How to Define, Find And Attract Your Ideal Client
The ability to find your ideal client, sell your product or service and satisfy their need so that she will buy from you, again and again, is what any business owner dreams of.
As a first step, every small business and entrepreneur should know who their ideal client is, where to find them and how attract them to their product or service.
Defining your ideal client
Whether your product or service is sold online or in a brick and mortar store, I want you to close your eyes and imagine that your ideal client walks into your physical store in search of your help.
Grab a piece of paper and answer these questions as detailed as you can:
What does he/she look like?
How old is he/she?
Where does he/she live?
Is he/she alone? With a family? Friends? Partner?
What time of day is it?
What does he/she do for work?
What does he/she like to do in her free time?
What goal does your ideal client have in his/her life or work?
What challenges is he/she facing?
Now you have a physical character to sell to, think about your business and why that person would want to walk into your store:
How does your product or service help him/her achieve their goals?
Of all the benefits you offer, which are the most important to your ideal customer?
What are the most pressing needs that your product or service satisfies?
Why should your customer buy from you rather than from someone else?
What fears or objections may your customer have about your product or service?
After answering the questions above, you should have an ideal client defined. Now you need to think about where to find him/her:
Finding your ideal client
To find where your ideal client is going to be you can do several things. You can do market research by looking into your competitors. Pick 3 companies in your field that you admire and take a look at what channels they use to promote and advertise their company. Compare the results to find out where you should be present too. Also think about where they are not and whether it’s whether it’s an opportunity for you.
Next, ask your current customers or prospects what they do in their spare time and where they use media. Do they scroll through social media in their spare time? If yes, which channels? Do they go to events in your local area? Do they read the newspaper, listen to the radio, watch daytime TV?
Think about your ideal clients personality, interest/hobbies, lifestyle to develop this further.
Attracting your ideal client
I have defined this final stage as attraction and not selling because once you have your ideal client defined and located, the next step is to develop a content strategy to target them.
Please note: It’s very rare that you will be successful selling to them straight away!
You need to create content that will show your ideal client you exist and that you have something to help them.
You need to put that content in a place that they can discover it and you need to give them something to make them want to come back again to find out more.
Every time you think about promoting your product or service you should imagine your ideal client is walking up to you in your store and having a 1-1 conversation with you.
If you always imagine your ideal client when you are communicating, you will be consistent in your messaging.
Some questions to think about when creating your marketing content: Would your ideal client resonate with this message? Does this help my ideal client? Why would my ideal client pay attention to this?
After attracting your ideal client you will then take her through a process that gets her to consider your service and later convert into a customer, but that will have to wait for the next blog.