Defining Who You Want to Work With: The All New Way of Finding Your Ideal Client
There’s something special about being your own boss and owning your own business. It’s one of those things that we may not think we have control over, but at the end of the day you are the one with the power. One of the things that we all forget from time to time is simple: we get to pick, define and choose who we work for (i.e. our clients, customers and dream team).
Since there’s no sense in spending time and effort in attracting people you can’t stand, there are clear steps you can perfect to attract your dreamiest of clients and customers. By defining who this person is and targeting them specifically, you can begin to attract them in every way, while filtering out the rest.
If you try to market to everyone, you will end up appealing to no one. As unfortunate as that may sound, it is overwhelmingly true! This has been overwhelming clear to us in the last few months as we have shifted what we do and who we talk to. We’ve had to make small adjustments here and there in our copy, pitches and even product offerings based on who we wanted to serve.
We know at first it might be easier (or so you think) to want to appeal to everyone. When you’re just starting out you think “Well I don’t want to exclude this type of person”, but your message just ends up unclear and scattered. Try to hone in very specifically who you want to talk to and only worry about addressing them. Talk to them like they’re the only one in the room. By default you will get some other clients and customers that resonate with part of what you speak about, but if you’re only worried about convincing that one person your job gets a whole lot easier.
When it comes to figuring out your ideal client there are some mixed messages and some old school methods. We completely revamped the old school way of finding your target audience. We had been thinking for a while that there could be a new way to find our muse. We continued to see a gap in the traditional demographic questions, it was neglecting a whole group of people we had in mind.
The Old School Method
If you feel like the old school method of finding your target audience feels like filling out a voter registration form you aren’t too far off. Getting answers to questions like “age range”, “race”, “marital status” or “income bracket” we were barely scratching the surface of who our audience was. The clients we want to work with could fall into many different buckets. This isn’t a matter of who they look like they are, but who they are on the inside. Our muse is likely female, but not necessarily. She could be married with kids in a suburban neighborhood, or shacking it in a small apartment in Brooklyn. But that isn’t to say these women aren’t the same. They have something huge in common. We found that we needed to dig deeper and ask more psychological questions to find the foundation of what makes up our dream team instead of who they appear to be on the outside.
The Modern Muse
Our muse may or may not be in their small business full time. Our muse might make a little money or a lot. But our muse definitely dreams big, is optimistic, and has clear expectations for their future. The only way to find out if your own muse or dream team feels or thinks this way is to ask them directly. You can’t pull these answers out by asking generic questions. You have to get specific, ask the hard stuff and be willing to dig below the surface. People are much more complicated than who they appear to be on a simple survey.
Why It Works
When you begin to learn more about your muse’s personality, beliefs, and goals you can not only relate more but you can provide more. You will know exactly how your service or offer can help them and you can point it out. You’re not trying to work with everybody here, you’re just targeting your specific dream team. When you are able to niche down this far you also get clear ideas on how to market to this audience. How handy would it be to know that your client prefers Instagram over Facebook or that they love catching up on blogs but never check their email?
By asking deeper, more specific, psychographic questions you may think you will weed too many people out, but you are actually widening the door even further. By using the old school methods people like us were excluded from a lot of audiences. You need to ask questions that will reveal the common thread. For instance, our audience (our dreamiest of peeps) have a creative passion that they want to use to build a profitable and soul fulfilling business. They want a life beyond hustling and Instagramming. They want to put in the work (strategically) so they can see exponential results while also living a LIFE. What’s the common thread of your audience?
