Is it Important to Know Your Ideal Client?

You’ve probably heard that every business needs to have an ideal client. But is that really true?

And can having an ideal client really help grow your business, or you are going to lose all other potential clients by narrowing down your audience?

A few years ago, I was at a conference and a presenter was talking about how they spent 8 hours creating their ideal client persona. I though they were crazy! First off, why focus on one ideal client when you can have more clients by not narrowing down your audience, and second: 8 hours? Really!? I can do it in 30 minutes, it can’t be that hard, I just need to figure out if they are between 25 and 35 years old, or 35 and 45, where they live, male or female – I mean, it’s easy!

After the conference I went home, still had the same thoughts, and never wanted to even try to create my “ideal persona.” Even the concept itself was annoying since I knew that you do not need to go into that much detail about who your ideal client is. I do branding, so my clients are people with businesses that need brand strategy and designs. Done.

Fast forward to today: I know exactly what my ideal persona ate yesterday, what shoes they bought today, and where they will go for a happy hour tomorrow! Crazy, right?

But let me tell you what changed and how this little thing helped me grow my business.

We love our businesses, don’t we?

Sometimes we create brands that we like. We start our businesses because we are simply passionate about being entrepreneurs and working for ourselves (for whatever reason), and/or we truly believe in our product and services and we know we can help other people solve their problems. And that’s what makes us happy, that’s what makes us fulfilled.

And in all that, we sometimes start a business and create content, social media posts, design logos and websites for us! We forget about the customers. Yes, during our journey we forget about them. We may know who our customers are on a basic level, but we don’t put enough effort into finding the exact clients. The reason behind that is because we don’t see the value in spending (or wasting) our time while finding that one person who would be a perfect customer for our brand.

Do we need only one target persona? Why would we limit our potential?

Let’s just imagine that you know your target customer, and you defined all the details that you “need.” For example, your customer is Amanda. She is a 32 year old massage therapist, and she works downtown for a medium size company, a well-known spa in town. She loves her job but is dreaming of having her own business, and she keeps researching about how she can start one, what she would need, how much money it would take, and how she can promote her business in order to find her own clients.

Every evening she either looks online for this kind of information or she finds local networking events where she can meet other entrepreneurs and learn more about what it takes to get there. So her main activities are: 9-5 job, online web search (Google Search), and networking events. Now, let’s say you are a business coach, or you are selling furniture for offices. Wouldn’t you want to go to those kinds of events to find Amanda and give her your flyers? Wouldn’t you want to meet her? Also, wouldn’t you create content on your website, Facebook, and Instagram that appeals to Amanda’s interests and lifestyle so when she sees you online during her after-work research she gets in touch? If your target was not that specific, you would never have had the idea of where you might find your next customer. And not to mention, THAT Amanda knows other entrepreneurs and can recommend you, send referrals and help you grow your business.

But that is just one person! What about Nick?

This doesn’t mean you’re targeting literally one single person, but you are targeting your ideal client. When you keep Amanda in mind while building your brand, all the other “Amandas” that are out there will resonate with your content, they will feel connected to your brand, and they will either purchase your services/products or at least remember and recommend you.

Maybe you have created the whole website, flyers and your business cards for Amanda, but what if Nick needs a business coach as well? He would contact you too! It’s not about narrowing down your audience but about being clear on who needs you, where those people are, and how you can put your brand in front of them – that’s how YOU scale YOUR business!

So, do I need to define my ideal client?

Directing all of your branding to a single hypothetical client provides a sense of clarity and direction in your branding. Not everyone is interested in what you have to offer, so why waste your time and money on trying to do things that won’t bring you success? Targeting specific people is much more effective, efficient, and affordable than being all over the place.

Your business’s entire focus should be on your target. Your brand is for them, and your business exists because of them (it’s not for you). Your message, your voice, your visuals such as your logo and website, your social media posts– everything should be created for them, in colors and styles that are attractive to them, and around topics that interest them. Your target customers are the ones that need to know, like, and trust you in order to make a purchase and help you grow your business.

It's easy, right?!

I did say in the beginning how I knew I could create an ideal target persona’s avatar in 30 minutes, but that was before I actually tried to create one. You might not need 8 hours like that guy at the conference said, but you will need to do it step-by-step.

Some of the things you will need to know is if you are business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C). From there you can work on demographics (gender, age, education, location, income…) and then psychographics (interests, hobbies, beliefs…). Knowing these two aspects will help you picture who that person is and what that person does. You will know what they’re exposed to, what their day-to-day life looks like, what is important to them, and where exactly they hang out online or offline. You will also be able to imagine their day and what they do in that day. You can know if they go out for a networking event (like Amanda), if they like yoga, where they buy their shoes… and so on.

How do you now scale your business knowing your clients?

Once you know your ideal client, your branding, marketing and advertising efforts will be waaay more effective and affordable. Your brand and business goals will be based on your target, and you will find it easier to create an actionable plan to achieve the goal that you want for your brand. You will know what kind of content you need to put on social media platforms, your website, and email marketing to speak to that ideal client that will want to buy from you! Once you have your brand voice tailored towards them and you know their pain points, they will resonate with it, and they will purchase!

I have created this FREE webinar on how to create the right content for YOUR ideal client. You can WATCH IT by signing up here.

You will:

- Learn what stories people resonate with the most and how to create your brand story

- Know exactly what your ideal client needs to hear in order to pull the trigger and contact you or purchase your product

- Get ideas and inspiration on what to create for your social media pages and website so they simply speak the truth

- Be able to communicate so effectively with your target persona that your ideal client will know that your business is the solution to their problem

If you want to grow your business through powerful branding you can now visit Brand Clarity Course page: www.BrandClarityCourse.com