What Client Would You Clone?

What Client Would You Clone? Seriously, who is your best client?
You know the one. 

It's the client that you bend over backward for ... every single time.
You take their call ... 100% of the time.
If they cause you a minor headache, they send you Excedrin.
They value your expertise and trust it.
They are repeat buyers.
They tell their friends.
They are raving fans!
Have a mental picture of your best client?
Awesome!
Clearly, you enjoy working with this client and this client is likely a profitable client for your business. Well, we're going to show you how to use this perfect client to start saving money on your marketing and close more deals with amazing people just like this one.

How?
By creating an ideal client persona. And once you have it, you use it to start targeting your marketing and messaging directly to this persona and only this persona.

By taking this approach, your message becomes much more clear, it resonates with the type of people you love to work with, and it skinnies down the number of places you need to make sure your message is seen.
  
Did we mention it's pretty easy to do?


LET'S GIVE IT A TRY!

We'll guide you through how to do it.

 STEP 1

START WITH THE BASICS

Answer some very basic questions about this client.
Male, Female?
What generation are they from? (GenX, Boomer, Millennial)
What’s their home life like? Kids? Pets? Activities?
Level of education?
Personality characteristics? (driven, giving, funny, accountable)
Activities for fun? (golf, hiking, reading)
Other activities? (kids soccer games, dance recitals, etc)
This is important information. It helps you identify the language you should use, the client interests, and motivations. Think about it ... what drives a 26 year old male millennial is completely different than what drives and motivates a GenX football and dance mom of two teenagers. What resonates with him, is likely not going to resonate with her.

STEP 2

NEXT, GO A LITTLE DEEPER

What publications do they read?
What do they listen to?
What do they watch?
How do they prefer to communicate?
Social media activity? (What channels, what time, how often)
Income level?
What makes them feel appreciated?
Expert tip: If you don't know the answers to these, don't guess. Ask!

The insights you gain by answering these questions can help you uncover specifically where you need to be visible and how you can nurture a relationship.

STEP 3

NEXT, IDENTIFY THEIR PAIN POINTS

What problems/challenges do they have? 
(Think things like ... lack of time, seasonal cash flow, life stresses, etc.)
Who influences them?
(Strangers -- AKA reviews, friends, family?)
How do they make decisions?
(Quickly? Or are they researchers? Do they seek validation before purchase?)
Where do their challenges intersect with your expertise?
What specific problem can you help them overcome?
Answering these questions helps you determine what kind of content you need to create to provide value and solve a problem for your customer. This is content for your social channels, your website, and your email marketing that keeps you top of mind.

Most importantly, it helps you position your products/services in a way that addresses their challenges. After all, people buy solutions to their problems - right?

STEP 4

CONSTRUCT A DETAILED "DAY IN THE LIFE OF"

Start from when they get up in the morning to the time they go to bed. Map out what they do, where they go, who they see, what they listen to ... you get the idea. The more detailed you make the "day in the life of" the clearer the picture will become of how and where you need to market to them.

Again, if you don't know ... ask!
Your ideal client is a fan, so they are going to want to help you out!

The more detailed you can get, the better! Insights here help uncover patterns, influences, networks, and where you need to be visible.


HOW TO USE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT PERSONA


Turn to side two of the template and let's put this puppy to work!
(Don't skip this step)

Now that you've created your ideal client persona, you use it to:

  • Hone your message to generation, gender, education level, motivations, who influences them, and how they make decisions. Based on what you know, make a list of important considerations in your messaging to really resonate with this persona.
  • Determine where EXACTLY you need to spend your marketing dollars. In other words, you know what specifically they are listening to, watching, and reading. You know what they drive by daily. You know how they prefer to communicate. You know who they are interacting with every day and what social media are they on. Based on your answers, make a list of where you need to be seen (ads & marketing) and prioritize it around this persona and your budget. You can even categorize it by things you "must do" and things you should "consider"  doing.
  • What questions did your ideal client ask when they first considered working with you? Writing them down and developing materials and marketing around the answers to those questions will help remove the barrier for new clients who are like them.
  • Show appreciation and develop a raving fan! You know what motivates your ideal client and what it takes for them to feel appreciated. Once you get a clone of this client, this is how you'll want to nurture the relationship to develop "raving fan" status in their eyes. It's your raving fans who are your best and most predictable referral engines. Investing some of your marketing budget in this area can pay huge dividends!

It's an easy exercise - it just takes a little time. 

Surprisingly, most businesses never make the time to do it!

Instead, they throw marketing dollars around and hope something sticks somewhere. If you take the time to work through this exercise for your business, it will be a competitive advantage.

When done correctly and with enough specificity, it will easily be the number one tool in your marketing plan to guide you to smarter decisions around where to spend your marketing dollars and how to bring extreme clarity to your message.

Bottom line - you'll save money and you'll work with more of the kind of people you LOVE to work with!

Life is too short for anything else, right?

Need Help With Your Marketing & Messaging?

Let's start a conversation! Our internet marketing company can help you reach your ideal customer in a variety of ways. We look forward to helping your business grow through online marketing. 



Phone: 877-211-5492

Info@MSWInteractiveDesigns.com

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