Age, income and gender are important, but not everything, when it comes to speaking to your clients
When you run a small business, there are so many different voices out there telling you how to reach your ideal client. And lots of them seem to be shouting:
- Buy this software!
- Do my course!
- Hire this agency!
I’m not going to do that to you. But I will offer you some advice: Your ideal customer is not a demographic.
Demographics
One way to consider what your clients need (and therefore how you can help them) is to think about the things they have in common. This is where we look at demographics: the age, income, gender, education, occupation and family structure the person has.
Demographics talk about large groups of people, which is useful for governments and large organisations to help them plan for future customer needs. And, in your small business, it is one way to start thinking about who your ideal client is. But it’s not everything.
Who is your ideal customer?
For example, let’s say you are a brand photographer. Your ideal client is highly skilled professional small business owners between 25 and 65 with middle incomes who may be in the accounting, financial advice, development consulting and web design sectors.
On the surface, you would say these people all have the same needs as they share a similar demographic. They need professional head shots that will appeal to their ideal customers.
Beyond that, though, they are not one homogenous group.
Psychographics
While all these professionals may come to you for their branding photos, they may want different things. Knowing the psychographic elements at play here will make a difference in how you approach them.
Fears, beliefs and hopes
Considering the psychographics of an ideal customer is simply going a bit deeper and thinking about what they:
- believe
- fear
- hope for.
Common beliefs these professionals may have are that brand photography:
- is unnecessary and they’re only doing it because they have to
- won’t show their authentic selves to their clients
- is embarrassing.
So, talking about the benefits and advantages of brand photography and how it aligns to their overall business strategy would be a great way to approach discussions with them.
They may fear that:
- branding photography is hit and miss
- they’re too awkward to seem relaxed in images
- the photographer may be super slick and make them feel inferior.
In this case, speaking to them about past successes with other professionals can help them feel more comfortable.
They may hope that the photographer can:
- capture their professionalism
- be available at a convenient time
- make them feel less like a dork.
So, framing the conversation around their dream outcome can be of help here.
One customer
Given your ideal clients can have such a large range of beliefs, desires and fears around your services, your marketing needs to talk to them one at a time.
Now, I don’t mean that you email or message all your contacts with specific offers – that would be a very time-consuming exercise.
What I mean is that for each marketing contact with your clients, you need to select a single message that a single customer will relate to and use that.
So, you need to think about:
- which customer you’re hoping to attract,
- what they want from your service and
- how you can help them.
By focusing on one customer with one message, you’re allowing that person to identify with what you’re offering.
Don’t worry that you’re not connecting with all your customers. Different posts can attract different clients.
But each single communication you have with your clients needs to speak to a single client only – don’t confuse your marketing by trying to speak to different customers.
Because when you try to talk to everyone, you end up talking to no-one.
Key Takeaways
- Identify your ideal customer.
- Consider their fears, beliefs and desires.
- Talk to one customer only in each communication.
Ooh! You’ve read all the way to the end! Go you!
Too hard? No time?
If you’re finding this a little overwhelming, don’t despair. You don’t need to have it all figured out. Reach out and book an obligation-free call and we can start work on how to tie all your content together…and reach the right customers.
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