How high are your customers climbing?

Monday, 11.22pm. Questions.

I love metaphors. That’s why I find the “Social Technographics Ladder” by Forrester so cool – it’s a great way for companies to see a visual breakdown of how your customers act in the digital marketplace. However there are two ways in which I find this model lacking.

Firstly, I feel this model is more descriptive than it is an explanation of how to target the different groups of consumers. Secondly, how do you determine which is the most important group for you, and how do you expand that group? I’m going to sleep on this, and hopefully have good answers by tomorrow.

Tuesday, 10.22pm. Answers.

Exactly 23 hours later. My answers are as follows.

I understand why the model doesn’t answer how to target the different customers. Forrester’s ladder is just an appetizer for firms, and then if they want to know more, they can hire Forrester to consult them on how to specifically tailor the model to fit your customers. And then Forrester will charge you for this consulting session.

As for the most important group? Different groups are important for different things – you need good conversationalists to spread the word about your product, but your joiners group may be much bigger. They are still valuable to target, because they are the ones who are willing to read about your product. Creators are essential too, but there are probably fewer of them. They want credit for the content they create though, so engage them by retweeting their blog posts/videos etc that are relevant to your firm.

Source of featured image: http://saysthesinglegirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/climbing-ladder.jpg