You’ve likely heard the admonition before to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”. The expression indicates the importance of understanding other people’s experiences, challenges, and thought processes before judging them. This often brings about a perspective shift once we understand a little more about another person.

When it comes to marketing, the expression “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” still applies, but perhaps we can tweak it slightly to say “walk a mile in your customers’ shoes”. The goal is still a perspective shift — this time from thinking like a business to thinking like a customer.

When you think like a customer, you can be more intentional with your marketing. By addressing a customer’s wants, needs, challenges, and desires, you’ll ultimately become a more relevant resource in their lives.

Here are some questions to help you “learn” your customers:

What do they like?
Understanding the preferences of your ideal customer will help you better target them in a more relevant manner. Look for commonalities among your top clients or customers. Where do they hang out online? What type of messaging do they engage with? What do they value and enjoy?

What are their problems?
Trying to guess what a customer wants is where many marketers and businesses go wrong. Understanding the problems and challenges your customers are facing will allow you to be much more thoughtful in how you present products and services to them. Solving a need is the best way to be relevant to your customers.

How can you solve their problems?
When you understand the main challenges of your customers, you have better insight into their mindset and motives. When you understand what the problem is, you can better position your products and services to meet that need.

Thinking like a customer is key to giving the customer what they want – a more relevant and valuable experience. No matter what type of marketing your business is pursuing, make sure you consider the customer first!