Business Practices

Who is your ideal client?

May 10, 2019 By Cheryl Savit

Do you know who your ideal client is? Identify your prime target by creating an ideal client profile. The more you know about who you want to talk to, the better you’ll be able to find that audience and craft a compelling message to engage them.

ICP is a hot marketing concept, but definitely a valuable one. I always say the only company in the world whose client is everyone is Amazon!

Therefore, first determine what you’re offering or selling. That will help you narrow down your audience. Are you offering college counseling services to students applying to college? Then your target is pretty simple: high schoolers who plan to apply to college and their parents.

To create an idea client profile, you’re basically putting together specific elements about them. Demographics are key components, but not all of these may be relevant to what you need to know:

clipboard with words who is your idea client?
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Religion
  • Education level
  • Profession
  • Income level
  • Location/geographic details
  • Marital status
  • Family information (children, ages)

Many of my clients are in the home design industry so drilling down to get even more specific information about their lifestyle (also known as psychographics) is important:

  • Where do they live? City? Suburbs? Rural? Single family home or multiple unit dwelling
  • What magazines and/or newspapers do they read?
  • What kind of clothing do they wear? Are they interested in fashion and design?
  • What kind of car do they drive?
  • What are their hobbies? Do they like to cook? Eat out? Collect art?
  • What forms of entertainment do they prefer? Theater? Museums?
  • Do they travel? Within the US or abroad?
  • Do they use any social media? If so, what platforms?
  • Are they philanthropic? Do they participate in community events?

Now think about the clients you’ve had in the past. What do they have in common? Do they all fall into a particular socioeconomic group? Do they all live in a specific area? Create a spreadsheet and track their commonalities. If you can see a pattern in past clients, then you can begin to form a picture of the clients you attract.

Getting to Ideal

Let’s talk for a moment about the concept of ideal. This is aspirational. Ideal is defined as “something perfect or without equal.” Think: best case scenario. Think about the clients you have enjoyed working with the best and write down some of those qualities that contribute to your sense of “ideal” or a really good match.

  • They value your skills and what you can do for them.
  • They are collaborative.
  • They have the resources to hire you.
  • They value you and your time.
  • They’re people you enjoy and with whom you want to spend time.
  • You communicate easily and well with them.
  • You trust one another.

You might have your own preferences not included in any of these lists. What is most important is that you identify what is important to you in a client relationship. Put it down on paper.

Once you have zeroed in on who you want to work with and have a good sense of the demographics and psychographics, then you can move on to the next step of crafting your message to attract those clients.

Learn about what to do with your ideal client profile in coming blog posts. Thanks for reading the Savvy Words Journal. If you are looking for a partner for your marketing and publicity, let’s meet and figure out whether Savvy Words is a good fit for your needs.