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Defining your ideal client is one of the most important elements of your brand strategy. Before ever building your website, creating your offer, or detailing specific services, you first need to understand who your audience is and what their needs are. Inside this article, I share how by defining a niche, the more you expand your audience, not shrink it. Plus, I offer my strategy for identifying your ideal client profile. Where to find them and how to create content to attract them!
Who Your ideal client is NOT
Let me start off by stating… Your ideal client is NOT anyone willing to pay you for your product or service. I understand you’ve been so eager to jump into business and make money, but don’t get so sidetracked with sales that you’ve not even thought of who needs your product and who you want to work with.
Why you need to define your ideal client
Without clients, you have no business at all. Defining your ideal client is one of the most important elements of your brand strategy and why it’s part of step one of my business-building roadmap.
Before ever building your website, creating your offer, or detailing specific services you first need to understand who your audience is and what their needs are.
Identifying who this ideal client profile or avatar is from the beginning will save you tons of time going in circles trying to be all things to all people.
Whether you classify this customer group as a target market or audience, ideal client avatar or profile, or niche audience – they are who you want to attract to your brand!
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How to expand your audience with a niche
Now I get it, picking a niche sounds like you’re fitting yourself into a box, especially if you’re multi-passionate like myself and offer several product lines. But it’s actually the opposite. The more specific you get with who your ideal client is, the more you expand your audience.
I use the term often that you want to be a big fish in a little pond not a little fish in a big pond. When you get specific with who your ideal client is – you drive the RIGHT PEOPLE to your brand.
And the reality is people trust other people who choose specific things to talk about, especially in their business.
How to attract your ideal client
And what’s great for you is this niche audience is full of specific problems and looking for people to help them with their specific concerns. This is where you come into play.
When you place your valuable original content where your niche is looking – you attract the exact audience that needs your help. And when I mentioned content, this could be a blog article, social media post, or video.
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They consume your content, lift you up as an expert in your industry and hopefully go on to become repeat clients of yours.
Where this sales process goes wrong is if you are talking to too many people in your content and no one finds it valuable. When this happens, you’ve just time and energy trying to be all things to all people.
Let’s just say… I’ve done this before and I don’t recommend it!
How to define your ideal client
So now you why having a defined niche audience is so important here’s my strategy to identifying your ideal client.
Going back to your core brand foundation, your ideal client sits at the intersection of your core interest and beliefs.
They have the problem you are solving with your product and they have similar beliefs as you when it comes to your industry and method.
Your niche becomes WHO needs your solution. But going even further your niche should be the individuals who make you profitable, give you grace, who you enjoy serving, and who refer others to you.
Creating An Ideal Client Profile
Once you’ve defined this niche audience, it’s then time to take a deep dive into who they from a demographic and psychographics view.
Demographics are the basic details about where they live, their income level, their age, and occupation.
But their psychographics is breaking down their attitudes, hopes, pain points, interests, lifestyle, and opinions.
By knowing all of these characteristics of your ideal client, you can create a profile for whom you write all your content. When you know the exact problems your ICA has, you can gather an endless pool of content ideas that will attract them to your brand.
By taking the time to profile your ideal client you can fully address their wants and needs throughout all your interaction, content, and communication.
Content for your ideal client
And that is how you excel at content marketing; by speaking directly to your ideal client in your content to solve their problems. Because let’s be honest, no one wants to be sold to – all they want are their problems solved! In the end, the right people fall in love with you and your content and this niche audience will pay you to solve their problems for them.
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Who you don’t want to work with
Let me also note, at the same time you are discovering WHO you want to work with and serve – you also need to keep in mind who you don’t want to work with. We are at a point in CORE Brand Marketing Group where we are doing this. Our time is limited when working with clients, so we want to make sure we are choosing the right ones that make the most sense for both parties.
Breakdown of your ideal client
In the end, defining your ideal client is about WHO needs your solution. If you’d benefit from a more in-depth breakdown of your ideal client, there are three ways you can get your hands on step one: Brand Strategy of my Business Building Roadmap.
- The first way is to purchase my signature Automated Business Bootcamp. This signature online course features five bootcamps with over 30 video lessons. This bootcamp is a step-by-step series on how to build a confident, brand-focused, and automated business by applying a simplistic sales process and following the CORE sales funnel. You can learn more about this signature course online at businessbuildingroadmap.com
- The second way is to purchase the Personal Branding Playbook. This mini-course is offered for those who don’t want or need the entire Automated Business Bootcamp course. The mini-course includes trainings on your core interest and beliefs, ideal client avatar, brand voice, and niche statement. You can get instant access at kristinkorn.com/playbook.
- And lastly, when you join the Social Note Membership you get access to the Personal Branding Playbook Mini-Course as well. Membership only opens for this Community Portal and Resource Teaching Library 4x a year. To get on the waitlist go to jointhesocialnote.com
Ideal Client Avatar Recap
To close out this article, I want to add that in my experience the exercise of defining your niche is ever going. As your business evolves, you learn and grow, and your products and offers shift, your ideal client will change as well.
Since I share awe-inspiring resources and must-have products for business builders like you who want to streamline their business – my content may contain affiliate links for products I use and love. If you take action (i.e. subscribe, make a purchase) after clicking one of these links, I’ll earn a small commission. While it has no effect on your pricing, it’s my responsibility to let you know that an income (however small or large it may be) is made from recommending products I love, use, and share with other awesome people like yourself. With your support, I’m able to commit time to this blog and to each of you on your journey!
