Who doesn’t want more customers? What if we told you that there is a proven method to get your ideal clients to not only find you, but to seek you out and beg you to work with them? Does that sound too good to be true? It’s not! When you implement the right systems. Granted, this is not a quick fix cure-all. (It takes time and work to build up a system; how often has anything free or easy actually produced lasting, quality results?) However, once you have it running, you can just watch the momentum build-up!
Step 1 to that process is learning how to create an ideal client profile.
What is a client profile? A client profile is also known as a customer profile or buyer persona. It’s a hypothetical mock-up of the client or customer that you want to draw into your business.
Establishing an ideal client profile will allow you to create marketing content that is worth your investment of time and money. It will help you in many practical ways, such as target your sales. Once you create this client profile, you can then focus your efforts and messaging to generate content that will bring you new (ideal!) clients! Download our instructional guide to developing your ideal client persona.
Sound good? Check out our 5 simple steps below to get your ideal client profile going!
Step 1: Look through your existing client contact list.
- Gather clients old and new. Create a list of all past and present clients. Even ones that aren’t your ideal client can help you in the beginning so that you identify who are your ideal clients.
- Scan your social media profiles. Who is following you? Are there any followers that could turn into business leads?
Step 2: Sort through the compiled client list and eliminate clients from that list.
- Think about failed projects.
- Cross off clients that didn’t bring in enough revenue.
- What clients are unlikely to return? Take these off of your list. Yes, sometimes you can change people’s minds, however you want to use your time and money on people that will be loyal to your business. Plus, if your inbound marketing strategies utilize great content, people will naturally be attracted to your business.
- Non-ideal clients. Have you had any customers in the past that didn’t value your service? Maybe you spent an hour with someone explaining your product or services, only to find they were just price shopping. Take these types of clients off your ideal client list.
Step 3: Make a list of idea clients you would like to work with.
Since you haven’t worked with these clients, you will need to do more research to fill out your profiles.
- Who is the decision maker/in charge of the project?
- Research! Doing adequate research will make your ideal client profile more accurate and complete. The more background information you have, the better you will be able to market to these ideal clients.
- Get specific. Fill out the profile with the client’s personal demographics, their educational background, career path, industry, size of company, revenue, what social media platforms they are on and so on.
- How do you find this information? Interview or survey current customers. Ask questions on social media! Browse through the comments sections on major blog sites in your industry.
Step 4: Focus on what makes the remaining clients ‘ideal’.
- What trends exist between the clients on the list you have compiled?
- This is where the research you did in the last step comes in handy.
- For example, when we were going through this process for ourselves at Designflair, we noticed that a commonality between our ideal customers is that they see a need for marketing their own business yet don’t want to spend the time doing all their own marketing. This helped us understand our ideal clients better and figure out how we can serve them.
- This is a crucial step, and the more specific you get, the easier the next step of the ideal customer profile will be.
Step 5: What are your ideal client’s challenges?
This is the final piece of your ideal client profile! In this last step, discuss with your marketing and sales teams about the issues that your ideal clients seem to face. You’re almost done with creating your ideal client profile!
Here are some questions that you can use:
- What do your clients struggle with?
- If you’re a B2B company, what type of issues do your client’s business’ face?
- What issues keep them up at night?
- When a new customer or client comes to your business, what are the first few questions they typically ask?
- What motivates people to go to your business or visit your website?
Once you have identified the problems your ideal clients face, you now have a complete ideal client profile! This inbound marketing tool is a great way to figure out how to get new clients!
Extra Tips
Include your whole team in this process; any employee that is involved with sales or marketing will have valuable input and should be educated on how to create an ideal client profile.
Continually refer back to your ideal client profile. Remember, the whole point of this is to use your ideal client profile as an inbound marketing tool! Writing a blog post? Refer to this profile as a way to start generating blog topics.
Check out these “5 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Creating an Ideal Client Profile” from Hubspot. This article is very helpful and can give you pointers on what not to do when you are creating your ideal client profile.
Start with one complete profile. You should have a list of a few ideal clients by now, but start by focusing on one. Choose one ideal client, do your research and then fill out the profile in depth and then create a marketing campaign based on that ideal client. Once you have created an ideal client profile, you will then be able to create content that will actually get found online because it will reach your target market.
