Who is your ideal client or ideal customer? Very often new, and sometimes even established business owners, make the mistake of failing to develop a clear vision of their ideal client.
Too often they think their service or product is “for everyone.”
It may, in fact, be true that almost everyone could use your product or service, but it’s just not possible for you and your brand to appeal to everyone.
Here are some simple reasons why not everyone will have a great experience with your brand, regardless of the value you bring:
- Your prices might not be in line with what they can afford.
- Your branding might not resonate with others. And this is no way negates the value and service you bring.
- Your story may not touch everyone with the same sense of urgency. While they may need the information or valuable product or service at a later time, there’s no urgency on their part to utilize your products or services.
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Determining Your Ideal Customer
For example, you may be marketing nutritional products, and almost everyone could benefit from them. However, what is your average price point? Is this a product whose price point may be out of reach of many persons? Or, is the product designed to restore elasticity in the skin that’s lost due to age or illness? Is your product more suited to a mature audience and would bring more value to them?
When you try to reach everyone with your message, rather than narrowing your focus to your truly ideal client or customer, you dilute your message, making it even less likely that those perfect customers will find you.
When You’re Starting Out
When you’re just starting out, it can seem an impossible task to know who your ideal client is.
As a result, I help my clients to start from a different perspective when they’re just getting started in marketing online.
Be Clear About What You Offer
Finding a need or problem and then create solutions is the customary advice. However, these can be challenging and often stop people in their tracks.
Instead, I encourage you to clearly identify the value you bring and what you have to offer. Be very clear about what you offer – whether services or products.
Clearly describe what problem you assist people in solving. Package your knowledge and experience in a way that it gives people the information they need in a clear, concise way, without the fluff. You then become strategic in finding the people who have those problems that you can solve.
Once you locate these persons and they work with you, because you created a great experience for them, they’re more likely to want to learn more from you and become the type of customer who buys from you again and again.
How to Find People Whose Problems You Solve
Find out where the people you want to help hang out. First, you must know some basics about who they are. Just as you must be clear on who would have the problem or challenges that you provide solutions for.
Social Media platforms, as well as Forums, are great for finding groups of people who have similar concerns and are looking for help. Social listening becomes very important so that you can be attuned to what people are saying. Take the time to identify ten places where the people you may be able to help hang out.
The following are three areas you must be clear on so that you narrow down who you can serve.
Gender and Age Group
Is your ideal client male or female? While men and women might both read and enjoy your content – and even buy your products – you will most likely find that your market is skewed heavily one way or the other. Men and women respond to stories and branding in very different ways, so what appeals to a man will not always appeal to a woman. Look around at some of the brands you buy, and you’ll quickly see how they create their messages to appeal to one or the other, but very rarely both at the same time.
Take some time to determine if your ideal client is a Millennial or is she a Baby Boomer or older? The types of messaging that will resonate with each of these groups will vary significantly.
Where is she on her journey?
Is she a beginner or well along on the path? How you speak, how you write, what marketing methods you use, and even what prices you charge will all be determined by your ideal client’s level of sophistication. In addition, you will not reach your market effectively if you don’t know exactly where the persons who make up your market are and what experience they have, and what information and support they need at a certain point.
Goals
What does your client hope to achieve, and how do your products and services help to realize those goals? Whether she’s trying to build a profitable blog on a topic she loves so she can stay home with her children, or he’s working to create an online resource for building muscles and strength-training, if you don’t know where they’re going, you can’t help them get there.
If you’re new, take time to learn the skills that will help you get a handle on clearly identifying your ideal clients. At the same time, pay attention to what successful marketers are doing and see how you can learn from them, not just copy them, to implement effective strategies in your business.
Watch your interactions, study the businesses of those who contact you for help and this will contribute to helping you have a clear understanding of who your ideal client really is.
If you already have clients or customers, schedule time to interview them. Discover why they did business with you—in their own words. Did you find them to be your perfect clients? In other words, did you enjoy working with them? What are their commonalities?
If it’s not practical to personally interview them, send Surveys and reward them for completing them.
What are the things that created great synergy and allowed them to receive the transformation you brought to them through your service or product?
What other ways can you help them? And where can you find more people like them so that your funnel is always filled with your ideal clients?
In an article by SCORE, the largest network of volunteers dedicated to assisting Small Businesses, they give a detailed summary of steps that are required to identify your ideal customers or clients. You may find this helpful.
You may also click on this link: https://50andwisercoaching.com/freebies/ to download my “Target Market Worksheet.” No opt-in required.
When you clearly identify who your ideal clients are, you enjoy your work and look forward to every interaction. At the same time, armed with this knowledge, you can bring more value to your ideal clients and customers through the products, information, and services you provide.
Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts on the article and what strategies you use to identify your ideal clients.
Do you make it a part of your schedule to build relationships with your clients and customers? Relationship Marketing is a currency that transforms prospects into customers. In my book: Relationship Matters: Key to Small Business Success we explore strategies to nurture the relationship and build your tribe. Click here to claim your copy.
1 Response to "How to Identify Your IDEAL Client"
I love this Yvonne, I have a new coach this year and totally changed who my ICA is
Yes you are so right about knowing where they are on the journey and what is their pain