IDENTIFYING YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

If you want to get to your ideal client with a clear marketing message, you first need to understand that if your strategy is to talk to everyone, then you can’t be effective at cutting through the myriad messages your ideal client sees every day.

So, how do you identify your ideal client? Here are a few steps to identifying and attracting your ideal client.

STOP HOPING ANYONE & EVERYONE WILL SEE YOUR MESSAGE

I'm going to be honest with you - this is one of the biggest mistakes I see in branding. For example, you start a personal finance business. You have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to marketing but you’re determined to make it work and turn it into a source of income.

Is the information you present general? Does it have a defined and specific audience? So, you’re speaking to moms. "Moms" is still a very broad target.

Can you improve on that? Maybe you’re speaking to professional moms between the ages of 34 and 40. Now you need to start speaking to a certain person and keep this specific person in mind.

Maybe you start creating your blog posts imagining that you’re speaking to your best friend. You want the information to be easy, not mentally tasking. You want it to be interesting and sometimes humorous. Congratulations, you have an ideal client! A college-educated professional mother who wants to take her finances to the next level and needs to be taught how to do that.

She is your ideal client. Your ideal client doesn’t necessarily enjoy personal finance but knows how important it is and wants to digest it in a relatively simple and fun way. This is how you have to think when you begin to think about your ideal client. What specific person are you speaking to?

GET EVEN MORE SPECIFIC

If you say, “I help moms who are also businesswomen plan for their family’s future,” well, that’s still a pretty broad audience. Are these moms entrepreneurs who run small companies? CEOs of large corporations? You need to get specific.

This broader definition of your ideal client is helpful in helping you get to that very specific ideal.

Facebook Audience Insights is a great tool for helping you specify your ideal client. With this tool you can get pretty specific! You might find some surprises, too. For example, you might find that the majority of your engaged audience includes professional moms with middle income range, suburban households with toddlers, preschool, and early elementary age children. They are homeowners who have a tendency to drive Subarus.

How can you turn this information into an ideal client? You might say, “Okay, my ideal client has middle to upper income, they live in these certain areas, and their children are early elementary age. They like to travel and they especially love visiting National Parks (thus, the Subarus).” That’s an example of turning a Facebook Audience into an ideal client.

You can play around with Audience Insights and explore age ranges, demographics, and characteristics as you develop your ideal client!

GET IN THEIR HEAD

Now it’s time to find the people who will purchase from you or sign up for your service. They need what you offer, you can help them, and they are ready to make a financial commitment. When they chat with you they say, “Yes, I want to work with her! I’m going to sign up with her right now and pay her, too. Let’s go. I can’t wait to get started.” That’s an ideal client!

As a business owner, it’s your job to give your ideal client exactly what they want.

In today’s digital world, it’s both easier and more difficult to get to the person you want to reach. The average American is exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements each day. To cut through this, you have to target your message to your ideal client!

BuzzFeed provides us with a great, if somewhat eye roll-inducing, example. They are geniuses at creating specific, targeted content like, “54 Things Only Die-Hard Star Wars Fans Would Understand”. People who identify as a die-hard Star Wars fan can’t help but click on that content.

RESEARCH WHAT THEY’RE ASKING

Amazon Reviews: If you offer a service, Amazon reviews on books about your niche are a great place to look. People will tell you what they were looking for in those books.

Quora or Reddit: Let’s say you’re that financial advisor and you think these moms want to know the best way to save for college for their kids. In Quora or Reddit, you can type in the topic “college savings”. You’ll see related topics, the questions people are asking, and how they’re phrasing and wording their questions.

Facebook Groups: Facebook Groups can be a powerful marketing tool. In Facebook Groups related to your business, or intended for your ideal client, you can gain valuable potential client insights, research marketing possibilities, have conversations with the people you believe to be your ideal audience, and even attract new clients.

Through these different websites, you’ll start to see patterns emerge. Your people are asking the same questions and have the same types of problems. You now have even better insight into the mind of your ideal client!

Take this research and start listing personality characteristics, traits, etc., to complete your ideal client.

SIMPLIFY BUSINESS WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

Because you now have identified your ideal client, you can weed out those who aren’t your ideal client. You might do this with a phone call, a questionnaire, or both. Ideal clients should have these characteristics: they are able to invest, they are willing to invest, and you can realistically help them achieve their desired results.

For example, if I have someone reschedule a complimentary consultation several times, they probably are not ready.

Next, they must have the ability. Not everyone will be able to invest in your services. You can segment your services into tiers, or you can keep everything the same and be up-front about the investment. Don’t feel bad! Know your worth.

Finally, how confident are you that you can help this client achieve results?

Getting clear on your ideal client is absolutely necessary for growing a business online. My team can help you gain clarity on WHO is perfect for you. Then, we’ll craft a marketing message they can’t resist. Contact me for more details.