You can enroll in the course here. (thelearningctr.com)

What You Will Learn

- How to create a brand and what makes a brand successful

- How to build trust in the marketplace

- What makes a good logo

- Where to place a logo on your marketing materials to increase exposure

- How to manage your brand reputation

List of Resources

- Course: Introduction to Branding | Enroll Here (https://thelearningctr.com/courses/introduction-to-branding/)

- Other resources available in the course.
Episode Sponsored By | The Institute for Business Success (https://thelearningctr.com)

Related Episodes

- Customer Journey Maps: The Best Path From Awareness Thru Purchase To Increase Sales | https://theknowledgecatalyst.com/tkc/customer-journey-maps-the-path-sales/

- Customer Experience: Tips On How To Delight Your Customers To Improve Branding | https://theknowledgecatalyst.com/tkc/customer-experience-delight-customers/

Key Terms

Customer Base – Database or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system containing customer or prospect contact information.

Marketing Strategy – is a method that allows a company to focus its limited resources on the most promising chances for increased sales and a long-term competitive advantage.

Target Market – is a group of prospects within a company's serviceable available market to whom marketing efforts and resources are directed.

Target Audience - It is a specific group of consumers within a predetermined target market that have been identified as the recipients or targets of a specific advertisement or message.

Ideal Customer - It's a description of the type of consumer who will get the most out of your product and will give you the most value in return.

Buyer Persona - A buyer persona is a thorough depiction of a hypothetical individual who represents your target market. This character is made up, but it is based on extensive study on your current or target audience.

Customer Experience - Is the total of a customer's interactions with an organization during their relationship with that firm or brand. Listen to our podcast on this subject here. (See the link to this podcast in the Related Episodes...

A common challenge for most small businesses is how to attract new customers. Our guest today is Jason Wardrop, who is going to give us some ideas on how to market your business on a small budget.

If this show provided any value or knowledge insights, please consider buying us a cup of coffee. It would be appreciated and will help us to keep producing content to help you grow your business.

Topics Discussed

•How do you advertise your products to attract customers within limited budget

•How can you market your business on a limited budget

•What are examples of good marketing campaigns on a small budget

Key Terms

Customer Base – Database or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system containing customer or prospect contact information.

Marketing Strategy – is a method that allows a company to focus its limited resources on the most promising chances for increased sales and a long-term competitive advantage.

Target Market – is a group of prospects within a company's serviceable available market to whom marketing efforts and resources are directed.

Social Media Marketing – is the promotion of a product or service via the use of social media platforms and websites.

Email Marketing – is the act of sending an email with a commercial message to a group of people. Every email sent to a potential or current consumer might be considered email marketing in the broadest sense. It entails sending advertisements, soliciting business, or soliciting purchases or donations by email. Typically, email marketing tactics aim to accomplish one or more of three primary goals: loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.

Statistics

•Never be afraid to mash-up and re-promote previous content; chances are, a substantial portion of your audience has never seen it before, thus it will be fresh, 100 percent new content for them.

•Word of mouth is the most important element in 74 percent of consumers' purchasing decisions.

•When friends or family recommend a product or service, 77% of consumers are more likely to buy it.

•Referred consumers have a 37 percent greater customer retention rate, according to referral marketing statistics.

•Email is preferred by 73 percent of millennials when communicating with businesses.

Takeaways

•Begin by marketing to existing customers
•Use word-of-mouth advertising
•Create custom audiences on Facebook (Meta) to target the right potential customers
•Monitor your KPI’s and adjust your campaign accordingly

Resources

•Free Marketing Budget Template | https://bit.ly/3ukiI9L
•Free Course: Target Marketing: Techniques To Find New Customers | Email us for access

Knowledge Insights

Want to uncover more knowledge insights and expand your learning? Here are a few research articles/case studies that connect theory with practice in the marketplace. Note: These articles are highly technical (i.e., the research method, data collection, and data analysis sections). To receive the most benefit, focus on the introduction and the conclusions/findings.

•Marketing Budget: Towards An Effective Marketing Plan | https://bit.ly/3wuAc6b
•Low-Budget High-Impact Marketing Plan | https://bit.ly/3qu5NRo
•Cutting-Edge Technologies For Small Business and Innovation In The Era of COVID-19 Global Pandemic | https://bit.ly/3Dc4bBa

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•Facebook | https://facebook.com/schconyc
•Twitter: a href="https://twitter.com/SCH360"...

Have you considered being your own customer? What I mean is look at your business from the perspective of a customer. For example, if you sell your products online and notice your cart abandonment rate is high. Or perhaps, you have a retail store with substantial foot traffic, but the end of day sales are lower than expected. Another scenario could be that you have a high engagement rate on your marketing campaigns, but your conversion rates are low. If you are experiencing situations like these, then it may be time to map the journey of your customer from the initial contact through closing of the sale.

Free eBook

Customer Experience for Dummies | https://bit.ly/3xZR9lU

Contact, Join, and Follow Us

•Please send your questions or comment to host@theknowledgecatalyst.com
•Twitter | https://twitter.com/SCH360
•Facebook | https://facebook.com/schconyc
•YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn79aQH09frGwNqeac3PV7w
•Website | https://theknowledgecatalyst.com

Academic Research

Want to uncover more knowledge insights and expand your learning? Here are a few research articles/case studies that connect theory with practice in the marketplace. Note: These articles are highly technical (i.e., the research method, data collection, and data analysis sections). To receive the most benefit, focus on the introduction and the conclusions/findings.

- Managing the Total Customer Experience | https://bit.ly/3yWc6iO
- Understanding Customer Experience | https://bit.ly/3AR1XED
- The Impact of Customer Satisfaction, Customer Experience, and Customer Loyalty on Brand Power | https://bit.ly/37OrbqR

Have you ever seen customer surveys on a website asking this simple question? On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" This is essentially a customer feedback question to determine how loyal a customer is to their brand. Research by a financial services company found that 86% of their loyal customers are willing to pay more for a positive experience. Alternatively, another study found that 91% of unhappy customers leave a brand without complaining creating customer churn and low customer retention rates. This data suggests the customer experience (also known as CX) creates your brand and defines customer expectations. This month we kick off a three-part series on branding. In this episode, we uncover the benefits of creating superior customer experiences, managing customer expectations,  and the effect of a bad experience when interacting with your business.

Key Terms

Customer Loyalty - The degree to which a consumer will continue using a product or service after experiencing it. Customer loyalty is decreased from a Bad Customer Experience whereas positive customer experiences increase loyalty.

Brand Equity - A measure of the value consumers place on a particular brand. It represents the sum total of all positive experiences they have had with a brand over time.

Customer Segments - Any marketing strategy should be centered on one of four client segmentation channels. Demographic, Psychographic Geographic, and Behavioral segmentation are examples of the four categories of segmentation. These are some popular ways for businesses to segment their market based on gender, age, lifestyle, and other factors.

Customer Touch Point - From start to finish, customer touchpoints are the places of interaction for your brand. A touchpoint is any time a potential buyer or current customer interacts with your brand–before, during, or after they make a purchase from you. This is the main area where consumer interactions can result in a bad experience or can create loyal customers.

Customer Experience Metrics - The Client Experience Metrics play a key role in the development of KPIs that the company uses to track customer feedback. These measurements can assist you figure out how satisfied or loyal your consumers are. Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Effort Score are three of the most prominent customer experience measures. The metrics play a critical role in the customer experience management process.

Customer Perception - What is the significance of customer perception? Perception has an impact on more than just each individual sale; it shapes the long-term relationships that buyers have with your company, for better or worse. As a result, every interaction your organization has with clients must have a favorable impact on their perception.

Customer Experience Strategy - A customer experience strategy describes how your organization intends to provide the best possible customer experience in your specific situation. The sum total of a client's view of your company is called customer experience. 

Buyer Personas - A buyer persona is a thorough depiction of a hypothetical individual who represents your target market. This is a hypothetical individual who exemplifies the attributes of your best potential clients, not an actual consumer. This consumer persona will be given a name, demographic information, interests, and behavioral characteristics.

Episode Takeaways

Customer Experience Strategy - The Benefits Of Optimizing Your Customers' Experiences

1. Improves Brand Perception

When people think about brands, what comes to mind first? Is it price, quality, style, convenience, etc.? If so, then you're probably thinking like most businesses do today: "How can I make my products/services cheaper, faster, easier, etc." But if you...