Search engines and social media dominate the ways consumers receive information. People get what they want, when they want 
it, and on their terms.
Consumer purchasing habits continuously evolve as advancements in technology and changes in social media influence them.
Prior to the recent boom in the communication and technology industry, consumers relied on manufacturers to distribute product information and businesses maintained a firm grip on the consumer’s buyer’s journey.
Within the past decade, drastic changes in research in purchase behaviors have shifted this position, leaving consumers in control of their own journeys and making traditional marketing obsolete.
To attract the right clients to your data center solutions, it is essential to be found early in the buyer’s journey, but first, you must satisfy several basic needs before beginning the attract phase.
Prerequisites of Attracting Prospects
Before creating content for the attract stage, businesses should first establish their full-funnel metrics and goals.
“Part of your goals is understanding that you can’t get a customer until you get a sales opportunity,” says Joshua Feinberg, VP and Co-Founder of SP Home Run, “You can’t get a sales opportunity until you get some sort of lead, and you can’t get a lead until you someone is aware that you exist.”
Developing goals that address full funnel needs will help businesses attract the right clients in the right context. Research for the following categories should be satisfied to attract the right clients to your data center solutions:
- SMART goals
- Buyer personas
- Metrics for average client lifetime value and average cost of client acquisition
- Product market fit
SMART goals
Smart goals are goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
SMART goals are important to establish because they hold appropriate persons/departments accountable, keep teams organized, and allow organizations to measure the success of a campaign.
SMART goals should address your full-funnel needs and address questions such as:
- How many clients do you want to reach?
- How do you define those clients through buyer personas?
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of a business's’ ideal client. Buyer personas are based on both research and educated speculation and must be verifiable through data and thorough research.
Buyer personas help with drawing relevant clients and scoring leads.
Product Market Fit
“Product market fit is the degree to which your products/services satisfy the demands of a certain type of buyer,” says Feinberg, “When you have product market fit, you know exactly what price points they buy at, what quantities and durations they buy, and it helps to allocate resources to accelerate revenue growth.”
To test if you have product market fit, conduct buyer persona interviews. If you have at least five ideal clients fitting each of your buyer persona profiles, your business likely achieved product market fit.
If your business lacks at least five clients they can interview, you may need to achieve product market fit before trying to raise capital and develop content.
“Product market fit is one of the most important goals to fill to ramp up lead generation and sales acceleration to get you to product market fit as quickly as possible,” says Feinberg.
Importance of Early Discovery
Once the above information is retrieved, businesses can focus on attracting prospects early into their buyer’s journey.
Being discovered early in a prospect’s journey is important for businesses because 70% of the buyer’s journey is completed before companies are even aware prospects are viewing their products/services.
This means the average consumer is 70% into their buyer’s journey before they are ready to engage with a business.
Often, being discovered early in the buyer’s journey gives businesses the advantage of approaching opportunities with one foot in the door; prospects are typically more eager to work with businesses they are familiar with than ones they are not.
Influencers and decision-makers are approaching businesses with their minds almost entirely made up. Sometimes, it may even be too late to change or shape their opinions.
Getting found early enough in the buyer’s journey allows your data center to explain its value without being forced to compete solely on price.
What does your data center do to attract the right clients? Let us know in the Comments below.
To learn more about how to get the right clients for your data center solutions, watch our webinar on “Attracting Data Center Clients Step by Step.”
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