If you have been in business for any length of time, you probably have one or more of them: The perfect (or ideal) customer. People who do business with your regularly, and do so in amounts that make a difference to your bottom line.
Not to mention that they are so happy with their client/customer experience that they happily tell others about it for free, sending more business your way.
If you are a new startup, wouldn’t you like all of your clients or customers to be happy and make everything worth your while?
Ideally, you would like all of your clients or customers to be like this, right?
Well, maybe you can…
Why do you need to understand your perfect customer?
Firstly, if you understand your perfect customer or client, you can tailor your products or services, sales process and all interactions around that one ideal person. The whole system should be aimed at creating the ultimate customer experience for that ideal person.
That way, not only will they do business with you for a very long time, but they will also be inclined to refer others to you.
Secondly, understanding your ideal customer allows you to target your marketing and online content to each – and resonate with – people who resemble that “perfect person”.
As always, start with the customer or client in mind:
Firstly, unless you already know the industry – and its customers/clients – very well indeed, go and see for yourself what people want and need.
But how do you get that information?
Simply go and find places where people discuss their problems, needs/wants and their feelings regarding dealings with other providers.
You can find conversations like this on forums, Facebook groups, Linkedin groups and even Twitter threads. You can also look at blog posts on the topic/s with lots of comments, and look at real reviews on places like Yelp and Amazon.
Simply type “xxxxx problem” (xxxx = topic, niche, situation, product or service) into Google and start exploring. You could also – in online forums – do more detailed searches, and see how regularly these conversations pop up.
Once you know what people want and need, and how they feel about it, you can move on to the next step: Deciding which of these people you want to serve.
- Who do you want to serve with your business?
- If you created your business to serve ONE single person, what would that person be like?
- Would it be someone with a specific set of needs or wants?
- Would it be a specific segment of the market?
- Would it be someone experiencing a specific situation within a specific niche?
- Would it be someone with a specific spending ability, or from a specific income class?
- Would it be someone from a specific area?
- Would it be someone from a specific gender?
- Would it be someone with a specific lifestyle?
- Would it be someone who is unhappy with other solutions out there?
Expand your list of questions to include all common denominators. Fair enough, many of the people who eventually do business with you will not “tick all the boxes” – but for now, just use all of this information to create an Ideal Customer profile, or ICP as it is commonly referred to.
Some even call it “creating an avatar”.
Once you have created the avatar or ICP, and you have a good idea of what they want and need, you can position yourself as being the go-to provider for what they want.
You can do this by wording advertisements to address their exact needs and wants, and by creating online content that resonate with them. Since you – by now – understand them, and know what their most pressing issues are, doing so becomes relatively easy.
For content ideas, go and have a look at content (on blogs and social media) that has attracted a lot of engagement. Which of these posts will resonate with your perfect customer? Copy the ideas, and create content for “that one specific person” which you created a profile for.
For ideas regarding advertising, simply keep your eyes open when you search on Google, and browse websites. When you see ads that will resonate with your ICP, note the ideas.
As you collect more and more ideas, it will become easier to come up with your own ideas, tailor made for your perfect customer.