GM, and welcome back to Marketing Qualified. June is here, the sun has been shining, and we’re feeling good! We hope you are, too! Let’s keep the good times rolling with some marketing tips.

• The problem with customer profiles. And what to try instead.

• “Honest” brand slogans. Give this quick marketing exercise a go.

👥 The problem with customer profiles.

Chances are your marketing team has a defined customer profile. Usually, it covers demographic characteristics like:

• Gender

• Age

• Geographic location

• Job title

• Industry

Profiles are used to define your target audience and hone marketing messages.

But there’s a big issue with these types of profiles.

Here’s an example of profiles for the King of England and Ozzy Osbourne.

See the issue?

Rather than surface-level customer profiles, work on defining your audience based on deeper characteristics. For example:

• Why they buy

• Why they don’t buy

• Where they are in their buyer journey

• What their pain points are

• What do they need help with

• Where they have knowledge gaps

If you take this approach, your marketing messages will become less generic and much more likely to resonate with the specific types of customers you want to sell to.

📰  In the news this week.

🚫  Instagram confirms the test of ‘unskippable’ ads.

🚰  Takeaways from the Google Search docs leak.

🚛  Inside the company placing ads on unbranded delivery trucks.

⬆️  All about bottom-up budgets.

🤐 More brands are opting to stay silent on social and political issues.

✏️ “Honest” brand slogans.

Want a helpful marketing exercise to try out with your team? Give this one a go.

Think deeply about your brand and come up with a possible “honest” brand slogan.

This is what your customers actually think of you. (Even if it’s something you wish wasn’t their main takeaway.)

Here are a few examples:

If the “honest” slogan example you come up with is positive, great! Maybe there’s an opportunity for some humorous marketing content there.

Chipotle is the master here. Take their famous napkin holder, a nod to their customers’ tendency to hoard stacks of the brand’s napkins. Or their “water” cup candle that poked fun at the fact that many customers “accidentally” fill their free water cups with lemonade.

But if your “honest” slogan skews more negative, that’s ok too. It’s important to be self-aware. If you have a customer perception issue, the first step to solving it is to define it.

Use the “honest” slogan as a starting point for conversations and brainstorm solutions your marketing team can implement to improve your brand’s reputation.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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