Want Better Leads? Get to Know Your Customer.

Zia Reddy
Apr 23
4 min read

Updated: Apr 23

Podcast Transcript

Hey, and welcome back to The Methodical Marketer’s Guide to Greatness. I am Zia, and I am here to keep marketing practical, human, and actually doable.

This week, we’re deep in the topic of customer acquisition, but not in the “hack your funnel” or “run five webinars” kind of way. I’m talking about customer acquisition that actually works, the kind built on real clarity, not just visibility.

Because showing up more doesn’t always get you better results. And today, I want to take you behind the scenes of a real-life campaign that proves just how powerful things can get when you actually understand who your customer is.

This is the story of how I worked with an online university, a brand that was already doing a lot right, and helped them make a few key changes that transformed the quality of their leads.

So, if your content is out there but not converting, or your ads are running but your inbox is still a ghost town… this one’s for you.

THE PROBLEM

Let’s start with where the university was when they first came to me.

They’re a South African-based business college offering a range of online qualifications. Their programs are solid, their team is engaged, and they weren’t new to digital marketing; they’d been running paid ads, sharing content, using email marketing… all the usual suspects.

But despite the effort, they weren’t getting the leads they needed. Or rather, they weren’t getting the right leads.

Conversions were low. The leads coming through weren’t always a good fit. People would click through but drop off before committing. The team was frustrated, and rightly so. It felt like they were doing everything “right”, but something still wasn’t working.

And this is where a lot of businesses land. They assume they have a traffic problem or a platform problem; maybe the ad just needs a better hook, or maybe they need to post more often.

But here’s what I told them:

This wasn’t a visibility issue. It was a clarity issue.

They had eyes on their content. But the message wasn’t hitting home. It wasn’t speaking directly to the person it was meant for.

And that’s where we started our work.

WHAT WE DID

We didn’t dive straight into rewriting ads or tweaking landing pages. We started with something much more fundamental: listening.

We worked with their team to map out who their ideal student really was. Not just in terms of job title or demographics, but what that person was going through in real life.

Why were they studying? What was holding them back? What did they want from a qualification, beyond just a certificate?

And that’s when we discovered something really important.

A lot of the students weren’t looking to start something new; they were looking to prove something they’d already done. These were people who had been in the workplace for years, building skills on the job, but without the formal qualifications to back it up.

They weren’t chasing education for the sake of it; they were chasing recognition. Validation. Confidence. And sometimes, career progression that requires a certificate to unlock it.

Once we saw that… everything changed.

We weren’t selling a course anymore. We were offering recognition for hard-earned experience. And that insight gave us the language we needed to connect. The message wasn’t “Come get a business qualification online.” It became:

“You’ve already done the work. Now get the recognition you deserve.”

That one shift made the entire campaign feel more personal, more relevant, and much more effective.

HOW IT CHANGED THE MESSAGING + RESULTS

With that insight in hand, we rewrote almost everything. The landing page copy. The ad text. All of it. Instead of focusing on the features of the program (duration, modules, flexibility), we leaned into the emotional journey.

We talked about what it means to feel overlooked. What it feels like to finally have your skills recognised. To earn a promotion. To say, “I’ve got the qualification to match the work I’ve already been doing.”

And we didn’t ignore the practical hesitations either. Time, cost, energy… we addressed them all, but in a way that respected where the student was starting from.

And here’s what happened:

The ads started attracting the right people, and gently repelling the wrong ones
The quality of leads improved noticeably

This wasn’t about clever tricks or flashy funnels.

It was about knowing who we were speaking to and why they cared.

And it wasn’t just the messaging that got sharper. Having a clear picture of who we were speaking to also helped us refine the ad targeting itself. Once we understood the specific motivations and challenges of the university’s ideal students, we adjusted the campaign settings to reflect their real-life circumstances. We targeted job roles aligned with internal promotions, industries where recognition mattered, and even education levels that matched the “upskilling without starting from scratch” mindset. This meant we weren’t just writing better ads; we were putting them in front of the right people. And that made all the difference.

WHY THIS WORKS: THE TAKEAWAY FOR YOU

So, what does this mean for you?

If you’re out here trying to attract more customers but not getting results, it’s worth asking:

Do I really know who I’m speaking to?

Not just their age or industry, but their everyday reality. Their hesitations. Their hopes. Their reasons for saying yes. And maybe more importantly, their reasons for holding back.

Because when you understand your customer at that level, you’re not guessing anymore. You’re connecting. You’re writing content that feels like it’s meant for them.

And that’s when your messaging starts to do the heavy lifting.

FINAL THOUGHT

If the university had kept tweaking ads without clarifying their message, they’d probably still be stuck. But once they paused to really understand their customer, everything else started to fall into place.

So here’s your challenge this week:

Talk to a customer. Ask better questions. Revisit your website or your sales page and ask yourself, “Does this sound like it’s written for them… or for me?” And then start rewriting (even just one section) with their voice, their words, and their reality in mind.