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Who are our customers? - A question every business revisits once in a while to generate ideas and strategies.
Answering this question can be pretty straightforward for businesses with the same buyers and users. Those who are purchasing their products or services are the ones using them.
But what about businesses that don’t have the same buyers and users? Who should they be marketing to? Should their messaging be directing the buyers or the users?
This is a common problem faced by many startups. As an example, consider a business that offers products or services for kids. In this case, while the offering has to be relevant for kids, the decision to purchase lies with the parents.
The marketing pitch needs to be directed towards the parents, who typically look at cost, convenience, and the impact on their child. But the offering itself needs to excite kids, so that they feel the urge to use it, ask their parents to buy and refer it to their friends. Both the buyer’s and user’s personas need to be considered while making strategies.
For the user’s persona, the priority would be to make the product and branding look appealing to kids, with eye-catching illustrations or buzzwords!
However, the buyer’s persona would require businesses to deliver the lessons and values a child is likely to get from their product or service in their messaging. This helps buyers i.e. the parents get convinced to make the purchase.
Client Case Study - A communication coach for kids
Not in all cases, the interests of a buyer and user would align.
Consider the example of a teacher or a coach that works with kids. Now, not many children (users) would be willing to use the services offered by the seller in this case. The users and buyers can be disconnected in such conditions.
The key is to align your marketing strategy to cater to both of them.
A kid’s communication skills client of mine understood this early on. As they were majorly involved in coaching kids, most of their sales call would involve parents and kids together.
They would conduct their class on Zoom where only kids would be participating.
As they went on, they realized that kids need their space to participate in the class fully, but the parents need to be involved too. So, they found a way to ensure that parents are well aware of the daily activities and the progress their kids are making in the class.
They would send a class summary to the parents’ group on WhatsApp with pictures, videos, and every important happening during the class. They would also share their observations on how the student group is doing.
As the parents get to see their child making progress, they would be more excited and supportive throughout the curriculum. As a result, they would make sure that their kids are following things discussed in the class and do their assignments before the deadline.
Result?
More engaged children and parents, leading to a successful batch!
Additionally, this would help parents understand the quality of the class and witness the progress of their child, which is the whole point of the courses my clients offer.
Moreover, their content strategy revolves around empathizing with parents about the various issues kids commonly face these days when it comes to education. They also promote their courses by means of demo classes, which helps in nurturing the parents as well as the kids.
Needless to say, it has enabled their past customers to become true evangelists of the brand.
To sum it up
When the buyers and users are not the same, you MUST find a way to tailor your strategy so that it speaks to both and makes them both excited and convinced about the offering.
The key is to maintain a balance between both parties and keep them aligned!
What strategy would you use in this situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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