Customer matchmaking: the key to more conversions

As consumers are evaluating various products, most of the time they will ask the same question, either consciously or subconsciously.

Will this work for someone like me?

“Someone like me” covers a wide range of things such as:

You get the point.

This isn’t just individual consumer behavior. It shows up in B2B, too.

Every time I’ve worked with a client — and I mean every single one — they’ve asked for very specific examples of when a concept or idea “worked” in healthcare.

Before buying in, they needed to know that it worked for “brands like them.”

That tells us something important.

At its core, “someone like me” marketing is about risk reduction.

When people see others who are like

Knowing that “people like them” have had success with your brand gives them reassurance that achieving their desired result is possible for them too.

Brands need to be intentional about showing quickly and clearly, their ideal customers that “people like them” have found success with their product.

That signal can show up through testimonials, case studies, collaborations, creators, user-generated content, or community stories. The format matters less than the message: you belong here.

And this is why identity-based marketing is more imporant now than ever.

“People like me” marketing is identity-based marketing.

The general market approach struggles in this type of environment because it introduces friction. And we know friction is the enemy of growth.

It forces your ideal customers to search for themselves inside your story (rather than you directing them quickly and clearly).

And it’s much harder to find “someone like me” in a room full of 100,000 people.

But identity-based marketing is where a lot of brands fumble.

The irony is — brands already know how to engage identity-based marketing. It’s called personalization — or needs-based marketing.

But the reality is — consumers don’t care if you are identifying them as a pre-menopausal woman and calling it out. What they really care about is you doing something to solve for the needs and preferences that come as a result of their identity.

That need includes other people like them, achieving success with your brand. That need may include providing fitness plans that support their health goals, acknowledging that their bodies may need something different to achieve success than someone similar to them, but ten years younger.

But you can’t get to the specific needs, without acknowledging that specific identities exist within your customer base, and that their journeys, lived experiences, and decision-making processes may be different as a result.

Ignoring identity doesn’t make marketing simpler.
It just pushes the work onto the customer.

And that’s where friction creeps in.