Do you know who you’re selling to? I mean, really know them?
Knowing and understanding the people you need to sell your products or services to is a crucial step in the marketing process for any business, small or large. Even though it can be a lengthy process, it shouldn’t be skipped.
The core purpose of defining your ideal client / customer is to give you clarity over exactly who you’re selling to and make your marketing efforts more targeted.
Identify your target audience
Your target audience is a specific group of consumers most likely to be receptive to your marketing campaigns and buy your stuff.
To be able to create content that engages your target audience, you’ll need a clear understanding of who they are so your content “speaks to” the right people, using the correct tone and language most likely to appeal to them.
It can take some time to learn all about your target audience but it’s very important as you’ll be able to offer helpful solutions to their problems and increase the chances of them engaging with your business.
Start with the people currently interacting with your business. The ones who have bought from you or enquired in the past, subscribed to your mailing list and follow you on social media have already shown an interest in what you offer. Where do they frequent online? This is where you need to conduct your research.
Conduct market research
Now that you know who your target audience are, you can find out where they hang out online so you can go there to observe them. The things you’ll need to take note of include:
- What are their demographics such as their age, gender, location, language, occupation, education, income, etc?
- What are their goals that your business can help them achieve?
- What challenges or pain points are they experiencing that you can help them with? How can you save them time / money / stress, etc?
- Which sources of news, education and entertainment do they use? The kind of magazines, books, TV shows, websites, etc.
Facebook and online forums like Reddit are often a goldmine of information and a great way to discover conversations about the pain points your target audience are experiencing.
Also, client / customer feedback from surveys or testimonials, social media account insights and Google Analytics / Search Console are valuable sources of data too.
Take notes on your target audiences’ personality characteristics, lifestyle, social class, habits, challenges and behaviours too. This may take a bit more time to research and observe but it’s important.
If you don’t have any survey data to go by, try creating a simple survey to send out to your social media followers and mailing list subscribers using a free tool like SurveyMonkey. This is a great way to get the data you need right from the source!
Gather all that juicy information in your notebook because you’re going to need it to create a specific, data-backed avatar for your ideal client / customer.
Create your Ideal Client Avatar (ICA)
You’ve probably heard the old marketing expression …
”If you try to speak to everyone, you’re basically speaking to no one.”
This is why creating an Ideal Client Avatar (ICA) is a crucial step.
An ICA is a fictional representation of your ideal client or customer and allows you to treat your audience as an individual person to tailor your content to them making it sound more authentic and relevant.
The first step to creating this “person” behind your ICA is to start with identifying the most common characteristics of your target audience, which you would have discovered during your market research.
The next step is putting this information into a document that you can refer to whenever you need a refresher on who you’re writing for. Lucky for you, I’ve created an easy-to-use template that’s ready to roll! Download it below.
It’s best to have just one avatar but if you have a very diverse audience, you may want to create more than one. Two, maybe three maximum is a good number to stick with because remember – “if you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’re speaking to no one“!
The trick is, when creating your marketing campaigns and writing your sales copy, you can picture you’re writing to the specific person in your avatar.
Ultimately, this process is about getting to know and understand your clients / customers as well as you can. By spending the time now perfecting your ICA, you’ll be saving yourself so much time in the future because you’ll know exactly who you’re writing for with each and every marketing campaign.
If you need help with creating your ICA, or you’d just like to discuss how you can use your avatar in your marketing efforts, schedule a free 30 minute general chat with me.
