When you think about it, the entire concept of an ideal consumer is not all that complicated: Your ideal consumer is someone who gets their needs met by what you’re offering. Makes a lot of sense, right?
Here’s the catch, how will you attract these individuals for you to be able to meet their wants and needs? What smart companies do is niche it down by developing a comprehensive and true understanding of their ideal consumers.
Now, take a minute and think of something that you know that everybody might like. What comes to mind?
It’s difficult to think of something, isn’t it? It’s because people are different. Each of us has different wants and needs. Our choices are motivated by complex personal thoughts and preferences. With emphasis on the word personal.
It’s for this reason why it’s so important to identify your ideal consumer. From defining what your ideal consumer is, and why it’s important to know and understand who they are, to performing actions you can employ to discover or create your ideal consumer.
But if you want to skip the work, Accentuate Web Design and Marketing’s skilled team can help you design and recommend marketing, content, and/or branding strategies that will resonate with your ideal consumer.
Our digital marketing strategy session is designed to provide you with recommended actions and clarity, to help you achieve your business goals, by employing various digital marketing endeavours to get desired results. You can also let us manage the whole process with our execution and done-for-you marketing services if you so choose.
Ready to know your ideal consumer? Let’s get into it!
What is an Ideal Consumer?
Certain people will love your product or service, perhaps even rave about it to others, and others won’t see the value in what you’re offering. That’s the reason there’s value in identifying your ideal consumer before you charge ahead.
An ideal consumer represents an individual whose pain points get solved by your business. They’re customers you can often attract and maintain with less effort. While it may be tempting to assume that everyone needs your product or service, in reality, this assumption will inevitably lead you down the “make no money” path. Failure to define who you serve is an all too common and costly error made by many new entrepreneurs, you are not alone in this one.
The products, services, and content you produce won’t hit their mark if you continually attract the wrong people. While it’s true that your potential market may consist of everyone in theory, not everyone is your ideal consumer.
The truth of the matter is, if you’re not targeting the right people, you’ll never find your sweet spot in the market. Not to worry, there’s a 3-step process you can follow, which we will share with you in this article.
Why is it Important to Know Your Ideal Consumer?
Many business owners who engage in marketing services have trouble determining who their ideal customer is. This seems to be one of the hardest things for new business owners we get to work with.
Without identifying your ideal customer, you can spend a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to gain the attention and conversion of people who won’t be interested in you or your product.
Unfortunately, many new business owners tend to avoid narrowing down their ideal customer base because they feel they’re narrowing their exposure by doing so. These same business owners believe that if they market to every demographic, they will bring in a greater number of customers, which is far from the truth.
It may seem counterintuitive to narrow down your customer base to a smaller demographic, however, the fact is, it can increase your brand’s exposure. When you create an air of exclusivity or even a whiff of mystery, it naturally generates more buzz and excitement.
To cite a perfect example, Facebook started only being accessible to Harvard College students. When it became available to a wider audience in 2006, it skyrocketed to 100 million users from 6 million users in just two years.
When you know who your customers are, you will be able to create marketing strategies that will appeal to them and prevent wasting time and money. You will then be able to reach your ideal consumers more effectively when you clearly define your target market and reach the consumers who will enjoy what your business offers.
PRO TIP: Not everyone is your customer, and that’s okay. But narrowing your focus to a niche market, helps your business gain the right customers.
Tips for Creating Your Ideal Consumer
Ideal consumers are easy to attract. They take minimal effort to keep and become loyal recurrent buyers. But, this is by no means the “golden ticket” that will set your marketing strategies on autopilot and cause some to think they can rest on their laurels and simply kick their feet up. No sir, it takes constant work since trends change and so do people’s needs, wants, and tastes.
While ideal consumers are special to a business, the real trick is to find them. By clearly outlining who your ideal consumer is and who they are not, you’ll be able to create a brand message that will resonate with them, address their challenges and needs, and attract them to your business.
Many organisations resist in making an Ideal Consumer Profile because they think they are walking away from profits. In developing a profile, you don’t have to say no to customers outside of it, and it can be adapted as your organisation evolves.
The right information helps in building up a useful profile of your customers. Let’s see how you can do this by answering the following questions:
Who are you selling to?
The first step is to define your target audience by creating a buyer persona. This means getting a clear understanding on whom you want your business to serve. It’s of prime importance to be as specific as possible in this step and not cast a net too wide, ending up with too many people simultaneously.
Focus on identifying one or two demographics that are more than likely to need and want what it is you are offering. The more you learn about your ideal customers, the more you can tailor their experience to enhance their engagement, and for you to develop better prospects.
Some way you can break it down is by knowing these three essential elements:
- Geography – If you are located in a certain part of a town/city or state, then your target is anyone inside those zip codes.
- Gender – If you specialise in gender-specific products, it would be logical to market to that sector of the market. For example, if you sell women’s accessories, it makes sense to target men on the assumption they might buy their wife or partners a present. But who is your target? It’s women, so it’s okay to say men are not your target market.
- Interest – Understand your customer’s interests and sell what drives their interest. By doing so, you have related to the customer and created a connection between your brand and their interests, and that’s how a relationship begins.
Of course, if you want to create your buyer persona as accurately as possible, you need to know the following:
- Age
- Education level
- Their job: What is it they do?
- Income level
- Hobbies
- What language/s do they speak
- Buying motivation: Why do they buy from you?
- Buying concerns: What stops them from buying from you?
Strong buyer personas help you in mapping out every stage of your marketing process. In other words, it helps you define the perfect customer experience for your particular brand and consumer.
Why would they buy your products/services?
The second step is all about the data. There are a whole range of reasons why consumers would buy your product or service. They usually buy to solve either real or perceived problems and move away from pain and towards pleasure.
You’ll need as much information as possible about their needs, wants, desires, and how they like to spend their time and money. Your ability to create products and services that appeal directly to customers will be boosted by collecting more data.
To do this, you need your prospect to find value in what you are attempting to sell to them. Understand the issue they need some help with. You can then show them how your product or service can solve their problem.
Note that people buy a product to increase their pleasure (e.g., glowing health, popularity, freedom) or to decrease pain (e.g., financial problems, stress, poor health).
When you stop treating your prospect as a paycheck and put their needs first, you’re well on your way to earning more than you can imagine. The compensation you receive is in direct proportion to how much value you provide.
Who don’t you want to work with?
It’s an interesting question because we normally would ask ‘who is our target market?’ However, when profiling your ideal consumer, you also need to identify who you do not want to market to. One of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make is trying to sell to everyone.
Aiming too broadly will cause you to waste resources, or you might even find out too late that there aren’t enough customers interested in your product or service.
Why is determining who you don’t want to work with important?
- It can be expensive – Not all brands can afford to target everyone. Even if you do have the resources, you shouldn’t.
- Your brand message becomes watered down – Making your message universally relatable dilutes it and hinders you from making meaningful connections with those who are in most need of your services or products.
- You need to be consistent – The traditional shotgun approach to marketing is no longer as effective as it was in reaching the right people.
Knowing which customers aren’t a good fit for you is just as important as knowing which ones are. Taking the time to define your Ideal Consumer Profile will not only reduce customer churn and increase their satisfaction, it also helps in refining your outbound sales messages to speak uniquely to your consumer’s needs.
Implementation is the name of the game.
If you have done everything above, it’s time to put your work into action and start marketing to your ideal consumer. This also means the creation of content, ads, and offers that are specifically aligned and designed to appeal to the people you’ve identified as your ideal consumers.
Identifying your ideal consumer may seem like a daunting task, however, it is an important step in improving and growing your business. If you are worried that it may be too complex, you can register and book a Digital Marketing Session today to make your business name stand out, get results, and make it a winner!