4 Steps to Discover Who and What Makes an Ideal Client for Your Business
The first part of any effective marketing plan is to really identify who and what makes an ideal client for your business.
A lot of confusion comes into play on this topic because owners and CEOs of small businesses think target market and ideal client are the same. They are not. Ideal clients are a market segment of your target market.
In fact, you can’t pass go or effectively implement marketing tactics until you really nail this idea of an ideal client.
Steps to Discover Ideal Clients:
1. Start with Profitability: which clients or services or type of engagements are most profitable?
The key is to understand the most profitable work you do. Is it a certain product or service, type of engagement, customer, geographic area, or even a problem that is most profitable for you?
- Types of Engagements
- Types of Contracts
- Types of Services/Products
- Types of Customers
- Specific Geographic Areas
- Types of Decision-makers
2. Identify Tendency to Talk: which of these clients also talk about your business or service to others?
Here’s what I’ve found to be true about clients. Only happy clients talk about your business and happy clients are most often found because they had the right problem that you solved with the right approach which gave them the right experience.
This group of profitable clients that also talk about your business, holds the key to discovering your ideal client.
Ways These Clients Can Talk About Your Business
- Reviews
- Testimonials
- Recommendations
- Email praise
- Referrals
3. Analyze Sharable Demographics: what demographics do these clients share?
Start looking at the physical characteristics that are shared by your ideal client group. You’re looking for any common characteristics that are repeated.
Business2Business (B2B) demographics could be:
- the type of industry
- the job title of that individual
- the years that a company has been in business
- revenue levels
Business2Consumer (B2C) demographics could be:
- age
- sex
- illness
- income
- particular area of town
4. Look for Behavioral Identifiers: what behavior do they typically display that might act as an ideal client signal?
This is the secret to attracting ideal clients instead of hunting ideal clients.
- what makes these clients tick?
- what triggers them to look for someone like you?
- what behaviors can you target? (attending certain conferences, joining a chamber of commerce, happily paying for what you offer, valuing how you solve the problem, understanding the value of communication, wanting a partnership, and making referrals, etc.)
Contact your marketing consultant at Indispensable Marketing
If you’re a small service based business that needs help with identifying who and what makes an ideal client for your business or your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO services. Contact us for more information.
