Here's five tips to find out who your website and marketing are really talking to.
Director of Discovery Finance Group in Australia, Joshua Vecchio has written over $250m, using techniques and tips being shared on his website Top Broker.
Who is your website and marketing talking to? Top Broker for example is talking to other mortgage brokers, not real estate agents and not consumers – being brokers ourselves we use the language and jargon other brokers use and understand –but what language and jargon are you using on your website and who is it targeting?
Are you talking to first home buyers and using simplistic language, or are you speaking to experienced investors with multiple properties and being more technical? … Or are you a complete hodge-podge trying to be all things to all people?
I’m amazed how many brokers out there have no idea who their target market is and who you are speaking to. We’re in a dynamic environment, its important to understand your target market, and the problems they’re facing – and talk directly to those people. I hear brokers from around Australia groaning, “oh but I don’t want to turn away business” – well remember to refer to this article on why this should make sense.
So back to the question at hand, how do you find out who you are speaking with and who your target market is? Here are our top 5 tips on how to find your target market and ACTUALLY get to know your customers.
1. Remove Assumptions
This is the most important tip of all, given it will assist in refining your target audience. Do not assume anything. When was the last time you asked your customers why they used you? Was it because you were an expert, giving good service or was it because you were both from the same community, had a common interest (hobbies and sport) or just got along really well? This could lead to more referrals too because you could ask them to introduce you to other people with similar interests – which is a conversation with you as a person, not you as the broker.
2. Other Industries
Look to see how other industries, unrelated to mortgage broking, position themselves to your target audience – financial advisers, accountants or even personal trainers. What’s the message they’re sending? How can you position yourself to appeal best to your target customers and why should they use you? Looking at Doctors Wealth (www.doctorswealth.com.au) they are quite clearly speaking with a very targeted community – they aren’t looking to help engineers, every day mum and dads, etc – they just want to speak with Doctors and use language appropriate to this.
3. Competitors
Once you’ve an idea on the target audience, look to see if any of your competitors are already tapping into this market. If they are, understand and learn the way they advertise to these potential customers? Look for ways you can distinguish yourself. For example with Joshua’s business Discovery Finance it is quite clear his website is highly targeted to Commercial & Development clients (www.discoveryfinance.net.au) given the language on there (presales, gearing, costs, etc) and not speaking to a first home buyer crowd.
4. Ideal Customer
Learn from what others have done before you when speaking to your target customer, you don’t need to be a complete trail blazer. Find out as much information as possible, case studies, reports complied by marketers who have done all the heavy lifting for you. Keep the data as relevant and recent as possible. I like using the Strategizer (www.strategyzer.com/canvas) canvas to help brainstorm how you can add value to these customers, who speaks with these people and also helps you think of potential referral partners – so for example if you’re targeting Doctors what industry functions do they go to, are there accountants that specialize in the space and how can you add value to them?
5. Review
As your target audience will continually evolve, you’ll never completely understand you segment thoroughly. Continually review your target market and look to understand your audience a little bit better and better as time goes on – and don’t be afraid to ask them questions as per the first point. Keep asking them why they use you, what makes you difference and how they think you best helped them and continue to refine your offering to better hit these points.
The broking business is a constant evolution and you need to make sure you keep up with it otherwise you are going to be left behind.
This article originally appeared on Top Broker, a growing online space where tips and strategies are shared by Australia's top mortgage brokers.
