Customer segmentation allows animal businesses to identify and understand different groups of customers at different phases of their customer journey. By dividing your customer base into segments, you can develop more targeted and effective marketing strategies tailored to each segment. This will help you deliver the right message to the right customers, increase your chances of engagement, conversion, and overall customer satisfaction.
Transcript
Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a
Jaz:gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how
Jaz:to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,
Jaz:and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school.
Jaz:And have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,
Jaz:Kim Beer, and Cara Taylor Swift.
Kimberly Beer:Hey there business animals. It's Kim with
Kimberly Beer:Be More Business
Cara Taylor Swift:and Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hi, Kim.
Cara Taylor Swift:Hi, Kara. Yeah, how are you today? I'm good. I'm good. How
Cara Taylor Swift:are you?
Kimberly Beer:I'm doing great. And I'm coming to you in like
Kimberly Beer:full on cinematic version, because we have new fiber
Kimberly Beer:Internet. I'm so excited.
Cara Taylor Swift:Yeah, this is it's actually I don't even know
Cara Taylor Swift:how to feel about it. Because I can see you for starters. And
Cara Taylor Swift:normally you're like a blur or a black blob on the screen. And I
Cara Taylor Swift:can see you and we don't have the delay. We're always having
Cara Taylor Swift:to deal with like, we can actually have a conversation now
Cara Taylor Swift:and me not sit around and wait for you to hear the conversation
Cara Taylor Swift:and then respond. So this is pretty awesome. We're like up in
Cara Taylor Swift:the tech world.
Kimberly Beer:Yeah. Well, like I've joined 2023, right. Like
Kimberly Beer:I've moved out of the out moved out of the 1990s. Finally, god,
Kimberly Beer:oh my gosh, gotten to reality. And it was so much fun. Because
Kimberly Beer:we got this through our Electric Co Op in Butler, Missouri. It's
Kimberly Beer:Osage Valley electric. And they sent this crew out to run the
Kimberly Beer:line from the pole. This is all been a big adventure for these
Kimberly Beer:poor guys who had to stall the internet because they have to
Kimberly Beer:run it on the light pole. So they had to run it across the
Kimberly Beer:end of our lake. So they had to borrow my boat. One of them got
Kimberly Beer:wet, but they were high end adventurers. By the end of the
Kimberly Beer:day, it was so cute to watch them, figure out how to do it
Kimberly Beer:and send the stuff across. And so yeah, it was entertaining. We
Kimberly Beer:didn't have paddles, but they were really inventive. They use
Kimberly Beer:their shovels to paddle themselves across the lake like
Kimberly Beer:it's impressive.
Cara Taylor Swift:This is impressive to me. Because I
Cara Taylor Swift:would think here in Florida that if the technicians were to come
Cara Taylor Swift:out and there were obstacles in their way, they would just
Cara Taylor Swift:leave. Like, sorry, you're not eligible. There's a pond in the
Cara Taylor Swift:way so that's pretty impressive.
Kimberly Beer:Well in Florida See, they could have gotten
Kimberly Beer:eaten by an alligator in the pond. Here is Missouri level.
Kimberly Beer:Yeah, they only had to battle the beavers. I have a family of
Kimberly Beer:beavers who have moved into the end of our lake. But yeah, I
Kimberly Beer:could see if I were in Florida watching some of those Florida
Kimberly Beer:tic TOCs that I see about them damn alligators that can climb
Kimberly Beer:fences and all kinds of stuff. I would think that if I had to get
Kimberly Beer:in a boat in Florida, I would be a little bit more cautious as
Kimberly Beer:well. But here in Missouri, about the worst thing that's
Kimberly Beer:gonna happen to you as a beaver is going to smack you in the
Kimberly Beer:face with his tail. So yes, but they got it run. It got hooked
Kimberly Beer:up. And it's just amazing. On another note, my DPS in my
Kimberly Beer:gaming world went way up. So I'm like, yeah, how you were doing
Kimberly Beer:that before? I don't really care now.
Kimberly Beer:I watch out. Make Believe monsters. You're all in trouble
Kimberly Beer:now that I have good internet. So?
Kimberly Beer:Yeah. Well, what are we talking about today?
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, you know, that's a great question.
Cara Taylor Swift:We are talking about segmenting your customers. And this is such
Cara Taylor Swift:perfect timing. It just went through this process to some
Cara Taylor Swift:extent on my own because I've been working really hard on
Cara Taylor Swift:getting my clients segmented. When I first started, I just let
Cara Taylor Swift:everyone fall, everyone that came in onto my mailing list
Cara Taylor Swift:just landed in the same client pot, wherever they were coming
Cara Taylor Swift:from, either I was entering them or they were coming in, they
Cara Taylor Swift:were just in one big pot. So I've had to, on the back end,
Cara Taylor Swift:start the segmentation process and then set that up so that
Cara Taylor Swift:everybody knew that comes in and goes through the segmentation on
Cara Taylor Swift:their own. So this is such perfect timing to talk about
Cara Taylor Swift:this.
Kimberly Beer:It is and your state of affairs of how your
Kimberly Beer:customers started out. And then you having to take them through
Kimberly Beer:the segmenting process, I think is really common. I mean, I have
Kimberly Beer:been involved in email marketing and CRM, sales of software. I've
Kimberly Beer:been an affiliate for constant contact and another product
Kimberly Beer:called Keep for over a decade now. So I can tell you that this
Kimberly Beer:is a place where I think a lot of businesses stumble like it's
Kimberly Beer:very difficult, I think to wrap your head around it. And here's
Kimberly Beer:the thing. I had a home organizer come in to my house
Kimberly Beer:yesterday. Very sweet woman, but I have a lot of stuff like we've
Kimberly Beer:just
Kimberly Beer:shoved it in drawers over the years, like it's not organized
Kimberly Beer:in any form or fashion. And to me, it's overwhelming, like it's
Kimberly Beer:crazily overwhelming to think about sorting it all out. And I
Kimberly Beer:feel like a lot of business owners feel that way about this
Kimberly Beer:process, right? They feel like oh my gosh, sorting it out is
Kimberly Beer:going to be so painful, I would rather just live with the mess
Kimberly Beer:than to try to go through the sorting process, because they
Kimberly Beer:don't know how to do it. And so in this episode of The Business
Kimberly Beer:Animal today, what our hope is, is that you walk away with a lot
Kimberly Beer:better understanding of how to actually make this happen, how
Kimberly Beer:to actually make your divisions and your segments in your
Kimberly Beer:customer database, and make it make sense for you and how you
Kimberly Beer:want it organized. And hopefully, I will be able to
Kimberly Beer:channel the women that came her name is Joni, she's with all
Kimberly Beer:things organized. She was so kind because I am definitely not
Kimberly Beer:when it comes to my house, the organized human at all. I'm much
Kimberly Beer:better with my CRM than I am with the stuff in my home. So
Kimberly Beer:hopefully we will be as kind and good hearted as Joni was
Kimberly Beer:yesterday with me with my home in this episode. So do you want
Kimberly Beer:me to dive right in?
Cara Taylor Swift:Yeah, you can dive right in, I just, I just
Cara Taylor Swift:want to add that I understand. Because this is what I did. When
Cara Taylor Swift:I first started my business. I knew I needed an email list, but
Cara Taylor Swift:I didn't exactly know what the heck I was going to do with it.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I didn't fully understand the different types of clients I
Cara Taylor Swift:was going to have coming in and the different phases that they
Cara Taylor Swift:were going to go through in the journey. So what I did is I was
Cara Taylor Swift:like, well, having a mailing list, like having a client list
Cara Taylor Swift:and having this this is better than nothing. And then I can
Cara Taylor Swift:deal with segmenting later. So that has been a painful process
Cara Taylor Swift:that later dealing with it later. So if there's folks out
Cara Taylor Swift:there that are just getting started, maybe we're also
Cara Taylor Swift:hopefully catching some people like at the early stages of
Cara Taylor Swift:that. And that would be helpful. I would that would make me happy
Cara Taylor Swift:too.
Kimberly Beer:And I think that you have some good things in
Kimberly Beer:here about the why. And I think it's important to remember,
Kimberly Beer:there's a reason why you are doing this, that is going to
Kimberly Beer:make your life so much better. And the bottom line to it is, is
Kimberly Beer:you're going to end up with more money. And if that is something
Kimberly Beer:you want in your business, this is what this process does, it
Kimberly Beer:gets you more sales, it gets you more repeat business, it gets
Kimberly Beer:you more loyalty, it converts people. So it's worked on. Yeah,
Kimberly Beer:the concept here is that it feels like you're doing a lot of
Kimberly Beer:work for what appears to be like, busy work or no reason.
Kimberly Beer:But the bottom line to it is it is anything but that. And I
Kimberly Beer:think that this kind of stuff gets by a lot of business
Kimberly Beer:owners, it gets kicked to the curb, because it doesn't feel
Kimberly Beer:like it's that important or that urgent. But let me tell you
Kimberly Beer:something, if you're looking at your bank account, or you're
Kimberly Beer:looking at your balance sheet, and you're saying damn, I wished
Kimberly Beer:I had more money, this is a place where you can start to
Kimberly Beer:make that happen. So hear me loud and clear. There's a reason
Kimberly Beer:why you want to do this. The other thing that happens in
Kimberly Beer:this, I think people don't understand their sales process
Kimberly Beer:completely, or they're still figuring it out. And that
Kimberly Beer:becomes an issue for them in order to figure out what their
Kimberly Beer:sales process is. So our number one and our big three today is
Kimberly Beer:understanding the consumer and the customer journey. And I
Kimberly Beer:think it's really, really important to start here, because
Kimberly Beer:this is where you form your sales process. This is how you
Kimberly Beer:understand how customers move through your business. And just
Kimberly Beer:to give you a heads up as to where we're going, dear
Kimberly Beer:listeners out there is that we're gonna talk about the
Kimberly Beer:timeline piece. And then we're going to talk about how to
Kimberly Beer:effectively communicate and then we're going to talk about how to
Kimberly Beer:use a system for our big three today. Are you ready for me to
Kimberly Beer:dive into my whole spiel about consumer or customer journey?
Kimberly Beer:Yes, you can go ahead and do that.
Cara Taylor Swift:The only thing I will add to what you
Cara Taylor Swift:just said, is that the conversion part is probably the
Cara Taylor Swift:most important. But that other piece about customer
Cara Taylor Swift:satisfaction, like this is a great way when you get this
Cara Taylor Swift:figured out. This is how you're going to nurture and retain as
Cara Taylor Swift:well. So you're going to have those repeat customers. So
Cara Taylor Swift:that's another reason Yes, you need to look at your bottom
Cara Taylor Swift:line. But that is another piece of that that is huge. And that
Cara Taylor Swift:sometimes that gets kind of pushed to the side once they're
Cara Taylor Swift:through your process. So
Cara Taylor Swift:absolutely, yes, jump into the customer journey.
Kimberly Beer:So we've discussed this before on this
Kimberly Beer:podcast. Now if you've heard it before, I recommend that you
Kimberly Beer:listen to it again because it's my experience that every time
Kimberly Beer:you go through the process of learning about your consumer
Kimberly Beer:customer journey, that you are going to get a little bit more
Kimberly Beer:Are clarity and a little bit more information about it. So
Kimberly Beer:we're gonna divide this journey into two steps. There's the
Kimberly Beer:consumer part of it, which is not in your business. And you
Kimberly Beer:don't have as much control over that part, but you need to
Kimberly Beer:really understand it, because you can interact with customers
Kimberly Beer:at any phase during that part. And it's important that you
Kimberly Beer:interact with them appropriately, because, for
Kimberly Beer:example, you wouldn't talk to somebody who is just really
Kimberly Beer:aware that there's analysis solution to their problem, in
Kimberly Beer:the same way that you would talk to somebody who's already
Kimberly Beer:interacted with your business, been in your shop, maybe even
Kimberly Beer:called you on the phone and done some type of discovery or
Kimberly Beer:questioning call. So you need to be really aware of that consumer
Kimberly Beer:part of things and where people are, then once that consumer
Kimberly Beer:makes the connection, then they move into being a customer. And
Kimberly Beer:it's important to understand how they move through the process of
Kimberly Beer:being a customer. And again, this is sometimes where people
Kimberly Beer:drop the ball as well, because they start to understand, oh, I
Kimberly Beer:need new sales to make money. So the consumer part comes really
Kimberly Beer:easily they start to learn about that. And a lot of aha has
Kimberly Beer:happened. And then they're like, Oh, you're now a customer, I got
Kimberly Beer:you, you're in my basket. But customers are wiggly little
Kimberly Beer:rabbits and they'll jump right on out of the basket. So you've
Kimberly Beer:got to you don't keep the lid on it and kind of keep them under
Kimberly Beer:under control. It's it's they're gonna hop away. That's a cute
Kimberly Beer:metaphor for Yeah, so cute, little metaphor.
Kimberly Beer:Okay, so Eugene Swartz back in 1966. We all love Mr. Eugene
Kimberly Beer:Swartz. You can google him. He's an interesting character. But he
Kimberly Beer:came up with the consumer journey. And there's five steps
Kimberly Beer:to this journey, the consumer starts out completely unaware
Kimberly Beer:they have a problem. And we all know people like that. And then
Kimberly Beer:at some point, they become aware they have a problem. But they
Kimberly Beer:don't know that there's a solution for it. And then
Kimberly Beer:eventually, they'll come to solution aware, then they become
Kimberly Beer:aware of your specific solution. And then they become most aware.
Kimberly Beer:And at that point in time, most aware is usually where they make
Kimberly Beer:connection. And they move from being in the consumer journey
Kimberly Beer:into the customer journey, because now they've reached out
Kimberly Beer:to you. And they have made the connection, then at this point,
Kimberly Beer:they move into a consideration phase where they're going to
Kimberly Beer:think about whether or not they want to buy something from you.
Kimberly Beer:And then the conversion phase where they say, Yes, I do, or
Kimberly Beer:no, they don't, and they leave. And then if they say yes, then
Kimberly Beer:they're going to move into the loyalty phase. So every single
Kimberly Beer:phase in this journey, in these nine steps is really, really
Kimberly Beer:important in understanding how you're communicating to people
Kimberly Beer:where they're at. So one of the first things that you want to do
Kimberly Beer:when you're segmenting your customers is you want to figure
Kimberly Beer:out, what conversations do I need to have with people in each
Kimberly Beer:specific zone, right. So truthfully, you're not going to
Kimberly Beer:be talking to unaware people, that doesn't usually happen in
Kimberly Beer:any type of a communication thing. Problem aware, people are
Kimberly Beer:going to be asking their friends, or basically they're
Kimberly Beer:going to be complaining about the problem. And the friend is
Kimberly Beer:gonna say, Hey, I found a solution to that. And they're
Kimberly Beer:going to move into solution aware, solution aware is where
Kimberly Beer:people use Google, these are where the people are going to
Kimberly Beer:come to your website, then when they see your website, they're
Kimberly Beer:going to through Google searches, or through their
Kimberly Beer:friends or referral, they're going to be now become your
Kimberly Beer:solution aware. And this is where you can start really
Kimberly Beer:communicating with them. Because here's where you want to utilize
Kimberly Beer:this journey to point out how you're different. Point out how
Kimberly Beer:you can solve their problem, point out more education about
Kimberly Beer:their problem, whatever the case may be. And then they become
Kimberly Beer:very aware about you, then they reach out, now they've moved to
Kimberly Beer:the customer part. And now you have to shift the conversation,
Kimberly Beer:because now you've created the awareness with them told them a
Kimberly Beer:little bit about how you're different. Now you need to help
Kimberly Beer:sell them. So the consideration phase is really the sales space.
Kimberly Beer:At that point, they're going to say yes or no, if they say yes,
Kimberly Beer:then you go ahead and provide the service part of the deal,
Kimberly Beer:which we're going to talk about in the next of the big three.
Kimberly Beer:And then finally, they move into being that loyal bunny in the
Kimberly Beer:basket, but you're not done. You've got to keep them coming
Kimberly Beer:back. You also need to send out stuff to ask for reviews. I
Kimberly Beer:mean, there's a ton of places here where you can really
Kimberly Beer:interact with the client and provide them better service and
Kimberly Beer:better sales support in order to keep them coming back. And we'll
Kimberly Beer:Like we said, it's very important to your bottom line,
Kimberly Beer:because here's the statistic, a returning customer spends 70%,
Kimberly Beer:more than the first time they were with you. And let me tell
Kimberly Beer:you, my friends, that is important. So actually those
Kimberly Beer:people that are already on your list, they're gold, the ones
Kimberly Beer:that are in your database are gold, and keeping your
Kimberly Beer:relationship up with them is really, really important. Do you
Kimberly Beer:think I covered that? Well, do you have any questions? Cara or
Kimberly Beer:anything you'd like to add?
Cara Taylor Swift:No, I think you did. And we did a full
Cara Taylor Swift:episode on customer journey. Yes. And I will go before the
Cara Taylor Swift:end of this episode, and find that episode number so that we
Cara Taylor Swift:can give it to folks. I'll pull that up real quick, too. So yes,
Cara Taylor Swift:I do think that we covered that. And if people want more detail,
Cara Taylor Swift:we have a full episode that we've pulled on this.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely. And I want to plug my book, while I'm
Kimberly Beer:here, I wrote a great little book called The Little Book of
Kimberly Beer:big sales moves, that talks a lot about this journey, and then
Kimberly Beer:how it corresponds to the sales process in your business. And
Kimberly Beer:it's available for $10. That includes the shipping if you go
Kimberly Beer:to be more business.com. So if you go to be more business.com,
Kimberly Beer:scroll down, you'll see the book right there, order your copy,
Kimberly Beer:it'll come to you if you want an autograph to drop me a little
Kimberly Beer:email, and I'll even sign the book for you. Those come
Kimberly Beer:directly from me, and you can also get it on Amazon. But
Kimberly Beer:you'll pay $4 more in you don't get my personal love. I was
Kimberly Beer:gonna say I didn't get a signed version. I guess I'm gonna have
Kimberly Beer:to haul it with me to Montana next later this month. Yes, you
Kimberly Beer:are to get a signed version. You are actually one of my first
Kimberly Beer:sales.
Cara Taylor Swift:I was your first sale. Yes. Yes, I think
Cara Taylor Swift:you were my first. But you weren't signing them at that
Cara Taylor Swift:point? Probably.
Cara Taylor Swift:Okay, so do we want to go let's see, considering what you want,
Cara Taylor Swift:and how to effectively communicate with customers for
Cara Taylor Swift:better sales and service. So this is the next step. Once you
Cara Taylor Swift:have people through the process, now you need to look at this. So
Cara Taylor Swift:why don't you take this one away, you've got some great
Cara Taylor Swift:points here in our document. Well, this is what I'm actually
Cara Taylor Swift:working on in my business right now. And you can please feel
Cara Taylor Swift:free to jump in and flesh out because this is kind of what I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:working on. So I had this big pile, I'm calling it a pile of
Cara Taylor Swift:clients, past clients, possible clients, people who had shown
Cara Taylor Swift:interest but never gone anywhere, like you can picture
Cara Taylor Swift:you probably have them in your business too. If you're a silly
Cara Taylor Swift:person like me, and didn't really understand how important
Cara Taylor Swift:this was at the beginning of your business, you probably have
Cara Taylor Swift:this big pile or pot of clientele are consumers that are
Cara Taylor Swift:just waiting for something to happen that are on your list. So
Cara Taylor Swift:I have been going through this phase. And I went through the
Cara Taylor Swift:process of segmenting, which was really time consuming. But I did
Cara Taylor Swift:a lot of things to segment. And I feel like I have my people
Cara Taylor Swift:pretty well segmented out at this point, like I've got them
Cara Taylor Swift:in their own little pots now. So now I'm in this phase where I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:kind of mapping out what I want that communication to look like
Cara Taylor Swift:for those people now that I've have it segmented. So the first
Cara Taylor Swift:thing that I have started working on is really identifying
Cara Taylor Swift:all of my customer touch points. So I've gone through and thought
Cara Taylor Swift:about, okay, I know they're coming in through the website,
Cara Taylor Swift:social media, I'm getting emails, I'm getting phone calls,
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm meeting people in person, I have people that make purchases,
Cara Taylor Swift:maybe they go online and purchase gift certificates for
Cara Taylor Swift:other family members. So I'm kind of identifying all of the
Cara Taylor Swift:touch points. And I have done that. And so now I'm at the
Cara Taylor Swift:stage where I'm really working out my customer journey. So I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:spending time determining all of those stages that a customer
Cara Taylor Swift:will go through when they actually booked me and when they
Cara Taylor Swift:interact. Or I'm just kind of going through and mapping each
Cara Taylor Swift:one of those possible, like Choose Your Own Adventure
Cara Taylor Swift:mapping system that you could have there. And then I'm going
Cara Taylor Swift:in and I'm mapping all of those touch points that I talked about
Cara Taylor Swift:originally to the journey. So if they're coming in through my
Cara Taylor Swift:website, they're coming in through social media through
Cara Taylor Swift:email, wherever they're coming in, I'm the mapping them to that
Cara Taylor Swift:journey in the right spots. So that's been a real adventure for
Cara Taylor Swift:me, and I'm still working on that. And I'm excited like kind
Cara Taylor Swift:of for the next stages, which is for me identifying pain points,
Cara Taylor Swift:and then looking for any opportunity that I can to
Cara Taylor Swift:improve experience because I have a lot of stuff that I
Cara Taylor Swift:already do to improve experience through my process. So now I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:just working on really kind of linking it in and automating it
Cara Taylor Swift:in all the right places to take some of that work off of my
Cara Taylor Swift:table. What do you think about that process? Kim? As someone
Cara Taylor Swift:who has done this a lot for other people have done it for
Cara Taylor Swift:yourself and then you're watching me muddle my way
Cara Taylor Swift:through it. I love everything you're doing and I think it's so
Cara Taylor Swift:crucial but what I want to say to our listeners Yeah Is it can
Cara Taylor Swift:feel
Kimberly Beer:feel overwhelming, because you see
Kimberly Beer:the big picture at the end of the tunnel. And where you are
Kimberly Beer:right now makes that bigger picture look really, really,
Kimberly Beer:really far away. So one of the first things I want to say is
Kimberly Beer:you can start this process in a much smaller way it start with a
Kimberly Beer:little bit at a time, you don't have to try it to create the
Kimberly Beer:entire thing at one time. The thing that I loved about Kara's
Kimberly Beer:whether she was talking about this is that it escalated,
Kimberly Beer:right. So she started by getting the pile of customers together,
Kimberly Beer:then she started looking at their journey, then she started
Kimberly Beer:mapping her own points of how she wanted to move them through.
Kimberly Beer:And now she's looking at leveling up into understanding
Kimberly Beer:them better into creating better experience for them and into the
Kimberly Beer:final piece, which is automating as much of it is as there as
Kimberly Beer:possible. Automation and improvement of the customer
Kimberly Beer:experience are two things that I think we all want as business
Kimberly Beer:owners. But I think it's also important to understand that
Kimberly Beer:there's a lot of work goes in ahead of those things. So we've
Kimberly Beer:all been sold on the fact that automation makes our businesses
Kimberly Beer:easier. But when you're in this process, and correct me if I'm
Kimberly Beer:wrong for you, Kara, it's a lot more work than you normally
Kimberly Beer:would have. Yeah, I've had to dedicate like really dedicate
Kimberly Beer:like days to this, like sitting down and thinking through and
Kimberly Beer:watching videos. And it's more difficult than what I expected
Kimberly Beer:it to be like, because I didn't start out the right way. And I
Kimberly Beer:even hoped to move into a phase where I'm measuring the
Kimberly Beer:performance of what I've created, where I'm actually
Kimberly Beer:tracking sales better, and looking at conversion rates for
Kimberly Beer:people going through my process. So I really want to get to that
Kimberly Beer:phase, where I am starting to see oh, wow, like this person
Kimberly Beer:went through this whole process and it converted to a sale, you
Kimberly Beer:know, so I'm hoping to get to that place where I can regularly
Kimberly Beer:just monitor the conversion rates. Well, yeah. And then you
Kimberly Beer:could get into experimentation, like how can you up the
Kimberly Beer:conversion rates? You know, what came up all the time? Yeah, this
Kimberly Beer:is another part of your business. That's not done. I
Kimberly Beer:mean, it just, it's a constant work in progress. Like your
Kimberly Beer:website, I have these people and say, Oh, I just did my website.
Kimberly Beer:It's done. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's not.
Kimberly Beer:This is the same thing. I just went through the process of
Kimberly Beer:segmenting my customers and creating automations. And I'm
Kimberly Beer:done. No, you're not. This is one of those things where if you
Kimberly Beer:start to set that expectation, that it's going to be a
Kimberly Beer:completed checkmark on your list, it's not going to function
Kimberly Beer:for you. It is a routine maintenance program, that you
Kimberly Beer:have to keep going back and looking and looking and looking
Kimberly Beer:for. Before we get off this topic on this particular big
Kimberly Beer:three, though, I want to talk with the businesses who are
Kimberly Beer:sitting there going, I don't even know how to start. So I
Kimberly Beer:think that the first step in all of this is to take a look at
Kimberly Beer:your specific business model. And I'm just going to run
Kimberly Beer:through a few examples. So let's say that your specific business
Kimberly Beer:model is a product, like you're making an equestrian product,
Kimberly Beer:we'll just go with that. So in that case, you have to look at
Kimberly Beer:your product, and how is it used? Right? Is it something
Kimberly Beer:that people buy once? And they have it for a really long time?
Kimberly Beer:Is it something that people buy and then have to use again and
Kimberly Beer:again and again, on a regular basis with their horse like a
Kimberly Beer:supplement? Or the first one would be like a piece of tack?
Kimberly Beer:Or is it something that maybe has an upgrade? or additional
Kimberly Beer:attributes that can be added to it? Or things in it that need to
Kimberly Beer:be replaced? I mean, you have to look at like how does your
Kimberly Beer:customer use what it is that they purchased from you? Or do
Kimberly Beer:you have different versions of it? Do you maybe have a version
Kimberly Beer:that is less expensive, and a version that's more expensive, a
Kimberly Beer:version that does more things than the other version did. So
Kimberly Beer:you have to look at that kind of person moved from version eight,
Kimberly Beer:a version B. So you've got to look at what your business model
Kimberly Beer:is, how does your business model work as a manufacturer, and from
Kimberly Beer:that point, you've got to look is how do people get pocketed in
Kimberly Beer:those things? Because you don't want to send an invitation to
Kimberly Beer:upgrade a product to somebody who already has the most
Kimberly Beer:upgraded version. As a consumer. That to me, feels like you just
Kimberly Beer:don't care, right? Like you're dumping me in the same bucket
Kimberly Beer:with everybody else. And maybe it's from the perspective of I
Kimberly Beer:know that you're dumping me in the bucket with everybody else
Kimberly Beer:and haven't gone through to take a look at who I am
Kimberly Beer:doesn't earn you brownie points with me, let's put it that way,
Kimberly Beer:as a consumer. So understanding that from a product perspective,
Kimberly Beer:let's say your attack store, in that particular case, if your
Kimberly Beer:attack store, you don't want to encourage the people who ride
Kimberly Beer:English, you don't want to send them information or contact them
Kimberly Beer:with Western imagery or a bunch of Western stuff, because
Kimberly Beer:they're not interested in it, it's not their thing. Same thing
Kimberly Beer:goes the other way, you wouldn't want to do English to Western,
Kimberly Beer:or there's a whole gated horse category, or you can even break
Kimberly Beer:it down further. There are some people who want to have like if
Kimberly Beer:in in the western industry, there's ranch people. And then
Kimberly Beer:there's another refinement for people who show western
Kimberly Beer:pleasure. And there's another refinement for performance
Kimberly Beer:horses, and on and on and on. So you have to look at your
Kimberly Beer:specific business, how your business is set up, and how the
Kimberly Beer:consumers and customers in your business, what are their
Kimberly Beer:attributes, what are the things that make them unique, and those
Kimberly Beer:things that make them unique, that will allow you to better
Kimberly Beer:communicate with them, to offer them either better service, or
Kimberly Beer:more opportunities to purchase from you that are specific to
Kimberly Beer:them, the better you know your customer, the better these
Kimberly Beer:things happen. I had many, many years ago, in one of my email
Kimberly Beer:trainings, the person who said this, I think was brilliant.
Kimberly Beer:Every marketing email that you send out should be well enough
Kimberly Beer:segmented in your database, that email feels like it was written
Kimberly Beer:personally to the person receiving it. And it just let
Kimberly Beer:that sink in for a minute. If you are good in this process,
Kimberly Beer:you can create that you can create a world where the
Kimberly Beer:communications that you put out, I feel like they're absolutely
Kimberly Beer:targeted specifically to that individual, because they solve
Kimberly Beer:their specific problem, and not to the myriad of other people in
Kimberly Beer:your business that don't have that specific problem. So it's a
Kimberly Beer:point of figuring that out for your business. One other
Kimberly Beer:scenario I want to say is service businesses. So in a
Kimberly Beer:service business, you may have different, you may have
Kimberly Beer:different levels of people, you have the people who come and go
Kimberly Beer:in your service business, like they come in, let's say you're a
Kimberly Beer:dog groomer, they bring their dog in every once in a while,
Kimberly Beer:actually some of them for dog groomers that are listening to
Kimberly Beer:this, they may be your painful customers who like weight to
Kimberly Beer:their dog, as Superman added before they bring it in and
Kimberly Beer:there, they agitate you. So maybe for those people you want
Kimberly Beer:it you'd like give them a specific segment, don't tell
Kimberly Beer:them they're in that segment. And maybe you send them extra
Kimberly Beer:extra little communications about they need to schedule
Kimberly Beer:their dog's grooming appointment. Or maybe you need
Kimberly Beer:to sort it out by breed. Some breeds of dogs need to be
Kimberly Beer:groomed more often than other breeds, then you have your
Kimberly Beer:regular customers who like are coming in on a really regular
Kimberly Beer:basis. And they're always bringing their dog in at a
Kimberly Beer:specific time. And you might have a whole different reminder
Kimberly Beer:cycle for them than you would for the occasional person, you
Kimberly Beer:may want to have like the person who brings their dog in for the
Kimberly Beer:first time, you may want to have an entire follow up system
Kimberly Beer:created for that individual, about how to care for their dog
Kimberly Beer:after the groom and on and on, to kind of get them to working
Kimberly Beer:into how you do things. And dear dog groomers cuz I know you all
Kimberly Beer:are introverts out there. That's why you became dog groomers
Kimberly Beer:because you prefer dogs over people understand if you do
Kimberly Beer:this, if you put the time and effort into this, you can create
Kimberly Beer:systems where you're not the one who has to communicate, the
Kimberly Beer:system does the communication friend. So you don't have to be
Kimberly Beer:constantly talking to people. Yay, you can spend more time
Kimberly Beer:with the dogs and less with humans. And I know that super
Kimberly Beer:appealing because I know a lot of dog groomers. But it's a
Kimberly Beer:point of getting down for your specific business model. Exactly
Kimberly Beer:who and how you are communicating with people? And
Kimberly Beer:how can you be more targeted and more effective and more
Kimberly Beer:efficient in your communications? And I always
Kimberly Beer:like to think of this part two is how can I divide my customers
Kimberly Beer:up in a way that creates better customers for me that are more
Kimberly Beer:easy, more joyful to work with than they would be if I didn't
Kimberly Beer:communicate to them in this way? I'm off my soapbox.
Cara Taylor Swift:No, I think that's awesome. And you've kind
Cara Taylor Swift:of led us into I think number three, which is develop a
Cara Taylor Swift:system. I mean, you've kind of led us right into that
Kimberly Beer:So for me, that system has started with using my
Kimberly Beer:CRM, and trying to learn that process, because that's where
Kimberly Beer:I'm at right now. Like, I feel like I'm sitting here, I've been
Kimberly Beer:watching video after video, just really learning how to, I've had
Kimberly Beer:this monster of a CRM that for years I've been paying for, and
Kimberly Beer:I only use bits and pieces of it to fit my need. And so now I
Kimberly Beer:really feel like I'm starting to put it to work, and I'm gonna
Kimberly Beer:have like a flowing system. And that's kind of like a, yay, it
Kimberly Beer:only took me how many years to like, finally get to this place.
Kimberly Beer:But we're all a work in progress, every single one of
Kimberly Beer:us. Exactly, you're gonna be celebrating that system, because
Kimberly Beer:once the system is in place, then it gets off of your plate,
Kimberly Beer:and the system starts to handle it. And when you do make that
Kimberly Beer:transition, it's like having an employee, but an employee who
Kimberly Beer:never calls in sick, who does their job without fail exactly
Kimberly Beer:how you told them to do it, which is why you want to go
Kimberly Beer:through this whole process and figuring out how you want it to
Kimberly Beer:be, because you're going to choreograph it and that system
Kimberly Beer:is going to carry it out exactly like you told it to. So the end
Kimberly Beer:all to the system is that you have to figure out how you're
Kimberly Beer:communicating with your customers. If you communicate by
Kimberly Beer:email, which is the easiest probably to automate, then a CRM
Kimberly Beer:or email marketing software is what you need to create that
Kimberly Beer:system in. If you have a combination of live
Kimberly Beer:conversations with people or SMS text messaging, or things like
Kimberly Beer:that added into it, then you probably need to uplevel from
Kimberly Beer:basic email marketing up into a CRM that can handle those
Kimberly Beer:things. Yeah. And then, if you're at the baseline, where
Kimberly Beer:you don't have a ton of customers yet, or you're a
Kimberly Beer:really small business, you can manage a lot of this using a
Kimberly Beer:spreadsheet. To be honest, it gets a little cumbersome. Once
Kimberly Beer:you get over about 100 people on there, it becomes a little
Kimberly Beer:cumbersome to use this spreadsheet, but for those of
Kimberly Beer:you who don't want to invest in some of this other software,
Kimberly Beer:it's a way that you can do it. Okay. Is there anything else
Kimberly Beer:that we want to add to this topic? I don't think so. I think
Kimberly Beer:we've covered it. All right. I am still looking for that
Kimberly Beer:episode. I just pulled up the episodes and I haven't found it
Kimberly Beer:yet. The one that we did where we talked all about customer
Kimberly Beer:journey, because I remember having the whole conversation
Kimberly Beer:about what was his name, ugg resorts? Yes, our revenue is
Kimberly Beer:amazing. Yes. So I will find that and I'll put it in show
Kimberly Beer:notes for everyone. And that way you can refer back to it at a
Kimberly Beer:later date. And the meantime, thank you so much for joining us
Kimberly Beer:today. Just a reminder of this episode. We covered the consumer
Kimberly Beer:the customer journey and then moving into consider how you
Kimberly Beer:want to really communicate with your customers to increase sales
Kimberly Beer:and improve just overall client experience. And then we touched
Kimberly Beer:a little bit on developing a system and how to get you
Kimberly Beer:started with that. So we hope you guys have enjoyed this
Kimberly Beer:episode today. Don't forget if you're a photographer or you
Kimberly Beer:want to learn more about photography or you just enjoy
Kimberly Beer:taking pictures, you can find us with our pal Phyllis Burchette
Kimberly Beer:Phyllis PICHETTE photo over on our other show cowgirls with
Kimberly Beer:cameras, we'd love to have you join us over there. Thanks for
Kimberly Beer:listening to this episode of The Business Animal. Be sure to
Kimberly Beer:subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you learned
Kimberly Beer:something today, leave us a review. To learn more. Find us
Kimberly Beer:at the business animal.com We'd love to hear from you. Until
Kimberly Beer:next time, keep your business well trained with The Business
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