In the A – Z of Marketing I is for … Ideal Clients

There are many different ways to promote and grow your business. You can rush around looking for new clients and take on whatever work you can find; or you can decide exactly who you want to work with and then help these people to find you. The latter can feel strangely unproductive – whoever heard of sitting around waiting for people to come to you?! But when you know who your perfect clients are and what you want to offer them, you’ll find it easier to attract them. Here’s how you do it.

Write a list of the attributes and positive qualities of your perfect clients that makes you want to work with them. What sort of people are they? Are they looking for a quick fix or a long term relationship? Do they want a cheap solution or will they pay for quality? Are they positive, hard working and open to change or the opposite? Be as specific as you can, listing only positive, personal aspects.

What makes them tick? Why do your perfect clients get out of bed in the morning? What’s really important to them and what do they want to achieve? What do they love about their lives? If you’re not sure, ask your most perfect current client and write down their answers.

Do you recognise anyone in the answers you’ve written down?!

What do you want to offer them? Now list everything you want to be able to offer your clients. Here are some examples from my own list:

• Practical marketing solutions
• A trusted network we can share with our clients
• Honest feedback – if I don’t think it’ll work, I’ll tell you and give you an alternative
• Patience and positivity.

Now write your own list and when you have it, use elements from it in all your marketing. If you say that you always give honest feedback, put that on your website and tell people when you meet them at networking meetings. Some of the things on your list are the things that will make you stand out from your competitors.

A client I worked with recently put ‘A solution our clients can believe in onto their list.’ They have used this to create a brilliant new strap line of ‘A Solution You Believe In.’

What do you need to improve? Read through the list you’ve written. If there’s anything on it that you can’t deliver 100% of the time, write it onto a new list. Be critical and ask for a second opinion if you need it. Then work on improving those aspects, because when you do, your ideal clients will start to come to you, without you having to chase after them.

When you know exactly who your ideal clients are and what you want to do for them, they will find it easier to find you. It will also be easier for other people to send you exactly the right sort of referrals and recommendations, to even more ideal clients!

Do you know who your ideal clients are and what makes them tick?