How-to Define Your Ideal Customer

Hey, welcome to your guide to marketing your business on social, simply and successfully.

Today is all about getting to know the most important person in your business.

Pour yourself a coffee, and let’s get into it.

Now, I gotta warn you. This may be one of the more challenging parts in this course. But it is the most vital, to not only the success of your social media efforts, but to your business in general.

I'm gonna walk you through the process and give you the tools and information you need to create a detailed Ideal Customer Profile.

But first! What do I mean by Ideal Customer Profile?

And Why do you even need to spend your time on getting to know your ideal customer?

To answer the first question:

Your Ideal Customer Profile is your intimate knowledge of the person who is the reason why, you do what you do. Marketing is about helping change lives for the better. You saw a problem and you created a solution that solves someone’s problem. Who is your someone? Who do you love to serve?

I want you to think of them as ONE single person who represents your perfect customer. So instead of thinking about a range of random people, like “Professional Women, aged between 25 - 44” Try instead “She’s 35, and she runs her own business” 

Give them a name. Try to picture what they might look like.

Maybe you have already been in business for while and you have a couple of clients or customers already. Which one customer ticks all the boxes?

They are the one’s who get the most value out of working with you, and the feeling is mutual, because working with them is a pleasure.

They just get it. You don’t need to spend too much time trying to explain it to them.

They don’t waste your time and they pay on time. For your business to be successful, you need more people like this.

To answer the second question - Why do you even need to spend your time on getting to know your ideal customer?

First of all I have to say that putting a face to who I was talking to was a game changer for me, especially when it comes to writing copy, I saved so many hours previously wasted on thinking about what to say and how to say it, because once I had done the deep dive into who my ideal customer was I knew exactly what they needed and wanted from me.

Listen, we both know social media is a noisy place and it can be hard to get attention. And truth bomb it is only getting harder.

But when you have an ideal customer profile it gives you focus and direction that will end up saving you both time and money - because A

• you’re message will stand out to your someone, making them feel special and seen, because your speaking directly to them and not to the masses.
• And B You are not wasting money on a spray and pray approach - trying to reach everyone.

Because as the saying goes - if you try to create content for everyone you will resonate with NO ONE.

Your message will become diluted, unspecific and irrelevant. And you will get lost in all the noise.

Whereas when you can empathize with what’s going on in the head of your ideal customer you will be in a better position to connect to the people who most need your content, product or service because they will feel like you get them. Which means you will see an increase in your engagement and conversions.

Now what if what you do serves a wide range of different customers?

Let’s say you own a little hipster coffee shop, with cool, bit of an edgy vibe.

You got cool edgy hipsters who love your coffee. But you also get the student, the businessman, and the mom who comes in after school drop-off. So you will create 4 ideal customers right? No No No.

You need to get super narrow and focus all your energy on your edgy hipster. They are your tribe and your most powerful word of mouth. Just Imagine if you created 4 different instagram posts - the first one goes up and its down with the lingo of your hipster. You hipster sees it, likes it and continues to get their coffee from you. The next post is designed to speak to the mom who drops her kids off at school. First of all, its most likely that mom visits your coffee shop to feel that youthful edgy vibe, and if you changed for her she wouldn’t come back. Second your hipster sees it and realizes he got you all wrong, he’s confused, you’re not for him. So he finds another place that is just for him and people like him.

Targeting everyone means you end up with no one. And being super specific gets you people who are like that, and those who want to be like that.

Now you might be asking yourself: 

“How the hell am I supposed to know what my ideal customer is thinking?”

This is where you need to put yourself in their shoes.

Imagine where they are in their life today? What do they hope for?

What are their greatest fears?

In many cases, for small business owners, your ideal customer may be someone like yourself, or you a few years ago - before you went through a transformation to become who you are today. If that’s the case for you it makes things easier because you can think back about what you wish you knew back then.)

I’ve spent a lot time researching this subject, and learnt a lot from people like Marie Forleo, I’ve also tested it with a range of different clients - and finally compiled the questions that you need into a Worksheet for you to fill in.

These questions are designed to help you to get inside the head of your ideal customer. You don’t have to answer all of the questions just as many as you can.

If you get stuck and need help with any of the answers, then the best thing that you can do is to ask the people who represent your ideal customer,  you can do this by emailing them a survey, or even better give them call.

I find a Google Search super insightful.

Simply type in your subject matter (try to be as specific as possible)

And on the first page of results you will see a section called “People Also Ask” -

click “see more” and you will find all the related questions your ideal customer might have. Its a brilliant indicator of what their looking for.

 Another amazing source of insights is Facebook Groups. Search for a related group and spend some time reading the posts and comments. What are some of the most frequently asked questions? What are the most common pain points?

Go deep in your investigating. And set your business up for success by creating a profile of your ideal customer that is as detailed as possible.

And that’s it from me. I hope that this got you thinking. Remember to keep it super focused and specific.

Well done for showing up today!

This is an important step towards winning over the hearts and minds of your tribe.

If you have any questions you can leave a comment under this lesson and I’ll be checking in to answer it.