Would you recognize your best customers? Do you know what they look like? Why not have them send in a selfie?

Okay, scratch the selfie idea. But even if they don’t send you a selfie, you should recognize their attributes and their value. The top 20% of your customers often represent 80% of your business. By recognizing who they are and what is important to them, you can strive to attract even more customers who look like your best customers. Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Clone your best customers. When choosing ad demographics or lists, choose segments that most closely match the demographics, interests and behaviors of your best customers. That way you can create “clones” that look like them.

2. Tailor content to your best customers. Find out what kinds of content your best customers like to read or view. Hit on the topics and types of content that they respond to most. This will also attract similar prospects.

3. Encourage other customers to be like best customers. Look at the behaviors and transaction frequency of your best customers. Identify customers who don’t quite behave like your best customers and feed them offers and incentives to act like your best customers. Use trigger dates to get them to visit or shop as often as your best customers.

4. Listen to your best customers. Do you survey your best customers? In addition to tracking their behaviors, it’s always a good idea to find out what they want by simply asking them. Find out exactly what their preferences are. Find out whether they are satisfied with your products or services. Also find out if they would recommend you to their friends.

5. Think like your best customers. Don’t forget to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Try to figure out what you would want if you were the customer. Think critically. Try to predict what your customers will be asking for before they ask.

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