As we are going into the new year, most business owners are looking into how they can make next year better than this one. One area that is always up for improvement is marketing. In fact, it’s the area that my clients and I spend the most time in because it affects every other aspect of any type of business you may run. In the spirit of the season for business owners, here’s my tried-and-true method to supercharge your marketing.
The first thing we need to do before we even think about marketing tactics or messaging is identify our ideal client. There are a few steps to this process, and if you complete them, you will learn EXACTLY who your perfect client is and how to speak to/market to them in a way that ensures success almost every time.
For example, recently, I met with a client who’s been a director of a major national company for six years and is being tapped to move up in that company. However, she knows that even though she is successful in this company and makes a lot of money, she will eventually either walk away from it to start her own company or end up in a situation where the company is restructured, and she gets replaced. This fits the “ideal client” model I created for myself months before, which helped me land this client. Here are the exact steps I follow to identify my ideal clients regularly:
Step 1
Now, the first step to identifying your perfect client is to write a list of your current or past “wow” clients. These could be in your current business or past businesses/jobs. A “wow” client is one who you absolutely love working with and who absolutely loves working with you. When they call, you are nothing but excited to answer the phone and talk with them. You want to target ten clients, but the larger the list, the better.
Step 2
The next step is to describe each client in detail. Describe these people in such a way that another person could read it and picture that person in their mind. Include demographics like age, gender, education level, and so on. Include personality traits and what kind of challenges they have had in business. Make each description on a separate sheet of paper.
Step 3
Below the description, write out what makes/made this client a “wow” client. Where were they (in their journey) when you first met them? What pains/challenges were they having? What did you do to help them? Overall, what made it an amazing experience for you? It can be they were easy to talk to, followed your advice, always in a great move, and so on.
Step 4
Put all of these sheets of paper and put them on a wall. Then, grab a highlighter and highlight all the commonalities among your “wow” clients. All of the traits/struggles/aspects they have in common. What you will find is success leaves clues.
Step 5
Once you have all of the common traits, take one more sheet of paper and use it to write down the description of YOUR ideal client. An example could be:
My ideal client is a male business owner between the ages of 40 and 60. He has been in business for at least 15 years and currently runs a company with at least one office and 15 employees. He is very analytical but needs help building engaging cultures within his business to motivate his employees to take the reins and grow their sales numbers. He struggles with change and desperately needs to update his business systems for the 21st century.
Make sure to go into detail with your ideal client write-up. It should be 2 to 3 paragraphs at least to give you a really good idea of who this person is. Include everything about their personality, demographics, business and past businesses, and personal life (married, divorced, kids, hobbies, etc.)
If you are looking for some outside feedback on the ideal client you’ve written up, you can schedule a free 15-minute call with me, and I will gladly go over what you have and give you some advice – no strings attached.
This is the most critical step to supercharging your marketing. If you skip it or do not give it the proper time required, everything else you do, from social media posts to paid advertisements, will suffer and not be as successful as you hope. Please be sure to take your time and get your ideal client nailed down. Once you do, continue to the next phase of supercharging your marketing in part 2 of this article series.
I am excited to discuss your goals and challenges to fast-track your success. Book time on my calendar today. You can call me at (916) 765-2596 or email me at jpyron@johnpyron.com. Make it a great day!
