I had a client meeting this morning with one of my ideal clients who is working on launching a new initiative for her existing business. We were talking about marketing and I was trying to give her some ideas for narrowing down her niche so that she could refine her message and reach the clients that she was trying to attract.
She is a personal trainer, so potentially she could serve many different kinds of people, right? But this trainer is different from other personal trainers. She has her own style and approach to fitness and healthy living that she has been refining over the 20 years or so that she has been involved in the fitness industry.
In the process of rolling out this new product offering, it is necessary for her to create a profile for her ideal client so that as we begin to develop marketing materials, she will know exactly who she is looking for, and those people who are in her target market will resonate with her marketing messages and come to her.
Here’s a round-up of some articles that tackle this issue of finding your ideal client:
How Psychographics Strengthen Your Small Business Marketing
by Lisa Mininni
“Know who your audience IS, not just what they want… to find the ideal client.
Whether you’re starting up your business or have been in business a while, you must be exact to attract your ideal clients. However, when the going gets rough small business owners cast a wide net hoping to pull in someone. They quickly become disappointed when their prospect pipeline dries up.
One tool to keep that prospect pipeline full is your ideal client profile.
Your ideal client profile is the description of the person you would be happiest to work with. It focuses on a specific kind of client. One that reads your materials and is so mesmerized by your message they keep reading. It means that when you speak to them, they are compelled to. . .”
Read more: http://bit.ly/xVN9H5
Two simple ways to find your ideal clients
by Fabienne
“Wouldn’t it be great if you could find your ideal clients all in one place? What if they were gathered together for you? That would sure make marketing a heck of a lot easier wouldn’t it? The good news is that this is completely possible!
There are two basic ways to find your ideal clients and both methods work really well.
1. Find ways to pull your ideal clients toward you, inexpensively and in large numbers.
There is something you could offer, whether it’s a special report, a class or workshop you could create that your ideal clients would literally jump for. One important feature, is that whatever you decide on, it should be available free to prospects. This eliminates any. . .” http://bit.ly/yXc3Cv
How to Identify Your Ideal Customer
by April
“Remember that Your Ideal Customer Lights You Up
You can start to narrow down your ideal customer by knowing who isn’t your ideal customer. Start by making a list of the “not so fun” customers you’ve had in the past. This could be someone you liked but didn’t connect with. This could be someone who seemed interested in your services at first, but always had an excuse as to why she didn’t follow through. What characteristics do these customers share?
What customer experiences have lit you up? I want you to stick with the experiences that have made you jump out of bed in the morning to start working, enticed you to. . .” http://bit.ly/wSj3Uq
How to Find Your Niche, Determine Your Ideal Client, and Target Your Market
by Online Business Coach Donna Gunter
“How do you find your niche, target market, tarket, niche market, ideal client? Whatever you call it, you need to define it for yourself to be successful in business. Whatever you want to call it, the way I define these terms is as follows: offering what you do best (your niche) to a group of people (your ideal client) who hang out together in some organized fashion who desperately need and will pay for what it is that you offer (your target market).
Most business owners are afraid to declare a niche or focus on a target market for fear of excluding people. Read this next sentence carefully: In order to be successful, your goal needs to be to exclude as many people from your business as possible. As a matter of fact, I do that regularly with my website. One of the primary goals of my website is to. . . “
Read more: http://bit.ly/wx9s2n
Who is Your Ideal Client? Do you know?
by Jennifer Bourn
“While getting started on brand strategy and design and website strategy with my clients, one of the first things I want to know is who the ideal client is. Who is the person the brand and website must resonate with and speak to. Who does it need to attract to my client?
How do you know who your ideal client is? Your Ideal Client is some one who:
- Has problems and challenges you can easily fix and solve with your eyes closed
- Sees you as a valuable necessity they treasure, instead of a necessary evil
- Likes you, appreciates your hard work, and will tell their friends, peers, and contacts about you
- Will pay you what you’re worth and will be happy to do so because they know you’re worth it
But how do you find out exactly who they are?”
Read more: http://bit.ly/A0Onw0
Once you have a clear picture of who your ideal client is, what they want, what they hate, what keeps them awake at night, what is the solution that they are searching high and low for, you will be able to create marketing materials that are a perfect match to that audience.
One way to begin to speak the language of your market is to create a survey and ask them some questions about what they are looking for in the product or service that you have to offer. Read their responses carefully and pick out some of the language that they have used so that your marketing materials are written in a way that answers their questions using their own language.
Have you discovered your ideal client? How has defining the psychographic profile of your ideal client helped you in your business? Please share in the comments.
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