Understanding your ideal customer can feel like a guessing game. By learning to recognize subtle subconscious cues, you can gain deeper insights into their personalities and preferences. This approach helps you connect authentically with the right audience, boosting customer loyalty and making your marketing more effective.
Understanding Your Ideal Customer
Ever feel like understanding your customers is a bit like trying to solve a mystery with half the clues missing? You’re not alone! Many business owners think each customer is so unique that it’s impossible to find any real patterns or common traits. But here’s the exciting part: neuroscience tells us that our brains are wired to pick up on subtle, subconscious cues that can reveal so much about our best customers—often in just seconds.
You don’t need to be a psychologist or spend hours on research. By simply noticing certain patterns, like body language, facial expressions, or even how customers interact with your website, you can start to see who really resonates with your brand. It’s like putting on a pair of “super glasses” that help you spot the personality traits and preferences of your ideal audience.
Think about it like this: just by observing, you can pick up on the difference between a customer who needs thorough information before making a decision and one who’s ready to buy on the spot. This isn’t just interesting; it’s practical! These insights can shape your marketing, your messaging, and the way you communicate with your audience—helping you connect with them in a way that feels natural and authentic. When we “see” our customers for who they are, they feel valued and respected. A customer who feels valued and respected is a customer for life.
Let’s dive into some subconscious cues that you’re probably already noticing without even realizing it. I’ll show you how to use these clues to understand your customers better and, in turn, create marketing that attracts the right people.
- First Impressions: The Power of a Quick Glance
Research shows that within 100 milliseconds, people form a first impression based on visible cues like facial expressions, posture, and movement. For example, a customer who walks in with a straight posture, confident gait, and steady eye contact likely has a more assertive and decisive personality. Contrast this with someone who hesitates at the entrance, looking around nervously—they might be more analytical or cautious, taking their time before making decisions.
Marketing Tip: For more confident customers, highlight straightforward, action-oriented benefits in your marketing. For those who seem cautious, provide detailed information and assurances in your messaging to ease their decision-making process.
Facial Judgments: Trustworthiness, Competence, and Friendliness
Within 200 milliseconds, people make judgments about trustworthiness and friendliness based on facial expressions alone. A customer with a warm, open smile may be more relationship-oriented, valuing customer service and brand experience. In contrast, someone with a neutral or serious expression might be more focused on quality and reliability over friendliness.
Marketing Tip: If your customers seem relationship-oriented, incorporate warm, personable language in your communications and emphasize customer stories. For more serious, quality-focused customers, highlight expertise, certifications, and the specific results your products or services deliver.
Body Language and Gait: Unspoken Insights into Personality
Body language can give away clues about a person’s mood, confidence, and even personality traits. A customer who moves quickly and purposefully likely has a high-energy, results-oriented personality, while someone who moves more slowly and pauses to look around might be more detail-oriented and thoughtful.
Marketing Tip: Use dynamic, bold language for high-energy customers who respond to messages about achieving results. For detail-oriented customers, include comprehensive product descriptions, FAQs, and comparison guides that cater to their need for thorough information.
Eye Contact: Building Instant Connection and Trust
Within about 500 milliseconds of making eye contact, the brain starts to assess the other person’s emotions and intentions. Strong, sustained eye contact can signal confidence and trustworthiness, while frequent glances away might indicate a reserved or introverted nature. In an online setting, observing how engaged a customer is with your website—like time spent on specific pages—can provide similar insights.
Marketing Tip: Confident customers might respond well to assertive, clear calls-to-action and bold visuals. For more reserved or introverted customers, using softer tones and personalizing messaging can make your brand feel approachable and welcoming.
Social Categorization: The Brain’s Way of Spotting Patterns
Our brains quickly begin categorizing people based on cues like age, appearance, and even dress style. Someone who presents themselves in a trendy, modern way may be more open to innovation and new ideas, while someone with a classic, conservative appearance may value tradition and stability.
Marketing Tip: If your target customers seem drawn to innovation, highlight cutting-edge features, upcoming trends, or limited-time offers that convey novelty. For traditional customers, emphasize consistency, durability, and trustworthiness in your marketing messages.
Shaping Your Marketing and Communication Strategies with These Insights
Once you start observing these cues, you can use them to craft more targeted and effective marketing strategies that resonate with your ideal customer’s personality type. Here are some additional ways to apply these insights:
- Tailor Your Brand Voice to Match Personality Preferences
If you notice that your best customers are assertive and results-oriented, use a direct, no-nonsense tone in your emails, ads, and social media posts. For more reserved customers, try a softer, empathetic approach that emphasizes understanding their needs.
- Customize Content Based on Decision-Making Styles
Analytical customers prefer thorough information, so providing detailed guides, case studies, and testimonials can be effective. Fast decision-makers, on the other hand, might appreciate a streamlined experience with bold calls-to-action and key benefits clearly highlighted.
- Design Visuals That Speak to Personality
Use dynamic, high-contrast visuals for high-energy customers, and softer, neutral tones for those who seem more cautious. Each visual style can subconsciously reinforce your brand’s alignment with different personality traits, creating a feeling of familiarity and trust.
- Adjust Your Sales Funnel According to Customer Traits
For customers who value detailed information and take longer to make decisions, create a nurturing email sequence that gradually provides valuable information. For quick, decisive customers, a streamlined sales funnel with fewer steps and clear incentives to act can increase conversions.
- Leverage Subconscious Cues to Build Loyalty
By recognizing these patterns, you can also tailor your post-purchase communication to foster loyalty. For relationship-oriented customers, a follow-up “thank you” email or a personal note can go a long way. For more results-focused customers, sending an email that reminds them of the measurable benefits of their purchase helps reinforce their decision.
The Takeaway: Use Subconscious Cues to Identify—and Connect with—Your Ideal Customers
You don’t need to be a psychologist to understand your customers better. By paying attention to subtle subconscious cues, you can gain powerful insights into their personalities, preferences, and decision-making styles. These observations don’t just give you information; they allow you to shape your marketing and communication strategies to align naturally with the people who resonate most with your brand.
Want to dive even deeper? If you’d like to learn more about creating a detailed customer profile, download our free workbook! It’s packed with exercises and tips that will help you uncover the unique traits and needs of your ideal customers, guiding you to create marketing that truly connects.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. “How reliable are these subconscious cues? Aren’t they subjective?”
Response: While it’s true that interpreting body language and other cues can be subjective, research shows that our brains are naturally wired to recognize certain patterns in others. These cues are based on universal aspects of human psychology, so while individual interpretations may vary, they’re still grounded in widely observed behaviors. The key is to look for consistent patterns rather than isolated signals.
2. “Isn’t it risky to make assumptions about customers based on quick observations?”
Response: Observing subconscious cues isn’t about making rigid assumptions; it’s about understanding tendencies and preferences more deeply. By observing common traits among your best customers, you can tailor your approach to appeal to similar types without limiting or stereotyping them. This approach enhances your connection rather than pigeonholing individuals.
3. “Isn’t it better to ask customers directly about their needs rather than relying on assumptions?”
Response: Asking customers directly is essential, but many times, people aren’t fully aware of what drives their decisions or might not express it accurately. Subconscious cues add an extra layer of insight that complements direct feedback, allowing you to understand customers deeper beyond what they consciously know or say.
4. “How do I apply these cues to online customers when I can’t observe body language or eye contact?”
Response: Observing online behaviors—like browsing patterns, page views, and engagement with specific types of content—can give similar insights into customer preferences and personality traits. For example, a customer reading detailed product descriptions might be more analytical, while someone who quickly goes to checkout might be more action-oriented.
5. “How much time should I spend analyzing these cues? Won’t this take up too much of my focus?”
Response: You don’t need to spend hours analyzing each interaction. Once you start noticing patterns, recognizing these cues will become second nature. Observing these signals in the background can be quick, and it can save you time by helping you tailor your approach more effectively, leading to higher customer satisfaction and better targeting.
6. “Can relying on these cues lead to unconscious bias in how I treat different customers?”
Response: This is a valid concern. The goal is to use subconscious cues to enhance understanding and connect more authentically, not to reinforce stereotypes or biases. By focusing on broad, observable patterns rather than making assumptions based on superficial judgments, you can apply these insights in a fair and inclusive way.
7. “Aren’t demographic details like age, income, and location more important than subconscious cues?”
Response: Demographic details provide valuable context but don’t reveal the whole picture. Subconscious cues add depth by helping you understand customer motivations and preferences beyond demographics. Demographic information and subconscious insights create a more holistic profile of your ideal customer.
8. “Won’t customers feel uncomfortable or ‘watched’ if I focus on these subtle cues?”
Response: Observing subconscious cues doesn’t mean scrutinizing customers or invading their privacy. It’s about naturally picking up on signals that help you communicate in more relatable ways. Think of it as an intuitive approach to customer service rather than “watching” or judging people.
9. “Can I learn enough from these subtle cues to make a difference in my marketing?”
Response: Yes! Even small observations can make a big difference. For example, knowing that your customers value detailed information can lead you to create more in-depth content that resonates with them, while recognizing that others respond to quick, action-oriented messages allows you to create compelling calls to action. These insights can shape your marketing without requiring drastic changes.
- “Isn’t this approach more useful for in-person interactions than for digital businesses?”
Response: While in-person interactions offer more visible cues, digital businesses can still benefit from this approach by observing how customers engage with online content, social media, and email communications. Tracking engagement patterns, time on page, and types of interactions can give you valuable insights that translate into targeted marketing for digital audiences.
