LEARN HOW TO DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND ATTRACT YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS
Have you heard this quote, “A friend to all, is a friend to none”? It’s one of my favorites. It’s also the centerpiece of this article. What does that quote mean to you? I think it’s easier to understand by defining what a friend is.
BetterHelp uses the following to describe a “true friend”: “honesty, loyalty, dependability, and empathy. A true friend will likely listen to you and make you feel good”. As you can imagine you’re unable to be a true “friend to all”, just like you’re unable to market your business to all. Your business is not for everyone. Also, you must build trust to build friendships – running your business is no different.
So, why is this important? Because the success of your business relies on how well you target and market your clients. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry, it’s not.
Stick around and I’ll help you:
Define Your Target Audience.
Locate Your Audience or Ideal Clients.
Learn to Understand Your Audience.
Market to Your Audience by Speaking Directly to Them.
Define Your Target Audience
Unsure of what a target audience is? I’ll break it down for you. Take, for example, executive leadership coach, Marshall Goldsmith. When you first land on Marshall’s coaching page, you’ll immediately know who his target audience is…
…and once you see the price, you’ll know if you’re in that audience.
The headline on Marshall’s coaching page, says it all — “Helping Successful Leaders Get Even Better”. Clicking through his testimonials furthers this headline. Marshall works with NBA All-Stars, CEOs, and Harvard Professors (to name a few).
Do you see where we’re going? Now imagine if Marshall targeted small business owners or sales professionals. His price point and core values would not match that audience.
So Marshall targets wealthy business leaders instead. Then he targets their interests – like public speaking, and negotiating – with his content. He’s successfully matched his service (and price point) to a target audience. This means he knows how to speak to them, attract them, market them, and build loyalty.
By defining your audience you can:
Align Your Brand with Your Clients' Values.
Create a Personalized Experience for Your Clients.
Build Loyalty and Repeat Business.
Lower Your Cost for Client Acquisition.
Price Your Services Accordingly.
Market, Pitch, and Sell Successfully.
How To Find Your Audience (Or Ideal Client)
Sometimes it’s not easy until we see it in action. How do you find your target audience? And how do you know if they truly are your target audience?
Try the following:
Stalk the Competition – Who do you look up to? Or, who inspired you to start your business? Most business owners found inspiration in someone or something. If this is you, stalk them! Spend time on their website, look at their images, watch their videos, read their blogs, and subscribe to their email list. It won't take long to catch on to who they’re marketing to.
Review Your Analytics – Your website, Google, Social Network Platforms, and Email Service Providers will have detailed analytics. This should tell you the who, what, when, and where of each member of your audience.
Sales and Client Reviews – Check your sales and client review information to see who is purchasing your services.
Keys To Understanding Your Target Audience
After you’ve defined and located your target audience, dig deeper to understand them. You’ll need to uncover as much as you can about them. The analytics in the previous section is a great place to start. This will help you determine their geographical location, age, and gender.
Although this helps, you’ll still need to gather additional details. Here are some methods that will help you dig a little deeper:
Surveys – Surveys are most useful when you already have a robust email list. You’ll know by the amount of subscribers that voluntarily subscribe. Your subscriber engagement and bounce rates will reflect this as well. Send your subscribers an invitation to survey. Curate a series of questions that draw their interests out. Find out what they’ll engage with, their pain points, and their needs.
Interviews – You can conduct a client survey with your sales and review data (mentioned in the last section). Contact your clients via phone, email, or messaging, depending on your client account data. As with surveys, ask a series of questions about the service and the client.
Social Network Platforms – If you’re on a social network platform (ie: LinkedIn, and Instagram), use it like a scientist would use a lab. Try a variety of content ideas and study the analytics. Also, engage with your connections via comments and direct messages. This is another outlet for surveys and interviews.
Market To Your Audience By Speaking Directly To Them
Through the process of locating your target audience, you found where they were interacting. This will tell you where to build your marketing strategy. Where you market, impacts how you market. You’ll need to know if that is emails, blog articles, social media content, or social media ads.
Once you know where you’re marketing, it’s time to create content.
Remember the quote at the start of this article? It’s time to be a “True Friend”. Use your research to directly target your audience. Show them that you’re listening, through your brand voice. For inspiration, turn to content that attracts you (and your audience). Is your competitor successfully attracting your ideal clients? Guess what — you will too.
If you grow tired of social media content, try Ads of the World. Ads of the World is a great resource for researching ads outside of social platforms.
Remember to keep your target audience in mind. Who are they? What are their beliefs? What are their pain points? What problems are you solving?
Some ideas for your content strategy:
Anger to Envy: Use their upset to position your service as their resolve.
Build Confidence: Identify their doubts and use a testimonial to build confidence.
Budget Restrictions: Present your service as the budget-friendly option they never had.
Emotional Math: Make a statement + Their reaction = You, the answer to their objection.
Stock Outs: Use your competitor's lack of available bookings, to your advantage.
Building Your ICP The “Right Way”
In this article, I covered how to:
Define and locate your target audience.
Understand, speak, and market to them with your brand voice.
Many refer to this process as building your ICP (or Ideal Client Profile). Think of it as a persona or avatar, if you will. Your ideal client is a living breathing person, like yourself. Which brings me to my last point.
“Why Does It Matter?”
While you work your way through this process, ask yourself, “Why does it matter?”. For example, you decide to research your clients' age demographic. But, why does it matter? When you dig deeper, you find that your ideal client is a retired executive leader starting an entrepreneurial journey. Age matters here, but only to the specific situation your client is in.
This process takes time. Do your best not to get lost in a research rabbit hole.
If you have a question about the process, or you simply don’t have time for it — comment, email waylan@waylanwebb.com, or schedule a quick call with me. I’m here to help.
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