The first time I shared this was on the Cake PLC facebook group and I think I better put it here as well.

This is the basics of any kind of marketing. The first thing you have to figure out is Who is your customer? Or better still, who would you like to be your customer?

You have to know your customer. The better you know them the more effective will be your marketing and messages – on social media, flyers, emails and so on – you will know:

• where to find them,
• what to say to them,
• what is important to them,
• how to get their attention and
• how to bond with them.

This is a marketing tip. – a continuation of my brief fb live from this morning. Busi! I am coming right there to you in your kitchen!  If Busi was your customer this is how I want you to know her. 

Yes, I know she is an award winning cake decorator with a thriving business, a cake supplies shop, she teaches hundreds of students and she is an amazing cake artist and cake business advisor… 

But guess what? if she were your customer U need to know her beyond the surface. Look at this picture. This is what life looks like on most days. This is real. So if Busi Christian-Iwuagwu was your customer or your potential customer, this is the side of her U want to get to know and be in touch with. 

Even if I have never been inside her kitchen in real life, this is the person I want to get to know and speak to. Do you understand what I am saying? 

So lets look at this picture. It can tell you a few things about her. She still has some old school African values. She is also a mum. She is a wife. She runs a home. She looks after her young kids. She has to juggle. She stays organised. She has a day job. On the other hand she has mad cake skills, she is teaching herself business and websites and photography and she runs a facebook page and a group. 

So when I am having conversations with her I am going to talk to her as a person who is interested in her and understands her life and her world. 

All my conversations and marketing communications are not saying “buy my cakes and look at my cakes. buy my cakes and look at my cakes. buy my cakes and look at my cakes. – like  a broken record.”

This is a golden tip I am giving you. 

If Busi was an example of the kind of customer I want to work with, then my branding and marketing and social media and emails and story telling would talk to that hard-working woman in the kitchen with a baby on her back that will soon be in her car delivering 500 cupcakes to a swanky venue.  

If your customer was a bride, you would know that she is not only dealing with buying a cake from you. She is dealing with planning and budgeting and inlaws and bridesmaids. She wants to have a wonderful day and there are many things on her mind…

What are they?

how can you speak to that?

How can you help?

How can you show that you understand?

How can you show that you care?

What will make her laugh?

What will make her smile?

What will she find interesting?

That is what you should put on your social media. 

You have to KNOW YOUR PERSON. That is the first step in marketing. When you know your customer, you will know where to find them, what to say to them and how to attract them and how to keep them. After that then you can go into the practical things of facebook or instagram or email or flyers or magazine adverts or whatever.

Marketing starts with knowing YOUR PERSON.