I know I’ve mentioned countless times on previous blogs and in my podcast (and everywhere else if you follow me online and offline) that we need to know who our who is, but today’s blog is focusing on that exact thing!
We are going to go through who your who is, where to target them, how to target them and so much other gold.
Now if you’ve done this exercise before, trust me it is still worth reading over this again, as this is a deep dive into your IDEAL CLIENT!
- KNOW YOUR WHO!
I’ve touched so many times on my podcast and in lots of previous blogs, about knowing your ideal client. Your ideal customer. Know who you are attracting.
And if that’s not who you want to attract, then you need to get to know the person you want to attract into your business.
For example if you are attracting customers or clients who are price driven and they are driving you up the wall – then you need to look at why you are attracting those people, and start attracting people who you want to do business with – the people who aren’t price driven!
Effectively understanding who makes an ideal customer allows you to build your entire business, message, product, services, sales and support around attracting and serving this narrowly defined customer group.
And a big point to know about this is the following:
NOT EVERYONE CAN BE YOUR CLIENT OR CUSTOMER!
I know lots of business owners who are afraid to market to a niche group for the exclusion of other sectors, thinking that they are missing out on money from the groups they aren’t targeting.
In my experience, if you target your marketing to a select or niche group – then your business will grow quicker and more profitable than if you try “spray and pray” targeting everyone with everything and hoping for the best.
Pepsi toppled Coke in the 80’s by focussing on one small section of the population and they’ve been competitive ever since. They niched down, marketed to that group, the marketing worked not only for the target market but created what we now refer to FOMO – Fear of Missing Out.
SO – let’s start the process of knowing who your who is.
I’ve have poured a lot of energy into creating the most comprehensive workbook on defining your ideal client.
It digs down deep into who your who is, when I say comprehensive, I mean it! The information in this workbook is what people would normally pay hundreds of dollars to learn! But for you it’s free today! Simply go to https://socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/client and you can download the workbook there.
Finding and serving an ideal customer is just so important for a business, whether just getting started or long established. A focus on discovering a narrowly defined ideal client will save months of wandering in the dark trying to be all things to all people and make your business more profitable.
And I’m not going to sugar coat it, so many small business owners don’t understand this!
They don’t understand their ideal client.
They don’t understand the power of knowing your ideal client.
Their business never grows because they don’t know who they serve and therefore how to market to them to attract them.
Please don’t be that type of business owner. Put aside an hour this week, download the workbook and get stuck into it.
Any questions or queries about it, head into my Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners, ask your question and I’ll be in there to answer them for you!
- KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE FAMOUS FOR – YES YOU!
You can’t determine who your ideal client is if you don’t have a firm handle on what your business is and what it does best and what you want to be famous for.
I’ve run into too many small business owners over the years who still haven’t mastered the basic “elevator pitch” and can’t simply explain their business when asked “what do you do?”.
Tell me “we teach children soccer” or “we install energy-saving commercial generators” and I know that you know who you are.
If this is an area that you think you need to work on – go back and have a listen to Episode 4 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast – all about Knowing your Expertise. There’s a great little exercise in there for that one too which will help get this bit right – because if you don’t know what you do – then how are your prospects supposed too.
Remember a confused buyers never buys!
- GET TO KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS.
And, don’t say that you don’t have any!
We all have competitors, and to succeed, we have to get to know them, understand what they offer, who they cater to, what their price points are, where they operate, where they find opportunities, where they succeed — and where they fail.
By getting to understand your competitors this way, you will see the openings for your business to find more clients and, perhaps, the things that you must do better to get more business from existing clients. And when you make the list of your competitors, be sure to include both traditional competitors and the businesses that are disrupting your industry, bricks & mortar and online.
One of my mentor’s stories about a dishwasher repair man who had many competitors within this business district and struggled to get new clients.
So, it was suggested to him that he do a competitive analysis – find out what he was really competing with. Which he did.
He wrote a list of his competitors and rang every one of them and graded them 1-5 on their phone manner, supply availability, their enthusiasm etc and then rated his business against the same metrics. From there he knew what he needed to improve to start winning customers – he knew what he needed to start marketing to hit the pain points of his prospects to win their business. Seems so simple doesn’t it?
If you’ve never done a competitive analysis – maybe todays a good day to start!
- GET TO KNOW WHERE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT HANGS OUT – AND BE THERE!
Where do your ideal clients hang out?
I’m not talking coffee shop, but online and offline where do they hang out that you can market to them?
Do they read the papers or magazines, do they live in their inboxes reading emails, are they in LinkedIn groups or Facebook Groups or on Instagram? Maybe they are Twitter people or avid Podcast listeners.
Marketing is simple when you know where to market and what source is best for engagement! Wherever they are, be there, participate there, give enormous free value there so that they are so curious they click, download, start following you or request to connect.
Then find out the best way to market to them. The best way to create a lead to lead them from lead to list to sale to fan. You get this right – then business will grow.
If you’re not sure about all the ways you can create leads – here is my bonus list of 46 of them!
BONUS: 46 Potential Lead Source Ideas
- Webinars
- YouTube
- Podcast
- Direct Mail
- Speaking
- Seminars
- eBooks
- Magalogs
- Tear Sheets
- Referrals
- Influencers
- Squeeze Page (or Landing Page)
- Video
- Website
- Adwords
- Advertising/Promotional Materials
- Click Pop-ups
- Books
- Telephone
- Lead Magnets
- Surveys
- Affiliate Programs
- Backlinks
- Newsletter
- Free Media & PR
- Joint Ventures
- Retargeting
- Blogs
- SEO & Organic Search and Keywords Searches
- Billboards/Signage
- Sponsorship
- Exhibiting
- Radio
- Television
- Online directories
- Networking
- Letter box drops
- Markets/Fairs/Festivals
- Content Marketing
- Align with a cause
- VIP Events
- Paid Social Media Adverts
So, let’s recap. To win more market share, to get a better return on your marketing investment and to be more profitable in your business it’s essential to:
- Know your Who – go download my workbook here.
- Know what you want to be famous for
- Know who your competitors are and what you can do better than them to win more market share, and
- Be where your ideal client hangs out, giving enormous free value because success is no accident!
If you’d like to chat about this concept further – well then, let’s get social on social and continue this conversation in my Facebook Group – Like Minded Business Owners. I’d love to hear your thoughts around knowing and finding your ideal client. Maybe you could share with others in the group who your who is, you just never know there might be your ideal customers in the group just waiting for your expertise!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenn Donovan is a marketing strategist and social media extraordinaire, coach and mentor to savvy business owners. Owner and Founder of Social Media & Marketing Australia.
With a passion for making business simple, because it’s isn’t easy but it should be simple or at least simpler, she’s built a reputation for helping other small business owners simplify their marketing and businesses so they can reach their goals, be more profitable and live the dream (finding the freedom they set out to achieve when they started … the illusive small business owner freedom dream …!)
Jenn believes in giving before asking and that’s why she’s the host of the popular Small Business Made Simple Podcast
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