If you’ve been researching the term “how to find clients” chances are you’ve heard a term “who is your target audience??” being thrown around. And if you have heard it, it's for a good reason- It’s the epicenter of your marketing endeavors. Allow me to change the narrative of how these concepts have been previously introduced.
I ask you to consider taking the traditional view of how to determine a client and turn the concept on its head and start with the question “Who would you like to work with?”. If you start this way, you save yourself the effort of marketing to the people you won't serve. In the long run, it saves you time and money. Time, which we never seem to have enough of in a day and money-which you know at times can serve your company or yourself well in the toughest of times of your business cycle.
So now that your perspective has shifted, let’s delve into the mechanics of how to figure out who your ideal customer is.
Determine Your Ideal Customer’s traits
Firstly, try to figure out who you are talking to. If you don’t know who you are talking to, how then can you best serve them? Below I break down how you can go about analyzing your customer.
P.S We provide the context of what we mean below, so keep reading:)
Demographics
Demographics refers to the income level, the specific age group, education level, and family status of your customers. Now, this is important to gauge in for many reasons.
1.It allows you to narrow in on which platforms best reach your customers.
2.Determine the choice of wording to use when communicating with them, and most importantly.
3.Determine who to target when you do Google do Facebook ads.
Let's break this golden nugget down. Take for instance Age level.
Determining the age level of your ideal audience would determine:
1.Which social media platforms to use
But why?. Well for one, certain age groups tend to migrate to certain platforms. Below is a diagram from Statista.com illustrating this.
The diagram illustrates the age group between 35 to 44 tend to use Instagram more as opposed to 65 + generation.
So this is eye-opening, take a scenario of a company that sells products related to Osteoporosis, given that the illness affects those 50+ chances are a large sum of your age group isn't on Instagram.
It must also be mentioned that age group and platform relevance also requires a different form of messaging strategy. Take Linkedin for instance, it caters specifically to business professionals and therefore requires a different form of messaging and communication etiquette.
Psycho Graphics:
This has to do with customers’ interests, lifestyles, hobbies, and values.
Here we dive into their personal lives. Asking questions like:
What is your ideal customer's lifestyle like?
What are their interests?
What are they passionate about?
What makes them happy?
What hobbies do they partake in their spare time?
What values do they uphold?
This is where you can craft the perfect message that resonates with them and aligns with your business characteristics and strong points.
Behavioral Information
This aspect deals with purchasing reason and purchasing behavior. It alludes to why and what they purchase and what additives they purchase alongside the main purchase. This allows you to see their frequency of purchases and buying patterns so you can place your product and service strategically in accordance with their lifestyle.
Geographic location
This is merely the location your buyers are situated. Knowing where your ideal customers are located is important when you factor things like user experience, convenience, determining how to benchmark when you consider characteristics to maximize on that outperform the competitor.
Take this scenario, for example, ideally, you want to locate your high-end jewelry store that has a high price tag in an affluent area, that receives high amounts of high-end foot traffic.
On the other hand, you may have a furniture business, so you want to also be situated in an area that allows you to easily gain access to your goods. This is important if you need to consider how to get big monthly shipments to your store, through the narrow streets and busy ports without delays in delivery time which may affect efficiency and sales if delayed.
Determining all these factors affect your company and customer.
So look at it holistically, identify the pros and cons that a particular location may possess from a financial standpoint and the customer journey perspective.
As promised, our example:
For demonstration purposes here is an example of an ideal customer for a
Gym Owner:
The most ideal customer has an income level of $ 2500 to $10000 a month. They are between the age of 21 and 35. They are college or degree holders, have either single or “in a relationship” status, enjoy reading self-help books, are health conscious and engage in activities like running and cycling, tend to follow top Health and Fitness Facebook pages.
I hope you can now see why demographics are important, it allows you to see your customer from a different perspective, other than just thinking about them as a cash cow. It creates a more personalized picture from which you can create the right messaging to best communicate and serve your customer in the long run.
How to Effectively Communicate to Your Ideal Customer.
Pain Points of Your Customer
Pain points refer to the concerns and issues your customer is experiencing. When you're equipped to better understand their situation, you can build upon a language that communicates effectively with them to help better serve them.
Questions to consider:
What results would customers like to obtain from the concern they have?
What makes them feel fulfilled?
What bothers them?
What might concern them?
How does your product best help or serve them?
What aspirations do they have and how best does your product/ service or factor in with their dreams, motivations, and life?
All of these points are emotional triggers that allow you to form better ways to communicate and interact with customers, touching at the heart of your ideal customer.
But why are emotional triggers so powerful?
Well, think about when marketing made you feel a certain way or adopt a certain perception about a brand that resonated long after the advert was done, perhaps even made you an advocate for the brand?.
If you're moved, then chances are so are all consumers.
It is important to stress that understanding your ideal customers' problems as well as looking at their highs and lows puts you in the driver's seat, equipping you to better craft a message that tells a story and wins a customer over for the long haul.
Crafting the Message
Once you’ve gotten the demographics down you can now craft a message that resonates with your customer, which builds on trust and assurance. If done right, it goes on to nurture a sale and that leads to the eventual closure of a sale. It’s important that you drive the message home and all of this is done by placing yourself in your customers’ shoes.
Messaging in your Social Media and Website
Your website and social media is the first thing your customers will see or research, it then only makes sense to intrigue and captivate your audience with an opening caption or message. It should be bold enough to bring your customer in and provide the solution from the get-go.
If you're unsure of what to write, test the waters. Message your existing customers and pick their brains, let them provide you insight on your captions, or consider asking what aspects of your business characteristics and services stand out. If you capitalize on those adjectives on your website and social media then your set.
Analytics
Analytics are so crucial, getting insights from your social media and web stats gives you a bird’s eye view of what content is and isn't working. You can see which content brings more traffic your way, what content gets saved, and gets more interaction which you can use to your business's benefit. Actioning these methods sets yourself up for the win.
Well, I hope these points have brought you closer to understanding and better messaging to your customer. We provided you with tools to help you determine the inner workings of how to better understand and attract the ultimate ideal customer.
As always, if you need any help or advice, feel free to contact me.
Be sure to leave a comment below and share this with friends and family who may also need to hear this. This helps get the message out there and helps more businesses and their families move forward.
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