How To Target Your Ideal Customer
If you’re going to do any marketing at all, it’s imperative to understand why you’re doing it and who you’re doing it for. It’s very important to remember that everything is about your audience and what’s it for them. You can only do that if you really know who they are.
The more you can learn about your audience, the more you’ll be able to target your ideal customer. Here are 8 ways that you can ensure your products and services will always appeal to your target audience.
1. Create Client Avatars
A client avatar, also sometimes called a client persona, is a representation in writing and pictures of a sample customer in a specific stage of their buying journey and your marketing funnel. By creating this profile, you can better target the content you create, publish, and share with your ideal buyer.
For example, you might find a stock picture of what you think your ideal buyer looks like in general. They might be male, 30 to 45 years old, interested in learning kickboxing in order to get fit and lose weight. Draw that person so you can use that information every time you create more content or products.
2. Understand Your Buyer’s Intent
Part of understanding your buyer’s journey is getting to know your buyer’s intent. This means that you need to know the reason why they’re consuming that content right now and what they want to accomplish.
For example, if your client is socializing on Facebook, their intent is to socialize, not buy your product. Knowing this fact, how will you communicate with them there about your product?
3. Know Where Your Buyers Hang Out
One way to learn more about what your buyers like is to find out where they hang out, both online and offline. When you know where they get their information, where they like to discuss that information, who they surround themselves with, and what they’re doing, you’ll be able to be where they are with an offer to give them exactly what they want.
For example, if your buyers like to comment on a specific guru’s blog posts, you wouldn’t go there and start selling, but you might go there with an intelligent comment that tweaks their interest enough to click your profile and find out more.
4. Know the Problems You Solve
The more you understand what your products and services really do in terms of problem-solving for your targeted buyers, the easier it will be to write copy that resonates with them.
For example, you’re not selling widgets, or eBooks, or coaching – you’re selling time, freedom, security, or fun. The solution is what you’re selling.
5. Engage More with Your Audience
Find excuses to engage with your audience by using chatbots, quizzes, assessments, and other interactive measures to get their attention. Ensure that you’re doing more than sharing information one way. You should like, share, and comment and discuss things with your audience every day.
For example, if you sell start-up business coaching, you can add a chatbot to your Facebook Messenger that quizzes interested parties about the type of coaching they need, and then the result will send them to a specific landing page with the product or service offer based on their needs.
6. Listen to Your Audience
Set up alerts and pay close attention to the conversations going on about your niche or your industry. You can gain amazing insight from observing these conversations and reviews.
For example, if you set up an alert for your “special widgets,” it may be a keyword for what others sell too. In this way, you can gain a lot of insight about your competitors and what attracts your audience to buy that special widget from that particular business. You can also see what they’re saying about you if you are the only one who sells that special widget.
7. Study Your Competition
Go to your competitors’ sites and sign up for their email lists. Buy some of their products and use some of their services. This is the best way to get insight into your competition so that you can make your product and services one step better and differentiate yourself.
For example, when you sign up for a competitor’s email list, pay close attention to the headlines they use, the type of cross-promotions they do, how often they send emails, the language they use, and other information that will help you make yours better.
8. Build Community
Nothing is more powerful than building a community of fans, buyers, and potential buyers. A strong community can overcome negative press or even similarities of products due to your personality.
For example, you can set up a Facebook group that you use to start discussions about your niche, share information about the industry, and promote your products and services through discussion, engagement and feedback.
Create An Effective Sales Funnel To Target Your Ideal Customer
There are 2 major desires upon which almost all buying decisions are made. People want to stop pain or receive a pleasure. A sales funnel is a series of steps designed to guide, inform and target your ideal customer about your products or services and how they fulfil your customer’s needs and wants.
When you create an effective sales funnel, it consistently turns prospects into paying customers if you structure it the right way. To learn more, download my free Sales Funnel Checklist which provides an outline sales funnel process for turning leads into prospects and prospects into customers.