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‘Selling to everyone with a heartbeat means you don’t have your finger on the pulse of your ideal customer.’ Paul Reilly

Most of us have made the mistake of wanting to market to ‘everyone’, particularly when we are starting out.  We think that to narrow our marketing efforts to one small group will probably diminish the number of customers we get and then also reduce our earning potential.  Surely it makes sense that you market to everyone and you’ll get more clients.  However, we know with experience that this isn’t correct.  As a budding entrepreneur you need to find a niche to market to, otherwise your marketing message won’t resonate with anyone in particular.  You may still attract customers, but they may be a mishmash many of whom won’t be ideal for one reason or another.

To get into your ‘zone’ where you are attracting your target market and ultimately, ideal customer, and business is cruising, here are some steps to consider:

1. What Problem are you Solving for Your Target Market?

Think about what your target market is looking for and what problem they need solved.  That will immediately get you heading in the right direction.  If you offer delivered meals, for example, are you selling family meals that will help busy mums?  Or is your product more suitable to people wanting to lose weight?   You need to speak to your particular niche.

2. Use Common Sense

Think about who would be the most interested in your product or service according to age, gender, location, education and income etc.  The more details you can include the easier it will be to work out who your target market is.  You can also think about which customers are already your ideal by how easy they are to work with or how much money they spend etc.  Write it all down and then start checking patterns or repeat information.

3. Research

Do as much research as possible. You need to work out if your product or service is actually something that meets a need in your niche market if you don’t already know.  Talk to as many people in that niche as possible, do some surveys on social media and email your database (provided you already have one).  Compile as much information as possible and then tweak your offer appropriately.  For example, busy mums buying delivered meals may be more concerned with price than single corporates. 

4. Website Analytics

Your website analytics will also help you work out important data on your website traffic in the way of gender, age, location, time they spend on your website and which pages they go to.  Shares on blog posts will also be a good indication of the types of information they are looking for.  If you have a couple of different free offers on your website in the way of eBooks or Cheat Sheets, check which one is the most popular.  What does your target market want information on?

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Your Avatar

Once you’ve worked out exactly who your target market is, the next step is whittling it down even further to find your avatar or ideal customer.  When someone first explained this to me, I didn’t really understand the importance of this step so read carefully.

Your avatar is a fictional character that represents your ideal prospect.  This will be the person you are going to ‘talk to’ in your marketing, advertising and your website content.  It makes it easier to be specific about their set of problems and fears that you will be addressing.  You can base this person on your research or a real current customer.

What would this person be like?  Be very specific.

  • Gender?
  • Age?
  • Married or single?
  • If married, what is their spouse like?  What does their spouse do?
  • Are there any children?  How many?  What are they like?
  • Clothing? What do they wear?
  • Job? What do they do they do for a living?  Do they like their job?
  • Frustrations? What are their biggest frustrations?
  • Surface desire? What is their biggest surface desire?
  • Secret desire? What is their biggest secret desire?
  • Do they have a social conscience?
  • Why? What is their why to buy from you?
  • Name? What is their name? Give them a name and refer to them by name.
  • What else is important about them?

Your avatar’s needs on the surface may be very different from what they really want from the core of their being.  Once you know what that is, you can speak directly to them and offer solutions.  It means your marketing can now be very, very, specific and be about them and their needs and frustrations and not necessarily about their surface desires.

Think of this person by name every time you do an ad, an article or have an offer and specifically address everything to them as though you are speaking to them personally.

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Conclusion

Now you know who your avatar is you can design products, content, marketing and advertising directed to that person and it should be exactly what will resonate with them.  Remember, that people buy for reasons based on emotion and it is easier to introduce that into your marketing if you are speaking to one particular person.

Have you worked out your avatar yet?  Why not complete the avatar exercise above and see who you come up with to be your ideal avatar?  I’d love to hear how it went for you and please ask any questions if you need help in the comments below.

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Judith Shuttleworth

Judith Shuttleworth is the owner of HotsWots Digital and a Director of Open House ID, an app for real estate agents. We have a range of expertise in all aspects of digital marketing and provide personal customer service. Your success is our motivation.

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