Meet Your Consumers: Browsing Bob, Maybe Mike, and No-way Ned

There are three types of consumers: those who want to buy your product, those who might want to buy your product, and those who definitely don’t want to buy your product. For simplicity’s sake, let’s refer to these types of consumers as Browsing Bob, Maybe Mike, and No-way Ned, respectively. These consumers often times end up on your email marketing list. To keep your email marketing relevant to your subscribers you should know what type of consumers are receiving your emails.

Browsing Bob is “in the market,” as they say, actively searching for something specific to buy. Maybe Mike, while he might not be seeking you out, will be responsive if he sees a relevant advertisement that catches his eye. No-way Ned, even if he does see an advertisement, has no interest in whatever you’re selling.

Depending on your business, of course, there will tend to be more of one person than another. For example, Maybe Mike isn’t going to see a real estate ad and say, “I hadn’t thought about it before, but I really could use a new house!” If you’re selling collectible action figures, there are a lot more No-way Neds, since that’s a niche market. A company that sells bottled water probably won’t have a whole lot of No-way Neds, for obvious reasons.

The key difference between Bob and Mike is that the former knows about your competitors. Chances are, since he’s already looking to buy something, he’s weighing his options. In this case, you’ll need to convince him that yours is the better one. Mike hasn’t had a chance to look anywhere else, so if you manage to pique his interest, you’re in luck. If the moment he becomes interested in buying coincides with the moment he reads about your company, then you’re the obvious first choice.

Some ambitious companies don’t believe in No-way Ned…used car dealerships, for example. As far as these companies are concerned, everybody is a potential customer. In the case of email marketing, these are typically the kinds of companies that will send email out on a massive scale, regardless of possible interest of the recipients.

With this in mind, think about which kind of people your email campaign is aimed at. If you’re going for the Maybe Mike type, trying to get people’s attention and alert them to something that they don’t know about yet, your email should reflect that. If your readers are mostly Browsing Bobs, you should try to emphasize what makes you a better choice than your competitors.

As I’ve said previously, you should always know who your email marketing campaigns are targeting, and adjust your content accordingly.