HOW TO GET TO KNOW YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
There are several schools of thought about how to determine your ideal customer, but the one I like is the simplest. It involves choosing one person, one individual, to represent the whole of your customer group, and all marketing messages are directed at that one person.

There are two reasons why choosing one individual to represent all of your customers works well:

1. If you can approach your communications as if you’re just communicating to one person, it will be much easier to communicate on a personal level, and your organization’s character and personality will show through. This is a proven technique to avoid corporate-speak and create engaging copy and messages.

2. Personal and engaging communication has a better chance of resonating with influential customers, and if you can get them on board, their involvement may influence others to follow suit.

The ideal customer exercise
Work through this simple exercise to get to know the needs of your ideal customer. I know what you’re thinking: “I’m not going to do this exercise! I’ll just skim past it. I already know this stuff.” I’ll bet you haven’t really thought through all the details of what your ideal customer’s life is like, and what he really needs, but if you do, you’ll be much more able to assist him, to answer his needs, to attract his attention with your marketing messages.

Our Ideal Customer   Fill in the blanks below for your one individual ideal customer.

Age_______Gender_________Married? Single? Kids?_____________________________

Job description_____________________________Income level_____________________

Car he/she drives___________________________________________________________

Where he/she shops________________________________________________________

Books/magazines he/she reads_______________________________________________

Pressures/stresses he/she has_______________________________________________

Business/career goals he/she has_____________________________________________

Personal goals he/she has___________________________________________________

Needs he/she has that relate to your organization’s product or service_______________

_________________________________________________________________________

You may balk at targeting one individual, arguing that it’s not possible, there are many customer types you’d like to attract; but for most organizations, not only is it possible, it’s extremely helpful and revealing. (The only type of organization that I’ve come across for which having one target customer doesn’t work, is a church. For them, we were able to settle on three major customer types.) It really is just as simple as it sounds, and every time I have done this with a client, amazing and relevant insights emerge.

You might want to consider walking through the exercise with other members of your
organization. When you’ve finished the exercise, ask these questions:

Did any light bulbs go off? What was surprising? Did a real understanding of the needs of the market start to sneak into your awareness? What did you learn? How can you use this information in your marketing?

Looking at the portrait you’ve developed in front of you, do you find that you suddenly feel closer to your customer, understand him/her a little bit better, feel more focused about how to reach him/her, about how to assist him/her instead of just trying to sell? Assisting is key to engaging, and understanding is key to assisting.