Now is the time to create the best experience possible for your clients. Officially, the term is User Experience (UX).
User experience
It encompasses everything:
- Client details
- The buying journey they (not you) expect to have when they patronize your company
Here’s the truth
While we create our businesses to take us to a different place in life, how we want to run our business may be drastically different than what our clients expect from us.
For instance, I know what I bring to the table and I have a body of work and results to prove it. Thus, to me, I shouldn’t have to say anymore. However, that’s not reality when I’m asking my clients to part with thousands of dollars nor does it encompass UX.
With COVID-19 not going away anytime soon, you need to think about what the UX is going to be for your clients now. Tailor your branding and marketing to that experience. To do so you need to do a few things.
Create a user profile
When I say a user profile, I mean dossier — like “in sixth grade Bobby Mulhaney took Jessica’s milk money and since then she’s had trouble parting with money. As a result, when she spends, she keeps products for as long as she can.”
Details are king.
The more you know about your client the better you can create the UX they want. Think for a moment about the psychographics behind that Bobby Mulhaney story. How does knowing something like that help?
Well, if Jessica keeps coming in kicking tires, you’re gonna get frustrated, but if you know why you can address it and convert her into a paying client. Thus, creating a User Profile entails documenting demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, interests, hobbies and so forth.
Take it a step further and give your user profile a real name and appropriate stock photo. When I do branding projects and my clients want to go a different route that isn’t convenient for the User, I always ask them, “is that what Jessica (User profile name) would want?” It’s all about them and not us which is why your UX needs the next step.
Map Out Their Journey
Now that you know your User, map out each stage of the journey they take.
- Problem arises, they search for solution
- Find your business as a potential solution
- Buy from you
- Do business with you
- Referrals — share you with others
- Buy from you again
The Funnel
Many call this process, the buying funnel or another similar term, but it is a funnel always. You need to know each stage of their journey and the touchpoints they’ll encounter with your brand at those stages. The more touchpoints they encounter, the quicker they move from potential client to buying client.
Knowing Is Half the Battle
Like GI Joe PSAs — knowing is half the battle of getting regular business in your company. Create a detailed User Profile, map their journey, and tailor your marketing to addressing their needs. You’ll become the main business they use over and over. Until next time I wish you much success transforming your business into an amazing brand.
