Finding your ideal client and marketing specifically to them.

One of the many components that goes into a good marketing strategy is defining the ideal client. There are many ways to do this. A starting point is to identify whom you consider your best clients currently – the ones you want more of – and ask yourself why they are the best.

Is it their size, revenue, industry, or their experience with your kind of business? Is it the relationship with your main contact? Then, look for common characteristics among these favourite clients.

On the flip-side, you could look at the clients you don’t like working with and do the same – identify why you don’t like working with them and then commonalities. Sometimes the process of elimination is easier to get the ball rolling.

A good marketing strategist will have many methods for defining the ideal client and push further than you’d think. They may ask questions like:

• Where else do they shop?
• What do they read?
• How do they make buying decisions?
• What’s their pain?
• Etc., etc.

Now market to them.

Determining what your ideal client looks like warrants a much deeper look than the snapshot above. You can then use all this valuable information to craft your marketing approach to appeal specifically to them. You not only hit them where they’re looking, your marketing gets their attention and really resonates.

However, we find that often once the ideal is defined, clients are reluctant to gear marketing to them. The reason is that occasionally a great client/customer comes along that does not fit into the definition, and they’re afraid of pushing them away by focussing marketing efforts on the definition.

They will still come.

What you have to be mindful of is not excluding them in your marketing. They will still come along and you can decide whether or not to take them on. Your marketing would not say ‘we only work with…’ or ‘we don’t work with…’, but should be written and designed to appeal to your ideal client.

‘We specialize in…’ is fine. If they have been referred or like your company, the non-ideal client is more likely to ask ‘do you deal with start-ups?’, or what have you, than just walk away.

Focus on attracting what you want and the rest is gravy.