Engaging with Potential Customer Types
Most small business owners I speak to in Derbyshire are already working hard to attract new customers. They are posting on social media, running ads, updating their website. The problem is not effort. The problem is that they are saying the same thing to everyone, and wondering why it is not landing.
Different people buy differently. A customer who has never heard of you needs something completely different from someone who has been watching your content for six months. A business owner making a considered decision behaves nothing like someone who needs a solution urgently today. Treating them all the same is one of the most common and costly mistakes I see in the SMBs I work with.
I have spent 18 years helping businesses across the East Midlands build marketing that actually converts. A big part of that work is getting clients to stop broadcasting and start communicating. This post covers how to identify the different types of potential customers in your audience, what each of them needs to hear, and how to structure your marketing to engage each group properly.
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Take the free scorecardWhy understanding customer types changes your results
There is a concept in marketing called the customer journey. Most people have heard of it. Far fewer actually use it to shape what they say and where they say it. Research from Salesforce found that 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. Yet the majority of SMB marketing I audit treats every prospect the same way.
When you understand that your audience contains people at completely different stages of awareness, you stop trying to close people who are not ready to buy. You stop wasting budget on audiences that need nurturing first. And you start building content and campaigns that move people forward, rather than repeating the same message and hoping something sticks.
This approach sits at the heart of how I structure brand marketing for clients. It is not about having a different logo for different people. It is about making sure the right message reaches the right person at the right moment in their decision-making process.
The five customer types you are likely to have in your audience
These are not rigid academic categories. They are practical groupings I have used with clients across 13 industries to get clearer on what each part of their audience actually needs. Your customers will shift between these groups as they move through their decision.
1. The unaware prospect
This person does not know your business exists. They may not even know they have the problem you solve. They are not searching for you, and a hard sell will mean nothing to them. Your job at this stage is to create content that makes them aware of the problem and starts associating your name with the solution.
For a Derbyshire-based manufacturing business I worked with, this meant producing short educational videos about production inefficiencies. They were not pitching their service. They were raising awareness of a problem their target customers had not fully articulated yet. That content eventually generated three qualified enquiries from businesses that had never heard of them before.
2. The problem-aware prospect
This person knows they have a challenge. They are starting to look for answers but have not settled on a solution or a supplier. They are in research mode. Your job is to be genuinely helpful here, to give them clarity, comparisons, frameworks, and honest information. If you try to sell too hard at this stage, you lose them.
This is where SEO and blog content do the most work. Long-form, specific posts that answer the questions your prospects are actually typing into Google will position you as the authority before they ever contact anyone.
3. The solution-aware prospect
This person knows what kind of solution they need and is comparing options. They are looking at you alongside your competitors. They need proof, specifics, and reasons to trust you over someone else. Case studies, testimonials, detailed service pages, and clear pricing signals all do heavy lifting here.
Your website has to work hard for this group. If a solution-aware prospect lands on a vague homepage that talks about being passionate and experienced without giving them anything concrete, they will move on within seconds.
4. The ready-to-buy prospect
This person has made their decision. They just need to find the right business to work with and take action. Your job here is to make it as easy as possible. Clear calls to action, fast response times, no friction in the enquiry process. A lot of businesses lose sales at this point simply because their lead generation process is confusing or slow.
I regularly see businesses rank well, get good traffic, and then lose the sale because there is no clear next step on the page. A phone number buried in the footer is not a call to action.
5. The existing customer with repeat potential
This is the group most SMBs completely under-invest in. Someone who has already bought from you, trusts you, and has seen your work. They are the cheapest source of new revenue you have. Yet most businesses spend almost all of their marketing budget chasing strangers while ignoring the people who already like them.
A proper CRM system, regular contact, and a structured approach to upselling and referrals can transform this group from occasional buyers into consistent revenue.
"The biggest shift I see in my clients when they start understanding customer types properly is that they stop trying to win everyone immediately. They start building relationships instead. That is when the results change."
Stuart Baddiley, Optimise Your MarketingFrom scattered posts to a structured engagement strategy
A professional services firm in the East Midlands was posting consistently on social media but getting almost no enquiries. After mapping their content to the five customer types above, they restructured their approach so each stage of the funnel was served. Within four months, inbound enquiries had increased by 40%. We used the BIG12 Brand and Lead Generation pillars to rebuild their strategy from the ground up.
See how Brand Marketing worksHow to tailor your communication to each customer type
Understanding your customer types is only useful if it changes what you actually do. Here is how to translate this into practical content and channel decisions.
Unaware and problem-aware: attract and educate
These two groups are best reached through content that appears where they are already spending time. That means social media content that educates without selling, blog posts that answer real questions, and local PR or community involvement that builds name recognition. In Derbyshire, I have seen businesses build strong local awareness simply by showing up consistently and being genuinely helpful before asking for anything in return.
For these groups, your content needs to prioritise their problem over your product. Every post or article should make them feel understood, not sold to.
Solution-aware: prove and differentiate
This is where your Google Business Profile matters enormously. Reviews, photos, accurate information, and responses to questions all feed into whether this prospect trusts you enough to take the next step. A study by BrightLocal found that 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. If your Google presence is weak, you are losing solution-aware prospects every single day.
This group also responds well to detailed case studies, comparison content, and clear explanations of your process. They want to understand what working with you actually looks like.
Ready-to-buy: remove friction
Audit the path from first visit to first contact. How many clicks does it take to reach you? How quickly do you respond to enquiries? Is your call to action above the fold on mobile? These operational details are where businesses quietly bleed leads. I have worked with businesses in the East Midlands where simply improving response times by a few hours doubled their conversion rate from enquiry to quote.
Existing customers: stay in contact
A simple email newsletter, a birthday message, a follow-up six months after a purchase. These things cost almost nothing and keep you front of mind when a customer or their network needs your service again. Combine this with a proper CRM approach and you build a referral machine rather than having to start from scratch every month.
Choosing the right channels for each customer type
Not every channel works for every customer type. Understanding where your prospects are in their journey should directly shape where you invest your time and budget.
Social media is best for reaching people who do not know you yet and for staying in front of those who already do. It is not a reliable closer. Businesses that use it as a direct sales channel for cold audiences tend to be disappointed by the results.
SEO and search are powerful for the problem-aware and solution-aware stages because people actively searching are already motivated. Getting found at the right moment in that search journey is worth significant investment for most Derbyshire SMBs.
Email and direct outreach work best with warm audiences. People who have already engaged with your content, attended an event, or bought from you before are far more receptive to direct communication than a cold list.
If you are unsure how to assess which channels are performing across all these customer types, the test and measure pillar of the BIG12 framework gives you a structured way to track what is actually working rather than guessing.
Building your audience segments into a practical system
None of this has to be complicated. The basics of a working customer engagement system are straightforward. Know who your audience segments are. Map your existing content to those segments and identify the gaps. Fill the gaps with content built for specific stages. Measure what moves people from one stage to the next.
The businesses I see struggling most with this in Derbyshire and across the East Midlands are not failing because they lack budget or talent. They are failing because they are creating content reactively, posting when they have something to say rather than building towards a goal. Engagement is not something that happens by accident. It is the output of a deliberate system.
A practical first step is to review your last 20 pieces of content and categorise each one: which customer type was it aimed at? You will almost certainly find it concentrated in one or two areas and missing others entirely. That gap is where your next set of work lives.
How customer engagement sits within the BIG12 framework
Everything in this post connects directly to several pillars of the BIG12 framework that I use with every client I work with. Brand, lead generation, CRM, social media, and test and measure are all involved in a proper customer engagement strategy.
What the BIG12 does is make sure you are not just working on one pillar in isolation. A business that improves its social media content without a proper lead capture process will see engagement go up and enquiries stay flat. A business that builds a better website without fixing its Google presence will miss the prospects who are actively searching. The framework is designed to surface these gaps.
If you want to see how your current engagement approach maps across the full BIG12, the free scorecard below takes less than ten minutes and gives you a scored breakdown across all 12 pillars.
Not sure how your marketing measures up right now?
The BIG12 Scorecard benchmarks your marketing across all 12 pillars, including brand and customer engagement, so you know exactly where to focus.
Take the free scorecardThe challenge is never learning. It is doing.
Most business owners who read this will agree with the logic. Segment your audience. Match your content to the right stage. Fill the gaps. Measure what works. The framework is not complicated. The gap is almost always in the doing, in actually sitting down and restructuring how you communicate rather than continuing to post and hope.
That implementation gap is exactly where I spend most of my time with clients. Eighteen years of doing this work across Derbyshire and the wider East Midlands has taught me that the businesses who get results are the ones with a clear system behind their marketing, not just good intentions. If your marketing feels scattered or like it is not converting the way it should, a fresh set of eyes on your current approach usually reveals the fix quickly.
If you want to work through this properly, book a free 90-minute audit below. We will go through your current marketing, map it against the BIG12, and give you a set of specific actions to take. No sales pitch. Just honest, practical advice built on 18 years of working with businesses like yours.
Book a free 90-minute audit with Stuart
We will look at your current marketing, benchmark it against the BIG12, and give you a practical set of actions to take. No sales pitch. No fluff. Just 18 years of honest advice applied to your business.
Book your free auditEngaging with potential customers is a crucial aspect of growing your brand and building lasting relationships. By understanding your audience and tailoring your communication strategies, you can create meaningful interactions that drive interest and loyalty. Here’s how to start engaging with your potential customer types: -
Understanding Your Potential Customers
To effectively engage with potential customers, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of who they are, what they need, and how your brand can meet those needs. This involves segmenting your audience and developing tailored strategies for each group.
Steps to Start Engaging with Potential Customers
Identify Your Customer Segments
Conduct Market Research: Gather data on your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviours. Use surveys, interviews, and analytics tools to gain insights into your potential customers.
Create Buyer Personas: Develop detailed buyer personas that represent your different customer segments. These personas should include information such as age, gender, interests, pain points, and buying motivations.
Tailor Your Communication Strategy
Personalised Messaging: Craft personalised messages that resonate with each customer segment. Use language, tone, and content that align with their preferences and address their specific needs.
Multi-Channel Approach: Engage with your potential customers across multiple channels, such as social media, email, and your website. This ensures you reach them where they are most active and receptive.
Creating Engaging Content
Develop Valuable Content
Educational Resources: Provide valuable content that informs and educates your audience about your products or services. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, and webinars.
Storytelling: Use storytelling to create an emotional connection with your audience. Share stories that highlight your brand’s values, mission, and impact, making your brand relatable and memorable.
Encourage Interaction
Interactive Content: Incorporate interactive elements such as polls, quizzes, and live Q&A sessions to encourage engagement and participation from your audience.
Community Building: Foster a sense of community by creating spaces where your audience can connect, share experiences, and provide feedback. This could be through social media groups, forums, or branded events.
Building Relationships and Trust
Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Responsive Support: Ensure your customer service team is responsive and helpful, addressing queries and concerns promptly. This builds trust and demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction.
Personal Touch: Personalise interactions by using your customers’ names and referencing past interactions. This makes customers feel valued and appreciated.
Leverage Optimise Your Marketing Expertise
Expert Guidance: Work with Optimise Your Marketing to access expert insights and tools that enhance your customer engagement efforts and overall marketing strategy.
Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and refine your engagement strategies based on feedback and performance metrics to ensure they remain effective and relevant.
Monitoring and Optimising Engagement
Track Engagement Metrics
Analytics Tools: Use analytics tools to monitor engagement metrics such as click-through rates, social media interactions, and email open rates. These insights help assess the effectiveness of your engagement strategies.
Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops to gather input from your audience and team members. Use this feedback to make data-driven adjustments and improvements.
Conclusion
Engaging with potential customer types is a strategic approach to building strong connections and driving brand growth. By understanding your audience, tailoring your communication strategies, and creating valuable content, you can foster meaningful interactions that lead to lasting relationships. With the guidance and resources from Optimise Your Marketing, you can effectively engage with your potential customers and ensure long-term success in the competitive digital landscape.
