When trying to define your Ideal Clients, don’t be afraid to really drill down into their unique characteristics and needs. So many people settle for milquetoast, bland marketing messages to “cast a wide net,” but that’s a big mistake.
If you try to sell to everyone, you end up appealing to no one.
There really is NO product or service that 100% of your market will ever need or buy, including yours. So you are officially released from trying to become everything for everybody!
When I ask people to define their Ideal Client, I usually get a bin full of demographics… the types of selections we’re asked to choose when looking for the perfect list or group to market to, or when analyzing the potential of specific media. However, with very few exceptions (like their age, gender, race, etc.)…
Demographics Are The Results Of Our Decisions
Even traditional demographics like income can be considered the direct or indirect result of our life choices. Consider these “demographic” selections and see if you agree:
Are you married or single?
Do you live in an apartment or house?
What ZIP Code or area?
What educational level?
What job or career path?
What kind of car do you drive? And on and on.
When you think about it, even demographic selections like race or gender are become more blurred as well. Personal racial selections have a long and varied history, much of it socially-driven. If you’re Philipino-Dutch-African, the box you check is the one you most identify with or wish to be identified as. In other words, the result of your life choices or decisions.
In 2014 Facebook added a “Custom Gender” option and today has 71 variations. Does this complicate our jobs as marketers? Yes, but it can also give us more insights to refine our messaging so we can speak directly to individuals based on their “Whys” or inner drivers with Benefits that matter.
Demographics are important for marketers to know, but what’s more important is understanding the reasons behind those decisions, because it’s those “Whys” your Features and Benefits have to address. Those “Whys” are your Ideal Clients Psychographics. (For more on this topic see also An Inch Wide, A Mile Deep, Part 2: Psychographics)
Are you writing to address the “Whys” of your market? Or simply listing lots of Features they may not even care about, hoping they respond?
