Your real customers are a level or two deeper

In any kind of marketing it’s essential to know who your real customers are, but it’s sometimes a little trickier than it might seem.

As I shared earlier this year, the people that we build websites for aren’t the ones that we’re actually building them for. When we build a site for a client, we’re building a site that works best for their clients. This is why the common “make my logo bigger” conversation usually gets shut down quickly, because the focus needs to be on how that benefits the end user (and it usually doesn’t).

Of course, there are times when it can go a level deeper than that. In his book “ Good Company “, Arthur Blank shares this idea:

“What Gary pointed out was that foundations often make the mistake of thinking that their “customers” are the nonprofits to which they give grants. In fact, he explained, a foundation’s customers are the individuals served by those grantee nonprofits.”

For example, if a foundation were to hire us to help with a site, the levels get interesting:

1. GreenMellen building the site.
2. For the foundation.
3. For their non-profits.
4. For the individuals being served by those non-profits.