2 steps to Understanding your Ideal Customer

Understanding who your ideal customer is a huge piece of the puzzle when building a business doing work that you love. You need to know who you are communicating with, I mean really know them and understand them.

Always remember that your ideal customer is a living, breathing human with hopes, dreams, and is actively searching for what you have to offer.

Take a minute to think about your ideal customer. You know who I’m talking about, the one you love to serve, help and do business with.

For this exercise, you want to be very specific, the more specific you are the better.

Now you may be wondering why being so detailed is that important. There are actually several reasons for this.

First off, your ideal customer will affect your messaging. You need to know the exact language you need to use in emails, blogs, social media posts and newsletters. It’s how you share your story with your customer.

Knowing your ideal customer also affects the offers you create. The more you understand your customer the easier it will be to communicate and create a product or service to meet their specific needs.

It also affects where and how you promote your offers. If your client is hanging out on Instagram, then that is where you want to be sharing your message. You can also create perfectly targeted Facebook Ads by knowing who your ideal customer is.

Knowing your ideal customer will affect your sales. People buy what they want, not always what they need. And just because you think they will want something, doesn’t mean you’re right.

The best part is you will be attracting customers you want to work with, and nothing is better than working with dream customers, who turn into raving fans.

Crafting your Avatar

The goal is to describe your customer so well that you can easily step into her shoes. You will know her so well you begin to think like her, experience her emotions and understand how she lives on a daily basis. Remember to give her a name, she will be who you write and speak to in all of your communications.

Visualize who you want to work with? How awesome is this, you get to choose. Here are a few things to consider when visualizing the characteristics of your ideal customer.

Age, relationship status, # of kids, career, income, passions, goals, values, challenges, dreams, books, shops, music, social media, hobbies

Now that you have identified who your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) is, it’s time to have a chat with her and deepen your relationship.

Research

The best way to find out why someone would be interested in working with you is to just ask. Your goal is to have a conversation with at least 5 people you feel could embody your ideal customers traits. Or if you have favorite customers- pick up the phone and talk with them.

Make the conversations fun and casual. You can meet them for coffee or just have a chat on the phone. Remember your goal is to sit back and listen and let them do most of the talking.

Make a list of questions before you chat that will help you connect with them. Here are a few of my favorites to get you started.

·Tell me about your life right now. What are your favorite parts? (You’re looking for the basics, where they live, work, married, kids, pets)

·What does your typical day look like?

·I’m working on a new idea for _____ and I’m curious….

·What’s working for you now? What do you like about _____?

·That makes sense. Tell me more about why that’s important to you…

Well if you’re like me, these phone calls will be scary but once you completed them you will see why they are such an important part of the process of identifying your ideal customer.

I beg you, please don’t skip this step.

If I’m being honest I skipped this part so many times. I thought I didn’t need to talk to my customers because I was my her just a few years ago, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When I started reaching out and connecting with customers and potential customers I really got to know who I was connecting to and began attracting clients that wanted to work with me and are my dream clients.

If you want to make sure you’re on the right track with your ICA, I invite you to send me an email, let’s schedule a 30 minute clarity call and make sure your ideal customers are ready to do business with you.