Picture throwing everything you’ve got into the marketing and sales bucket and hoping something sticks. You’ve probably heard the saying go broad or go home. But guess what? The most successful businesses in the world don’t do this. Instead, they focus relentlessly on serving their ideal customers.
Who’s your ideal customer? Chances are you don’t know enough about them. Creating an ideal customer profile is foundational to building a successful business. When you know exactly who you’re serving, you can tailor your products and offerings to suit them. You’ll find marketing and advertising easier, build better relationships with clients. This guide will walk you through why defining your ideal customer is important and how to do it. You’ll also receive a free template you can use to define yours.
Ideal customers are simply the customers who benefit from your solution the most. They’re wildly successful using your products or services and become raving fans of your business as a result.
Knowing who your ideal customers are brings many benefits to your business. Let’s take a look at a few.
Firstly, it allows you to focus your time and money where it will have the greatest impact. Let’s say you manufacture saddles. If you know your ideal customer is cowboy boot manufacturers from Texas, you won’t waste money reaching out to athletes apparel brands in LA. You’ll spend your time and money reaching the customers most likely to buy from you.
Secondly, you’ll know exactly how to communicate with them. You’ll know their language, their pain points, and what they want to hear. You can use this knowledge to craft irresistible marketing messages that they can’t resist acting on.
You’ll know what product improvements to make as well. Let’s say your ideal customer uses your product 8 hours every day. You won’t waste resources making improvements that casual users will love. Instead, you’ll use that time making your core users even happier.
Additionally, your positioning becomes much clearer when you know your ideal customer. You’re no longer trying to please everyone. You simply position yourself as the best provider of boots for TX cowboy boot makers. Competitors will find it hard to imitate that positioning because it’s so specific.
Lastly, your ideal customers generally have higher lifetime values. They spend more on average, often buy more frequently, and are less likely to churn. Not only that, but they often turn into repeat buyers.
Finding your ideal customer profile
To create your ideal customer profile, you need to identify as many characteristics about them as possible.
Demographics like age, gender, income, education, and job. Where do they live? For B2B, you may want company-specific demographics like number of employees, industry, revenue size, employee structure, etc.
Dig into the psychological factors that influence your ideal customers. What are their values? Activities? Lifestyle? What do they believe in? What are their attitudes towards life?
How do they buy? What’s their buying process? Are they impulse buyers? Do they do lots of research before purchasing? What outlets do they buy from? Are they price sensitive? How do they like to be contacted by businesses?
What problems do your ideal customers need solving? What are their pain points? What about their pain keep them up at night?
What are your ideal customers trying to accomplish? What would a successful day look like to them?
All of this information can be obtained by researching your existing customers. Focus on your best customers as much as possible. Who’s buying the most? Who are the buyers that you spend the most time with? Find commonalities between these customers.
You can also use surveys and interviews. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your existing customers and ask questions. Send out surveys or simply call them up and interview them. You can even conduct focus groups.
There are endless sources of information for you to utilize. Industry reports, competition analysis, social media listening, online reviews, etc. Grab every piece of data you can to form the most complete picture of your ideal customer.
Download this free template to start defining your ideal customer.
IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE
1. Basic Demographics
* Age Range:
* Gender (if applicable):
* Income Level:
* Education Level:
* Occupation / Industry:
* Where do they live?
2. Business Demographics (only for B2B)
* Company Size:
* Business Industry:
* Annual Revenue:
* Decision Maker’s Job Title:
* Company Age:
* Where do your customers do business?
3. Psychographics
* Values
* Activities
* Lifestyle
* Personality
* Beliefs
4. Buying Habits
* Buying Process
* Amount of research they do prior to purchase
* Brands they’re loyal to
* Price Sensitivity
* Adoption rates of new technology
* Communication Preferences
5. Pain Points & Challenges
* List the primary problem they need solving:
* List 2-3 additional problems they need solving:
* Current solutions they utilize
* What don’t they like about these solutions?
* What would happen if this problem remained unsolved?
6. Goals & Aspirations
* List short term goals
* List long term goals
* How do they define success?
* How does your solution help them reach their goals?
Buying Decision Factors
* What is the primary reason they buy?
* What objections have to be overcome?
* How do they make the purchasing decision?
* What sources do they trust for information?
* Who influences their decision?
Relationship With Your Brand
* How do they hear about you?
* What do they love about your solution?
* What specific benefits do they receive from you?
* What feature do they value most?
* What does an ideal customer journey look like?
Fill this template out with as much detail as you can. Once you have completed it, take the information and turn it into a narrative. Create a persona complete with a name and stock photo to really bring your ideal customer to life.
Fill out this template annually or bi-yearly to keep your ideal customer profile up to date.
How defining your ideal customer can improve your business
Okay, now that you know who you should be serving. How does this help you?
Marketing
It should come as no surprise that knowing your ideal customer can drastically improve your marketing efforts. You’ll know precisely how to reach them and what you need to say to them. Not only that, but your advertisements will cost less because you’re targeting specific customers rather than shooting in the dark.
Product
You’ll know what product improvements to make. It’s also unlikely that you’ll develop features that your ideal customer doesn’t care about.
Acquisition Costs
You won’t waste money reaching out to people that don’t need your product. You’ll acquire customers much faster and cheaper.
Customer Lifetime Value
Your ideal customers usually spend more and buy more often. They’re also less likely to switch to your competitor. Did you know that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits from 25-95%? Increase retention. Serve your ideal customers.
Pricing
Once you know your ideal customer, you can price your products/service based on the value it provides them. You can now use value-based pricing. Which allows you to price your product much higher than your competitors.
Customer Service
You will know your customers so well that you can anticipate their needs. Provide them with unparalleled service and build an incredible relationship.
Strategy
Every decision your company makes can be weighed against one question. “How does this serve our ideal customer?” There’s no grey area when it comes to decision making. If something doesn’t serve them, don’t do it.
Brand
You’ll be able to position your brand as the best solution for a very specific type of customer with a unique set of problems. You won’t be another business trying to appeal to everyone. You’ll have a brand that your ideal customers can connect with.
Engaging your ideal customers
Now that you know who you want to reach, it’s time to figure out how.
Mapping the customer journey
Your job is to find your customers where they’re at. When they first realize they have a problem that you can solve. As they consider different solutions. When they’re checking different providers. After they’ve made the decision to do business with you.
You need to be there for them the entire way.
Where do they spend their time?
Once you know your ideal customer, you’ll know what hobbies they have. What websites they visit. What social media platforms they use. What magazines they read. What podcasts they listen to. What events they attend.
You can become an authority where they spend the most time.
Address their pain points
Create content that’s speaking directly to their pain points and questions. This is especially true during the education stage of their journey. Help them learn how to solve their problem. Demonstrating how you’re the best provider of that solution.
You can create video tutorials. Blog posts. Case studies. Webinars. Downloadable guides. There’s an insane amount of content you can create that’ll speak directly to them. And address their pain.
Use their language
Become one of them. Learn the keywords they use. Internalize their slang. Use their phrases. Talk to them how they’d talk to each other.
Personalization
Address them by their first name. Segment your email lists so you can send targeted content to your leads and customers. The more personalized you can be, the more your target audience will perceive you as one of them.
Create a community
Consider creating an online community or membership site just for your ideal customers. This is a great way to provide them with massive value. While allowing them to connect with people that fit your exact customer profile.
Partner up
Find non-competing businesses or influencers that your ideal customer trusts. Develop partnerships to tap into their followings.
Retargeting
Develop retargeting ads that speak directly to your ideal customer. This is incredibly effective because your target audience has already been surfing the web. They’ve found you but haven’t purchased from you. The best part about retargeting is that you can create multiple advertisements that speak to each stage of the buyer’s journey.
If someone visited your website but didn’t purchase you can target them with an ad that brings them back to your landing page.
Referral programs
Create referral programs that reward your current customers for bringing you new customers that fit your ideal customer profile.
Always be testing and optimizing
Gain feedback from your customers. Learn what’s working and what’s not. Conduct surveys and interviews. Dive deep into analytics.
Measure your success by how many of your ideal customers you reach. I would rather have 100 perfect customers than 1,000 customers that don’t fully buy into my product. Qualify every lead that comes to your business. Make sure they fit your ideal customer profile.
Common challenges when defining your ideal customer and how to overcome them
Fear of limiting your customers
Many people don’t define their ideal customers because they’re afraid of turning people away. When in reality defining your ideal customer doesn’t mean you’re going to turn customers away. It just means you’re going to focus most of your time and attention on a specific set of customers.
Insufficient data
If you’ve just started a business or you’re selling a brand new product. You may not have many customers yet. That makes it difficult to identify your ideal customer.
Start with what you believe is your ideal customer. Create a profile based on research, not customer data. Then go out and test your theory. As you start getting customers, collect data on them. Continue to update your customer profile until you have enough data to make conclusive decisions.
Changing markets
Let’s face it, people’s preferences change. Your ideal customer won’t be the same in 5 years as it is today. Make sure to revisit your ideal customer profile frequently.
Get input from everyone
Different departments may have different opinions on who your ideal customer is. Sales may want anyone who signs, while customer success wants high lifetime value customers.
Decide what an ideal customer is to your business. Then get everyone on the same page. Ideally, you want input from every department when creating your profile.
Too many profiles
You may have multiple ideal customer profiles. That’s okay! Just identify which one is the most valuable to your business and focus on them. You can make small adjustments to suit the others.
Don’t let confirmation bias affect your ideal customer profile
You create this profile and immediately become biased to this type of customer. Always be testing and updating your profile. Search for information that disproves your theory.
Share your profile with every department
Make sure everyone who buys into your customer profile. Especially anyone who interacts with customers. Sell your teams on your ideal customer.
Conclusion
Serving your ideal customers will change your business for the better. Everything you do will be more impactful. You’ll build an insanely strong relationship with your customers. Increase your revenue and profit while providing spectacular service. Not only that, but you’ll create a brand that people can feel connected to. Define who your ideal customers are and watch as your business transforms.
Download this free template to start defining your ideal customer.
Nick, Founder & CEO of Wiener Squad Media
Nick is the visionary founder and CEO of Wiener Squad Media, based in Orlando, FL, where he passionately supports Republican, Libertarian, and other conservative entrepreneurs in building and growing their businesses through effective website design and digital marketing strategies. With a strong background in marketing, Nick previously ran a successful marketing agency for 15 years that achieved seven-figure revenue before an unfortunate acquisition led to its closure. This experience fueled his resolve to create Wiener Squad Media, driven by a mission to provide outstanding digital marketing services tailored specifically for conservative-owned small businesses.
Holding a Master of Science in Marketing from Hawaii Pacific University (2003), Nick is currently furthering his education with an MBA to enhance his problem-solving skills and ensure that past challenges don’t repeat themselves. He firmly believes in the marathon approach to business growth, prioritizing sustainable practices over quick fixes like investor capital. Committed to employee welfare, Nick maintains a starting wage of $25 per hour for his staff and caps his own salary at $80,000 plus bonuses.
At Wiener Squad Media, our values are based on the Five Pillars of Giving – protecting the First and Second Amendments, Sanctity of Life, supporting our military, veteran, and first responder heroes, and making sure no shelter dog is left behind by finding each one a forever home. At Wiener Squad Media, we are not just about success but also about making a positive impact on society while achieving it.
Outside of work, Nick is an avid political activist who engages in discussions supporting conservative values. He volunteers at local animal shelters, participates in pet adoption events to help find all unwanted dogs a forever home. Committed to nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs, Nick dedicates time to coaching and mentoring other aspiring conservative business owners, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry.
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