Imagine: you're planning a destination wedding for yourself in the Mediterranean. You have made up your mind about everything; the perfect designer dress, the menu, the music. Now you want to find the photographer who will perfectly capture your big day on the beach.
No matter what your 'project' or challenge, you’re going to search and evaluate every possibility based on these specific requirements. Ultimately, you’ll speak to and hire the provider that matches your specific needs the most.
Can you see how your preferences and likes make you the ideal client of so many businesses?
Whether it’s the caterer that serves the best Mediterranean food at weddings, the designer who exclusively makes cool wedding dresses, or a photographer specialising in beach wedding photos. All of these businesses will provide perfect solutions to what you want.
You won’t mind paying a higher rate for these services because they are experts in their field.
That’s how the equation of a business with its star clients goes. Each business model is providing the right kind of product / service to a specific type of customer.
The owner of that business is probably already aware of what their best customers would be like. Still, attracting the perfect clients without being too promotional can be tricky.
The vital aspect of marketing today is identifying and nurturing the ideal customers. As a generalist, you might have already realised who doesn’t fall into your ideal client’s category.
Who is your ideal client?
Who doesn’t want the ideal clients who bring a significant chunk of revenue? Let’s see how the net is cast for these clients:
Determine who are your ideal customers
The first step is to narrow down the characteristics you want to attract your ideal customer. Conduct polls and design particular posts via social media to gather data about your customer’s habits and preferences. Also, keep a vigilant eye on your competitors. The kind of clients they have will tell you a lot about yours.
List down the following characteristics about your buyers to help segment them:
What do they mostly talk about?
Who are their friends?
Are there qualities that make them unique?
What ethics do they possess?
How are they thinking their problems are solved?
Which products are they interested in buying?
Based on these traits, create and understand the buyer persona for your brand. A buyer’s persona is a fictional client representing all qualities of what an ideal customer would possess. It helps you attract the best client via goal-driven strategies.
Focus on a specific niche
There are several benefits to limiting your services to targeting a specific set of buyers. Firstly, you can charge good rates as you are an expert in that particular niche.
Secondly, it is much easier to market a niche-specific business, as you simply know who you need to promote your services.
In addition, the competition for a general business that encompasses a broader service range is much higher. It is advisable to pick up a niche in which you excel. Something out of your comfort zone will make it harder to build a reputation.
Lay the foundation by building trust to attract ideal customers
How can this be achieved? Through reviews of satisfied customers. It is human psychology that we prefer buying a product after hearing or reading positive reviews about it. Brands use these reviews to build trust in their target audience.
Besides, building trust between you and a client to gain good reviews also enables you to KEEP customers - why would they go anywhere else? They in turn will tell other people just how great you are.
Offer freebies that are valuable for your clients
Give away something for free that your ideal client may find useful or valuable. It may be a free resource like an ebook to learn an aspect of your service or a guide to solving a particular problem. It can also be a free product if the client orders a certain amount of time.
Advertise special offers or discounts for a limited time, it could be just the hook you need. Anything for free always tastes / feels / looks better than if you had paid for it.
Be responsive
A brand that promptly responds to customer queries and comments is just priceless (AKA; highly valuable). A personalized response is a client magnet, as every customer likes to be dealt with in a human manner. ‘No response’ or a long delay may drift the dream client away.
If you don't know the answer to a query or have no time to respond properly, then just let them know you have their enquiry and will respond in full very soon.As long as they know they are being dealt with most people are happy to wait. If nothing else this will give the impression that because you are busy you must also be good at what you do!
Always respond to every enquiry, even the most trivial and even if you think you are not the right match. Even passing the enquiry on to someone else more suitable might lead to something down the line that suits your business better if they remember how helpful you were.
In Summary
Finding the right clients and attracting them to choose you is not rocket science after all. It is a matter of striking when the iron is hot so that when your ideal clients are having an issue or searching something, you are the one that comes to them with a solution.
Treat each customer with care, advertise with a target or niche in mind and never take anyone for granted. If you also have a good product or skill, you can't possibly fail!
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