Finding Your Ideal Clients Isn’t Rocket Science
Yes, it’s true I used to be a rocket scientist and now I’m an online marketer just like the rest of us these days. I do bring my engineering mindset to my business and I like to be methodical with my approach.
I think it’s so important to zero in on who your ideal clients are and to get to work serving them.
What I’ve found is that the easiest way to get in front of your ideal clients online is to start speaking their language when it comes to the problem you’re solving, how they relate to their pain points, and what types of solutions they’re looking for.
This has made a key difference for me when I was constructing my sales page and other messaging documents. It’s the difference between thinking you know what clients are looking for and knowing without a doubt.
As entrepreneur’s we have a tendency to want to help everyone, right? We want to make a difference in the world after all. However, this mindset will actually hurt our businesses in the long run.
We’ll end up with a generic business that speaks to no one! I encourage my client’s to get as specific as possible when describing who their business is meant for.
In this online world, you only have 1 to 2 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention before they scroll onto the next offer in their feed.
I like to break my ideal client profile down into demographics as well as psychographics.
Their demographics may include, their gender, their age, geographic location, income, and possibly their ethnic or religious background. The psychographic side represents their feelings and thoughts.
This covers their pain points and what’s driving them to go out and look for a solution to their problem.
Once I get these details I go a step further to make it real. I find a picture of someone that likely fits the description I’ve created based on the information I’ve collected.
I even give them a name! I do this because I like to speak to one person who represents the core of my audience.
Even if I’m writing an email out to 5,000 people I want to run it by “Joe” my ideal client. If “Joe” likes my messaging then it’s a good bet that the other 4,999 potential Joe’s out there will too.
Where To Store Your Ideal Client?
For me, my ideal clients all live in my Google Drive. I think that’s the easiest way to store and keep track of my files.
I would recommend keeping your profiles in electronic form especially in the beginning when you’re still working on them.
Once you’re 6 months to a year into your business it may make sense to print out a copy to keep by your computer.
I like printing out my profiles because it just serves as an extra visual reminder to run all your messaging by your ideal client. I ask myself, “will Joe read this email?” “Would he click on my offer?”
This is the kind of sanity checking you want to be doing as you’re putting campaigns together. Instead of stressing about the thousands of people you might have to please, you can just focus on that one.
Action Steps
- Create a profile with demographic and psychographic information on your ideal client.
- Include age, gender, location, etc, as well as beliefs about your market, product, and the world.
- Give them a name and find a photo that can represent them.
- Print this out and keep by your computer, run all your messaging by them as an internal test. Make sure this “ideal person” would be resonating with what you’re putting out into the world.
Result You Will Achieve
Better messaging by creating a profile on your ideal client and gearing your marketing to speak to that person instead of your whole list.
This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.