One of the most common rules of content generation is to address any situation using the 5W’s and the H, aka the reporter’s technique, to create a clear and informative article. Indeed, these questions are the 6 most important questions that a reporter needs to address in the first paragraph of a news article: 

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why 
• How

However, what many marketers ignore is that you can apply the same strategy to define your marketing strategy. Ultimately, the strategy is a plan of activities that are designed to answer the “how” question. The activities explain how you are going to achieve your marketing objectives. As for the 5 remaining questions, the W’s, you need to ask them to gather the information you need to build your strategy. 

Who are my customers?

The first and most important step every marketing strategy needs to take is to identify who your buyers are. Indeed, targeting the wrong audience is a common mistake for new businesses. To succeed, you need to be clear about who is receiving your marketing message; otherwise, you are at risk of creating expensive campaigns for the wrong target group(s).

Typically, new companies rely on market research and existing competitors to define their customers. It’s also a good idea to run market surveys if you’re launching a brand new product. 

Where are my customers?

When it comes to determining your customers’ location, there is no better approach than traditional market research.

Thankfully, you can find plenty of industry sector reports that are available online or at your local business network center to help you understand where buyers live and work.

For marketers, geographic information enables them to create tailored location based messaging and advertising campaigns. In other words, you reach out to the most relevant audience within your effective radius. For local businesses, it’s the most effective use of your marketing budget! 

When and what do they buy?

Unless you’re offering only one kind of product, you will need to rely on Analytics data to find out more about your buyers’ behaviors. Do they shop in the morning or the evening? Do they bather rather product A or product B?

Google Analytics provides a range of valuable data that lets you identify and segment each shopping behavior.

You can use the information to tailor your offer to evening shoppers, for instance, or to implement a compelling discount on your least-performing product. More importantly, you can gather timelines per hour, day, week, month and season, which allows you to prepare a long-term strategy. 

Why do they choose my brand?

Very few businesses can say with certainty why their customers buy from them. Indeed, you can’t collect analytics or demographic data that will address the question.

The only way of knowing why people choose your brand is to ask them. While it is a challenging experience – your shoppers’ triggers may not be what you expect –, it is an essential step to creating a successful strategy. 

From knowing who your customers are to understand the why behind their purchase, a marketer needs to make sure to ask the essential 5 W’s before developing the marketing strategy.

It is typically assumed that most answers can be found through market research and data analysis. However, you should also make time to meet your customers and listen to what they have to say.

© New To HR