Clarifying your audience for bigger profits
Do you have an ideal client avatar?
Most of the people I talk to either don’t have one, or don’t really know what their avatar is. This topic gets talked about to no end and is often used in conjunction with others things you HAVE to do in business. But you know what I’ve noticed? Most of the people telling you that you need to nail down your ideal client don’t really tell you how to do that or why it’s important. So I am here to help you do that today!
Having an ideal client avatar is important for many reasons but mostly it’s because you need to understand the way that person thinks. In order to sell anything you have to solve a problem and speak to what are called “pain points”, these are things that cause someone stress in life. These pain points need to be strong enough that people will pay money to fix them. For example: if you are a coach and help business owners decide where to go in their business it’s important to understand why this service is appealing, what problem does it solve? This coach most likely feels lost and is frustrated that they can’t move forward in their business. This is a problem that people will pay to solve!
Another reason for you to have an ideal client avatar is because you need to be able to do market research and decide if your offer is going to make money. While your mom or your husband might be awesome supporters, they aren’t going to tell you that no one wants what you are offering. If you know for certain who your ideal client is, then you can ask those people about your services and trust that their feedback is honest and will help you long term.
Finding your ideal client might seem easy enough, but it actually takes some work to really isolate what that person might be. You need to come at the idea of your avatar with a few questions in mind. Are they making a certain amount of money? How old are they? Male or Female? What do they like? What do they dislike? What industry are they in? And so on! Try to stay away from answering these questions with more than 1-3 words. For example: a female coach, age 30-55, making 10K a month, that likes wine, authenticity, and has kids. She dislikes cold messages, people who are fake, uninspired women. This is a very specific person and having this nailed down will help you create offers, target with ads, and address their needs.
You can find out all these things by looking at your current clients, who you would like to work with, and who you are currently attracting. If you want to work with women but only attract men then clearly you don’t know who your target market is and need to take some time to figure out who they are. Think about a tampon company for a moment, imagine if they didn’t know who to market to or were marketing to the wrong ideal client. If a tampon company was marketing feminine hygiene products to men, they would surely go bankrupt! Remember “the riches are in the niches”, if you want more money you need to figure out who your ideal client is.
Now I often hear people say, “I want to serve everyone”, or “I attract everyone”. That’s fine and dandy but let’s be real, some of those people are a better fit than others. I need you to think about the best client you have ever had and ask yourself what made them so great, and then write it down! You can absolutely serve whoever comes to you, but without an ideal client avatar, your messaging won’t land, your products will sell less, and you will spend a lot of time trying to focus on people that really aren’t the right fit.
