Using the 5 W’s to Understand Your Customers Story: When to Contact Your Customers

We have done over the Who and What of the 5 W’s already. If you missed those, don’t worry, I have links to those at the end. Today I’m going to focus on When, when should you contact your consumers?  To refresh your memory, the 5 W’s are:  who, what, when, where, and why. The same grade school literary tactic used to break down a story.  This literary tactic can be used to understand your consumers because they, too, have their own story. 

When to Contact Your Customers

There are a few different ways to determine when to contact your consumers. You can base your contact point or touchpoint on the buyer’s journey or by their social activity. Which tactic you use depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. 

Contact Your Consumers by Their Buyer’s Journey

If you contact them by their journey, you have to make sure they get the right content at the right time. If they are in step one, Awareness, it will be a great idea to push content explaining who you are and what you do. Once they know who you are, they will want to check for credibility. Sending them “Welcome! I’am-” emails during this time wouldn’t be wise because they already know who you are and what you do. What your customer wants is for you to say, “We are #1 in the nation”, “We have been doing this 5+ yrs”, etc. This way, they know, you know what you’re doing. Then, of course, in the final stage, you pitch that sale and make a transaction. 

Contact Your Customers by Their Social Media Activity

If you contact them by social activity, you can use Facebook’s or Instagram’s Insight features. Here you can see what days and times your followers are online. This is great to know because for when you are planning out content. If this image were of your account’s insight, it would not be best to post on Thursdays around 3 am. This could be because your audience is still getting their beauty sleep. 

Knowing when to market your content is essential if you want to increase engagement, conversions, foot traffic, and awareness. It’s the whole; if a tree falls with no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Scenario. Meaning, you can post all day, every day, but if no one sees it, is it helping your business?

A Quick Overview of the 5 W’s 

• Who are my consumers? (demographics and psychographics)
• What challenges/inconveniences are they having? (big or small)
• When should I contact them? (the time of day, day of the week, at what point of the buyer’s journey, etc.) 
• Where to contact them? / where do they spend most of their time? (traditional media, digital media, email, direct mail, and which social channels they use.)
• Why should they buy my products/services? (list of benefits for the consumer)

In Case You Missed When I Went Over the other 5 W’s

• Who: Who Your Consumers are
• What: What Challenge(s) Your Consumers are Having
• When: When to Contact Your Consumers
• Where: Update Coming Soon
• Why: Update Coming Soon

Let’s Stay Connected

If you enjoyed this advice, go check out my blog “Listen Up Brains” where I share advice to my fellow creators, designers, and strategists. Also, connect with me on my other social media platforms to see some of the projects I’m currently working on.