An essential part of your marketing strategy is knowing your ideal client and who your product or service is for. Sounds super simple, right? But do you know who they really are? Do you know them deep down? Do you know what their interests are? Do you know where they hang out? These questions are such an essential part of your marketing strategy that without them, your message will get lost, your audience confused and your sales hampered.
So, how can we stop that from happening?
To get your message across through your marketing you need to speak directly to your audience. Not just anyone down the road, but to the person you’d love to have as your client. Trying to speak to the crowd will mean you’re just shouting in a sea of noisy voices, rather than being heard by the people you want to hear you. Having a crystal clear picture in your mind of who they are will help you to write your marketing copy in a way they’ll relate to, connect with and fully understand what you’re all about.
Ask yourself… WHO is that person?
Let’s narrow it right down. Right down to the individual. This is not easy, but try to picture a real client who you currently work with or have worked with in the past to help you. Jot down what you liked about that person, how they worked, how the relationship worked, and anything else you liked about them. Repeat the process and do this for a few of your clients and you should start to see some trends between them, and it’s those things that you’re looking for in your ideal client.
Now, I bet you thought I was going to get you to write down their gender, age and other characteristics about them, didn’t you? These things are useful to determine your ideal customer, but knowing what type of person they actually are is far more important. Knowing what their personality is like, what magazines they read or where they shop will give you a much clearer picture than ‘aged 30-55, females’. It goes so much deeper than this.
But remember:
Don’t fall into the trap of ‘should’ in this situation. This is YOUR audience, and no one else’s. It’s not about who your audience should be, it’s who they genuinely are. And that might not be exactly what you initially think, which is why it’s useful to think of past or present clients who you’d like more of.
And yes, I’ve said you should have a crystal clear picture, but by narrowing it down too much to start with you could end up missing someone who is a perfect client, but maybe on the face of it doesn’t fit your initial demographic. So keep an open mind, compare real life clients and do it for you, and you will start to build a picture of YOUR ideal client so you can tailor your marketing to speak to THEM.
Still not sure who your ideal client is? Why don’t we jump on a strategy session together and I can help you become clear on who you’re speaking to with your marketing. Simply get in touch to book your session.
