ProTip: Jump-Start Your Marketing with Customer Characteristics

First, analyze your clients to determine what characteristics they share. One of hundreds of old adages about sales holds true: Identify five common characteristics of your past clients and you'll be able to see the next one walking down the street. You will also see trends that will help you to identify how to reach current and future customers.

- Jean Withers and Carol Vipperman, Marketing Your Service

Jean Withers and Carol Vipperman have given us a very simple, but very powerful suggestion. If you have not considered your various customer types recently, sit down, make a simple chart (for example: customer name, company, traits, interests), and spend at least 5 minutes filling in the chart and circling the items your clients have in common. As they suggest, this information is immediately relevant to your company's marketing efforts. Not in marketing? Use these traits to pinpoint what additional services or features would be of value to your customers.