You hear the words “ideal client” or “target audience” or any other number of words to describe the same thing over and over. In fact, it pops up so often I almost wonder if an “ideal client” is just becoming an empty buzzword…

Even though you are told repeatedly that you NEED to know who your ideal client is, you somehow convince yourself that the experts didn’t actually mean YOU… They meant the person standing next to you.

So, you end up casting a wide net and hoping for the best.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but aiming for women in their 30s just isn’t enough. It’s too broad! A friend and I have a 4 year age gap. We are essentially the same demographic. We are the same gender, have children, we even work in the same industry. We still have wildly different priorities in life!

The priorities are what make the model of your ideal client come to life! What motivates them? What excites them? What scares them?

So how do you get started?

Your current client list

The easiest place to start gathering information on your ideal client is your current client list. Go through who you work with regularly. Who is a die-hard, loyal to the end client? You may have a few people you work with. You may have hundreds, even thousands. But somewhere in the mix, you will find the perfect client.

The beauty of this approach is that you can ask them questions to help you dig into their motivations.

The only caveat to this point is to make sure you like the person you have chosen! It’s no use speaking to a specific person if you roll your eyes and do a full-body slump every time you have to talk to them. Find the person you want to work with.

If you don’t have that person on your list yet, you need to sit down and think about the exact person you want to work with. Figure out as much as you can about them.

Once you know who your ideal client is, it’s time to get specific.

Who are they?

Let’s start slowly. Can you give them a name? Yes, great! What other specifics can you think of?

• Age
• Gender
• Income bracket
• Industry
• Do they have a family?
• What are their interests and hobbies?

Finding out as many of the details as you can helps you to visualize exactly who you want to work with. It helps you to step into their shoes properly and make decisions that resonate with your audience in the right ways.

What are their desires?

By this, I mean what do they want from you specifically? What can your service or product do to benefit them?

When you think about what you want from your doctor, I would imagine it’s wildly different to what you want from your hairdresser. You will expect them to present themselves differently, speak differently and focus on different things. If your doctor were to start telling you about their most recent dating drama you would be horrified!

When you pinpoint what your ideal client expects from you, it takes a lot of guesswork out of how you talk to them.

What are their fears?

Pain point marketing often gets a bad rap, but honestly, there is a reason it is so widely used. I’m not talking about the kind that uses fear-mongering and shoves you into a panic buy. I’m talking about using empathy to find out what problems you can solve for your ideal client. How can you make their lives easier? What other factors affect their decision to work with you?

Things like families, jobs and hobbies all affect how someone feels about every different offer placed in front of them.

Personally, I would love to have jazzy nail polish at all times. Realistically, my animals, child and general lifestyle lead to them being chipped within seconds. So, I don’t bother.

What factors influence how your ideal client thinks about you and how can you help them overcome those challenges?

What language do they use?

This one can be tricky because you want to meet your ideal client at their level. You want them to feel like you are in their head and fully understand what they are thinking. If you get the language just right, you will make people think you are talking only to them, even if it is an email sent to thousands!

The way you can find this out is to see how they talk to you. How they interact with other people. Reading interactions in comments or forums like Reddit is usually very helpful as this is where people let their guard down a bit. Using reviews can help find out what people are thinking, but this version of themselves is usually heavily filtered so take it with a pinch of salt.

Once you have all these points nailed down, you can start to write copy that makes a genuine connection with your audience because you know them. You understand them. You already know how much you can help them, now it’s time to tell them why!