Reasons Why Your Target Audience Won’t Buy from You
Before we can even begin to understand the reasons why a customer won’t buy from you, you first need to know two things:
-
Who your target customer is;
-
What you are selling
The sweet spot in business lies directly in the middle of those two questions.
This is because it’s not simply enough to know what you’re selling or who you’re selling to - the main aim of your business should be to find the connection between your product or service and your customer, and frame all of your marketing and communication around why that audience group need your business to help them.
You can’t market to everyone!
The best businesses are built on finding gaps in a specific market, and the problems that require solutions.
As a business owner, your job is to show that audience why you are the ideal solution for them.
The very act of marketing is defining and communicating with your target audience, and that means cutting your customer base right down to those who you actually want to attract.
Focusing on specific niche audiences rather than everyone!
This doesn’t mean that you’re minimising your chance of success.
Instead, it means you have an opportunity to understand who your target customer is and then tailor your entire marketing strategy around finding them and reaching out to them.
Trust me when I say, only those interested in your niche will actually convert into customers, so why waste time trying to appease those who won’t?
How well do you know your target customer?
Now you may think you already know these people pretty well, yet there’s very often a gap between the basics you already know, and the behaviours and preferences that are key to both reaching your target market and selling to them.
Creating personas for each of your typical customers can help bridge this divide.
Customer personas are basically fictional, generalised representations of your ideal customers, based on your consumers and knowledge of your existing customers.
A customer persona would consider the following:
- Demographics: Who are they (gender, age, location)?
- What are their interests: What do they do when they’re not working – sport, travel, leisure... Also – media consumption – do they prefer to read blogs rather than watch videos? Or do they prefer to listen to podcasts rather than read lengthy research reports?
- Roles and responsibilities (if selling directly to Business-to-Business organisations): What are their daily duties and responsibility e.g. purchasing, marketing, sales, HR, etc.
- Pain points: What challenges do they experience: What do they encounter on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even annual basis.
- Your solution: What services / products can you offer them: How will it relieve their challenges or pain points? Any added value you could offer to encourage loyalty and longevity in the customer relationship?
This type of target marketing will allow you to focus your time, energy and more importantly budget on specific customers who are more likely to buy from you!
Reasons Why Your Target Audience Won’t Buy from You
Now that you have identified exactly who your target customer is, and how your product or service can be the answer to their problems, the next stage is to encourage them to buy from you.
As a marketing and leadership coach, I listen to many business owners and in house marketing and sales teams about the struggles and challenges they face regularly trying to encourage and convince their target customers to purchase from them.
Below, I’m going to share with you some of the common reasons why your target customer may not buy from you, and what you need to do to change their minds about your business.
And it all starts with those two questions above - Who the target customer is; and what you are selling.
-
You are not speaking directly to them
This comes back to question one - who is your target customer?
Everything from customer service to the build of your website or buyer /client experience should be tailored to your target customer. The language you use, the branding, the way you market and advertise, and the way you use reviews as part of your marketing all taps into knowing the target customer and speaking directly to them.
Not to mention, to create and sell a successful product or service, you need to have some idea of who you are creating it for.
The best products are those which fill a gap in your target customers lives.
-
You aren’t framing your product as something they need
This is about product value, and the importance of understanding how much a product or service will improve the lives of your customers.
Value is often an intangible commodity, but when it is not properly communicated, there is no real need to purchase - and that’s why so many marketing guides and tools focus on benefits rather than features.
Remember – you are selling outcomes – not simply products or services!
Rather than telling your customer what your product or service includes, tell them why purchasing it will be of so much benefit to them, how it will make them feel, and what the end result will be for them.
-
They don’t trust or have any reason to trust your brand
If you follow me on any of my social feeds, then you will know that personal branding is a big part of my own business.
Personal branding strips away the façade of your brand and allows you to build trust and reputation based on you as the business owner.
It allows you to give personality to your brand, inspire trust, give clients and customers insight into some behind the scenes information, and lets you build a reputation based on your knowledge and experience of the industry.
And it’s not all about personal branding.
As a business, you should also be focused on using your marketing channels and platforms to bolster the reputation of the business as a whole. For example, use positive reviews and testimonials consistency across platforms to promote authority and trust; make sure you have a high quality and secure website which engages, educates and entertains your target customer.
-
They found a better price somewhere else
In short, you are not paying enough attention to your competitors and what they are doing.
Competitor analysis is essential to the success of any business!
Believe or not - competitors can actually be good for your business.
They can be an invaluable source of information and inspiration, and ultimately help you plan your marketing and sales strategies. If you take a closer look at which competitors pose a threat to you and how they operate within your market, you can actually use this research to your advantage.
Not only should you be aware of the market, but this also comes back to paying attention to the benefits of your product and the benefits of partnering with or buying from your business.
How to help customers buy from you
To make your brand and product or service more appealing to your target customer, you have to put yourself in their shoes and create campaigns and content which revolve around what they want to know.
I hope you have found this article useful. If you wish to receive more marketing goodness like this, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter – subscribe here
If you're not sure where to start with your marketing and business development plan - Download my free guide here: ‘How to create your Marketing Masterplan Blueprint’
If you need ‘a fresh pair of eyes and ears’ to have a closer look at how you market and grow your business, let’s talk / meet for an informal chat – message me or email: [email protected]
Photo 1 by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
Photo 2 by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash