If you want to grow your business, you have to spend the time figuring out who you want to do business with! Your ideal customer is the person that will become your fan and will buy, market, refer, and help you grow your business. They will be your loyal customer. You will find that they will be your loudest marketing voice.
If you want to grow, you have to find the customers who are ideally suited for your business and YOU!
I have written a post about finding your ideal customer on the blog, and I encourage you to read it if you’v missed it. The purpose of this lesson, is go go much deeper and help you develop your own ideal customer persona.
Know Your Audience
Maketing 101, know your audience. If you don’t know who your talking to, you can’t talk to them!
You will fall into one of two business types. Your either a ‘have’ or a ‘have not.’
The first group has been in business for long enough to have a pretty large circle of clients. You could spend some time putting your clients into groups and begin identifying your best customers.
The second group has not been in business long and has few to no clients. You will not be able to flip through a contact list and identify your best client. You will have to depend on some research.
Whether you are pulling from your client list or building one from scratch, here are the most important parts of the process.
Demographics Matter
Demographic data provides physical characteristics about your ideal client. It will include age, gender, employment, etc. This information helps you identify WHO your clients will be.
You need to really focus on the characteristics you want to work with. What kind of people do you really want to build your business around? This is critical. You don’t want to wake up in a couple years and find that you hate your work because you can’t stand the people you work with! Define the demographics clearly.
Demographic data includes the following:
- Age
- Gender
- Employment
- Income Level
- Education Level
- Generational Connection
- Geography/Location
Psychographic Data
Psychographic data relate to personality, lifestyle, values, attitudes and interest. It will help you get a better picture of WHY your clients buy.
You will really need to spend some time thinking about the kind of person you want to work with. Do you like working with extroverts or introverts? Are you a bold, type-A personality who likes to work with other bold, type-A personalities?
Do you prefer highly organized people? Or do you prefer people who use logical systems?
Does your ideal client tend to be optimistic or pessimistic? Do they see the world through rose colored glasses or are they a realist?
Is your ideal client religious? Does their faith have an impact in the way they behave and conduct business?
Do they subscribe to ESPN the Magazine or the Wall Street Journal? Are they a workaholic or family people?
What are their pain points? What makes them happy? What are their fears? What motivates them to act?
The Psychographic information helps you get a clearer picture of what makes your client/customer tick.
Where do they Hang Out?
Once you have figured out Who (Demographics) and Why (Psychographics), you need to identify the Where. Where do your clients hang out? What are they spending their time?
When you dive into the where, you are identifying potential marketing platforms. You would want to invest time and money getting into these places.
You are now looking for the things they do and places they go. Do they eat at high end restaurants or do they prefer fast food? What social networks are they a part of?
What magazines, both online and offline, do they subscribe to?
Learn as much about where your client hangs out as you can. This will help you as you write sales letters and blog posts. You can connect with your customer by referencing these places. It will help you build trust and connections with your audience.
WORKSHEET: Download the following worksheet to help you develop you ideal client persona.