Everyone is always talking about her: your ideal client.
Whoever she is, she’s real popular.
In fact, people are going out of their way to make sure their entire businesses, content, and offers are perfectly tailored to what *she* likes the most.
The thing is, too many business owners stop defining their ideal client when they say “I work with small business owners” or “I work with women ages 30-50.”
Defining your ideal client isn’t just something you do for them, it’s something you do for yourself too. The more specific you are about who you want to work with, the better you are able to serve them when they come to the doors of your business (virtual or otherwise.)
Basically, when you have a clearly defined ideal client, it makes every communication point in your business easier.
You know how to speak, show up, communicate, set boundaries, and create new offers, because you know exactly who you’re speaking to, down to their coffee order.
If you’re having a hard time defining your ideal client, then this blog post is for you. Lezzgo.
First, to understand who your ideal client is, you need to answer some questions about you
I’m just going to say the quiet part out loud here: most business owners put off defining their ideal client because they are scared.
Scared of what, you may ask? Oh, it could be any number of things from fear of rejection, fear of a smaller client base, or fear of being boxed into a niche they’ll get bored of.
However, not defining your ideal client doesn’t create freedom — it only creates confusion.
It’s not fair to your audience for you to be confused about who your business is for, so here’s what you need to ask yourself when you’re working to define your ideal client:
- Who do you like working with the most?
- What kind of clients are in your current client base?
- Who gets the best results from working with you?
- What kind of clients do you want to attract more of?
- Who do you want to deter from inquiring with you?
Sometimes your ideal client is more of the people who are already in your client base. Sometimes your ideal client is more of that 1 random person who booked you 6 months ago, but whose project lit up your whole month.
Even more uncomfortable to acknowledge? Defining your ideal client might mean you have to deter some people who you’ve attracted in the past, simply because they’re not equipped to get good results from working with you.
In order to define your ideal client, you need to be honest with yourself as a business owner first.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are the questions you should be answering in order to determine who your ideal client is:
1. What are their demographics?
First, you’ll want to determine the demographics of your ideal client.
As in:
+ What’s their gender identity?
+ How old are they?
+ Where do they live?
+ What’s their cultural background?
+ What’s their economic context?
These might sound surface level, but they really are crucial for marketing your business. A 30-year-old in New York City will have a different perspective on the world than a 50-year-old who lives in the suburbs.
2. What tabs are open in their browser? (both literal and mental tabs?)
This is one of my favorite questions to ask my clients about their ideal clients.
In fact, you can probably answer this about yourself too, to better understand your people:
What tabs do you have open on your browser now? (besides this one of course.)
But also:
What mental tabs do you have open?
Are you wondering what to make your kids for dinner? Are you thinking about the concert tickets you want to book? Are you looking for a new way to stick with your exercise routine?
All of these “open tabs” inform what’s important to us and what problems we’re trying to solve on a daily basis. This helps paint a clearer picture of who your ideal client is, but from a much more in-depth and human perspective.
Answering a question like this helps take your ideal client from a concept to a real person with a life and identity.
3. What problems do you help them solve?
Your ideal client is probably looking for a solution to the same problem you can help them with right now.
But they’re not going to be moved to work with you if you can’t clearly share that you can help them solve a problem they currently have.
And this is something you have to be very clear with.
To make it easier, think about the problems your ideal client is facing on different levels.
On the surface, they might be dealing with problems like:
+ Needing a new website for their business
+ Getting their site to show up on Google
+ Learning how to be consistent with their email list
But below the surface, they might be dealing with problems like:
+ Being embarrassed every time someone asks for their website link
+ Getting frustrated an DIYing their SEO through YouTube videos and freebies
+ Wondering if it’s even worth it to have an email list if they never know what to write
Your ideal client is probably dealing with a lot of problems, but they might not always be aware that you have the solution to those problems, so your job is to connect the dots for them.
4. What really keeps them up at night?
Similar to the problems that your ideal client is dealing with, you should have a pretty good guess on what keeps them up at night.
What is your ideal client ruminating on as they are trying to fall asleep?
Yes, these could be literal problems they are dealing with, but it could also be identity issues.
Maybe they really want to be seen as someone who’s successful.
Maybe they want to set a good example for their kids.
Or maybe they are just frustrated they don’t have more time to themselves to pursue their passions.
And guess what? You’ve probably had your own long nights of tossing and turning before. If you can tap into that anxiety or frustration, and show that you empathize, that helps your ideal client see you as a trustworthy person to work with.
5. What do you have in common with them?
This is where you really get inside their heads.
Yes, this could be all the stuff we’ve talked about before (maybe you’re a health coach who has also dealt with your own health issues, so that’s what you have in common with your ideal client) but it could be stuff totally unrelated to business!
Maybe you and your ideal client both have a love for Reality TV. Or perhaps you both love Taylor Swift and romantasy.
Maybe your ideal client really cares about social justice issues, and you share their values.
Finding things that you have in common with your ideal client is how they see you as someone they trust. People tend to trust people who are similar to them, and even small similarities and interests can build a lot of trust.
Sum it all up in an ideal client profile
Ok, now that you’ve answered all these questions to determine who is your ideal client, what do you do with this info?
I would recommend keeping all this information about your ideal client in one easy place called an ideal client profile.
This way, you can easily refer to your document when you’re working on copy or content that will be speaking to them.
When I’m working with clients, I also like to write up a profile that’s in the form of a narrative, clearly outlining the process that a client will take to hire my client, like someone is reading a short story.
When you have your profile clearly outlined, it makes it easy to speak directly to them when you’re working on your marketing materials.
Need some help here? Hire me!
Ok, I know all of this can sound easy on the surface, but sometimes you need someone to be a sounding board to make sure that the language you’re using really resonates with the dream clients you’re trying to call in.
If you need help, you’re in the right place.
Here’s how I can help you:
I can write your entire website for you so it calls in your ideal clients 24/7. Take a look at my copywriting services here to learn more.
You can learn more about my Main Character Messaging™ Framework if you need help with your messaging.
Or, you can book a 90-minute strategy session with me so we can nail down your messaging and zhuzh up your marketing.
