A few weeks ago I mentioned the importance of creating a very clear description of who, exactly, your best customers are.

Without this description it can be very difficult to customize (and position) your digital marketing efforts – including where they are relative to your small business.

Going a step further this week, an additional layer of depth you can add to those descriptions are factors that can affect how they decide on choosing a service or product.

This can be thought of as another layer to the Why Delta – identifying what makes you different (differentiation) than other businesses with the same alignment (those that offer the same services or products to the same customer set).

As you’ll see below, you can differentiate in any number of ways, so this step can help you determine which directions the differentiation can take to match the decision process of your best customers.

In the Mathematics world, an “axis” is a part of a coordinate system that can describe a point in space.

When two or more coordinate lines (axes) cross, it forms the larger coordinate system — the point where they all meet becomes the known as the origin.

The point in space is then described as the distance from the origin along each of the axes.

In a very simple coordinate system with 2 axes – “X” and “Y”, the point (6,7) is 6 units along the “X” axis and 7 units along the “Y” axis.

An axis can also be called a “dimension” – so the example above is 2-dimensional.

An Example Using Axes

Swapping out the coordinate systems above from just “X” an “Y” and use different labels to describe them (rather than just generic “X” and “Y” labels) you can map out just about anything.

For example if you change out “X” for social media followers and “Y” for post frequency in a week, your coordinate system can map out the relationship between amount of followers and how many times that account posts in a week.

(500, 4) then would mean that point in space describes an account with 500 followers that posts 4 times a week.

Do this for enough data points, you may see patterns emerge that you can use to find out an optimal number posts in a week among larger social media accounts.

Of course, your conclusions will only be as good as the data you have, but the point here is that using coordinate systems, you can describe and relate almost any kind of data – including how your customers decide to choose services and products.

Decision Axes

Decision axes can help you map out what your customers care about most when choosing different services and products.

These may be a bit more qualitative in nature (vs quantitative), which can be harder to measure, but the idea is the same – mapping out the relationship between different factors that your customers use when deciding who to buy from or hire, to help you identify areas of differentiation.

Some Common Decision Axes

Working with many small businesses over the years, there are some really common items folks look for when deciding on a service or product. Below are just a few that can get you started.

Price Axis

Pricing is one of the more common items folks will use when deciding on a product or service.

Nothing new here for most small business owners, as pricing is one of the most fundamental pillars in marketing, but it’s something you can keep tabs on over time.

Speed Axis

Speed or proximity can be determining factor for many industries. When time to service or delivery is important, this is one of the areas folks will look to when making a decision on a small business.

Quality Axis

Having a service or product that exceeds everyone else in the same category can help set you apart for folks looking for quality.

Story or Values Axis

For some customers, if your story and values resonate well with them, it can make the difference between hiring and not hiring.

This is often the “why” behind what you do – why you started your small business or why you choose to serve who you serve.

Experience & Expertise Axis

For many customers, choosing the most experienced small business – or the one with the most expertise – can be the deciding factor.

This can be especially true for industries that require special licensing or other qualifications in order to perform the work.

“In-Network” or Social Proof Axis

This decision axis would be customers that prefer small businesses that come referred or are highly rated by people already “in-network” – people they know and trust, essentially.

More Decision Axes

The list above is not meant to be exhaustive, just the most common I’ve come across over the years.

Some others that I’ve come across: convenience, new/freshness, innovation, human-centric (non-AI), company size and design/looks.

Don’t be afraid to ask your (best) customers or clients why they choose different services or products over others – as always, data from your customers is likely the most reliable you can have.

The truth behind the deciding factors for your customers is likely some combination of factors — price and “in-network” for example.  The idea here isn’t to have every dimension covered (which complicates things) – the idea here is to focus on the axes that matter most to your small business customers.

Using Decision Axes In Your Digital Marketing

When you know both who your customers are and why they choose the products and services you provide, you can use it to develop everything from your branding, to your content, to your social media and search plans, focusing your attention on just those few dimensions that really matter most.

Going through this process and determining your customers’ decision axes isn’t about being “clever” – it’s about clarity.

Ultimately you want to provide the best possible experience for your small business customers or clients, knowing what matters most to them – and communicating clearly that you understand this – can help make your digital marketing more effective, for both you and your customers.