If you understand your ideal customer as well as your best friend, imagine how easy it would be to sell to them! You know the emotional leavers to push, the things they like and the places they hang out.
But let's not give away the whole blog in the opening paragraph, instead, let's briefly explain how to build your ideal customer and then look at 10 reasons why it's important.
Creating Your Ideal Customer
To build a picture of who your ideal customer is, so you can then understand them intimately, like a best friend, you need to understand the following
- Pains of the person
- The needs and desires of your customer
- What are their purchase drivers
- What interests do they have? Hobbies, travel, family, job?
Ten Reasons You Need Your Ideal Customer
1. You Know Where To Find Them
Let's start with a big one. It is pointless to put your marketing into places or channels where your prospects won't see them. I always learn with extreme examples, so try this one - if you selling a battle royal game like Fortnite, advertising it in Saga magazine might not be ideal.
By understanding your ideal customer you know what social channels they hang out in, if they listen to Podcasts or maybe they respond to something coming through the letterbox. Use this info and stop wasting time and money in the wrong places.
2. You Know What To Say To Them
When you meet up with your best mate for a drink, you don't stand around wondering what to say. When you go to a networking event and meet lots of new people you might struggle to engage them in conversation.
The former is clearly better when it comes to marketing. If you build a picture of the ideal customer, then you will understand the topics that interest them and the style of conversation they enjoy.
3. You Know The Pains You Help Solve
Marketing is all about emotion and few things work better than knowing a problem and offering to solve it. If you understand your customer properly, then you know the problems they have and you can empathise with them.
If someone looks at your marketing and says "that's my problem, these people get me" then you are immediately on the front foot, ready to explain how you solve their problem.
4. You Know The Things They Love
If you understand their passions and desires, you can leverage those into your marketing and appeal to them beyond just selling your products or services.
5. You Know How To Convince Them To Buy
You know if your best mate loves an offer. Are they a sucker for a countdown clock? Maybe they are more considered and prefer to read lots of reviews or get recommended.
Understand this about the people you are selling to and you'll have a great insight into the way to market to your customers.
6. You Know What To Avoid Saying!
We have talked a lot about how you understand them, thus what to say and how to say it, but the opposite is also true and vital. Avoid phrases, words or topics that put them off. You know them, so you know the style of marketing or selling that will annoy them.
7. What Format Works Best
Do they like to read articles? Are they fans of silly TikTok videos? Maybe they prefer a downloadable white paper or even listening to a podcast. The format you choose can be as important as the content if you want your ideal customer to consume it.
8. You Can Avoid Time Wasters
Part of the job of marketing is putting off people that you don't want to work with. these are people that will waste your time, never buy or if they do will make life difficult. If you know who your ideal customer is, the marketing for them will put off their opposites, the people you are looking to avoid.
9. Sound Like An Expert
If you know the person like a best mate, you will share interests that when you talk about them, you'll sound like an expert. The more you talk about things you know and the customers love, the more of an expert you become!
10. You Get Better And Better
Imagine if you just sold to the same person every day and got to refine the approach each time. Think Groundhog Day, where you get to go over it again and again but to the other person it's the first time.
By always appealing to your ideal customer, you are continually learning what works and improving it over time.
If we've inspired you to create your ideal customer, then why not download our free eBook which contains everything you need from a step by step guide through to real examples you can use to inspire you (ok, you can copy them!).
