Do you know what business you are in?
Do you know who your ideal client is?
Winter is a time for preparing for the coming spring which is a time for renewal and new beginnings. It is the perfect time to spend time reflecting on just what your business is and how to determine who your ideal client is.
All of us are ‘practitioners’ in one form or another, whether as bricklayers or doctors, but in reality, the business we are all in, is the Marketing of the business we are practitioners in – our main role is to get clients for our business – without a client we don’t have a business.
But, the question is, do you know where to find your client (and no, it is not ‘everyone’) – your client is a person, who wants and values your services, and who has money to pay for it.
So how so you find this client?
Well, the first step is to actually understand the ideal client (the ‘avatar’) that you want to target for your business so well, you can give them a name – can you identify and describe their:-
- age bracket,
- gender;
- hobbies and habits;
- feelings;
- what they want;
- what they respond to (or not);
- what triggers them to action.
Do you know where they congregate (whether in person – at a club; or electronically in forums, groups, etc; on Facebook; Twitter; Pinterest; LinkedIn) and how to get involved with them and understand the conversations they are already having with each other or in their own minds?
Spend the time to create a profile/description of your ideal client.
Once you understand as much as possible about the ideal client, write your marketing/promotional copy as if writing to the specific individual. Let the marketing become a personal message, where you show you understand their personal hopes, fears, wants, desires – all the unspoken emotions and feelings that drive them. Communicate in a way that has them agreeing (even if only subconsciously) with you.
By the way, defining and targeting an ideal client doesn’t mean you ignore the rest of the prospects, nor that others won’t look to buy from you, but just it makes it much easier for you to create a marketing plan that is more likely to be effective.