How to define your ideal customer or client (step-by-step process)

Your ideal customer, aka. the most important person in your business. Everything you do in business should be done with your ideal customer or your ideal client in mind. Everything. Today, I’m running through my quick process for how to define your ideal customer or your ideal client.

 

 

 

How to define your ideal customer or client

I've been referring to this concept of your ideal customer or ideal client quite a bit in my previous posts, but I realised I haven't really explained (a) how to define your ideal customer or client and, (b) why the heck you should spend the time defining your ideal customer.

Throughout this process, I want you to think of your ideal customer or client as one single person.

You can have more than one ideal customer or client, but I want you to think of each ideal customer or client as one person. So, for example, rather than saying “she's aged between 25 and 34 and is either a professional or running a business,” you would say “she's 30 years old and she runs her own business.” Basically, she's one person, not a range of people.

Why choose just one person as your ideal customer or client?

Well, the whole idea behind defining your ideal customer or client is that it gives you focus and direction when you're creating content. Anything you write, post on social media, record – basically anything you do in your business, you should do it with your ideal customer or client in mind.

That's why it's easier to just choose one ideal customer and get a clear picture in your mind of who he or she is. Draw them on a piece of paper, give them a name, and stick it on your desk where you can constantly be reminded of who they are. Whenever you do anything in business, ask yourself whether it's going to attract more people like your ideal customer.

A common stumbling block here is that a lot of people think that by defining one ideal customer or client they're going to stop attracting all of their other types of customers or clients. This is so not the case!

Maybe you have 10 clients on your books right now and they're all completely different people. Let's say that 5 of those 10 clients are really painful to deal with. And, 4 of them are great but they're a bit slow at paying you on time. Only one of these clients is neither painful nor slow at paying your invoices, so you want to attract more people just like this client.

How do you define your ideal customer or client?

Firstly, grab a sheet of paper and draw a stick figure. Then, give him or her name. Around the stick figure, I want you to start noting down some of the things that define who they are.

I'm going to run through some question prompts for you just to get you thinking. You don't have to answer every question – these are just designed to get you thinking.

Who is your ideal customer or client?

• How old is he or she?
• How do they make a living?
• What sort of education do they have?
• How much money do they make?
• Where do they live?
• Who do they live with?
• Do they have kids? If so, how old are their kids?
• Do they have any pets?
• What do they do in their spare time?
• What are their hobbies?
• What magazines books, blogs, newspapers, etc. do they read?
• What podcasts do they listen to?
• Do they watch TV? If so, which shows do they watch?
• Where do they shop?
• What is their favourite type of food? What's their favourite drink?
• Which brands do they regularly shop with?
• What social media platforms do they use?
• How do they use them? What accounts do they follow?

And, once you've thought about these things it's time to get inside your ideal customer or client head.

How to get inside your ideal customer or client's head

Here are a couple of question prompts to get you thinking about what's going on inside your ideal customer's head.

• What are they struggling with at the moment? It might not immediately be obvious and it might not even be related to what you do or sell. Just keep prodding until you have a really good idea of their.
• What are their biggest frustrations?
• Where do they wish they were? What do they dream of achieving? Like, what does their perfect day look like?
• And, lastly, what are they afraid of? So, what keeps them awake at night?

That's all there is to defining your ideal customer or client. There really isn't too much to it and yet it has the potential to completely change the way you market your business.

I dive a little bit deeper into this whole topic inside my brand new Instagram e-book – Insta Domination. Find out more and buy my Instagram ebook here.

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