Get Specific to Grow Your Revenue. Here’s How to Define Your Ideal Client Clearly |
Get Specific to Grow Your Revenue. Here’s How to Define Your Ideal Client Clearly
By not getting specific about your audience, you won’t speak to the right customer. That delay will cost you time, energy, and revenue.
BY HEATHER ASIYANBI, FREELANCE WRITER
When I started my business, I was so excited to help women tell their stories. I thought I was communicating clearly about whom and how I could help, but I was not.
Instead of speaking to one specific woman with a defined problem and a result she was willing to pay for, my messaging was messy. The projects I took on reflected that. I said yes to clients with journals, novels, poetry, and more. I was booked and busy.
I was also unfocused and, ultimately, unsatisfied with the work I was doing. “Women” is not a market. It is a population. Not building for a specific audience cost me time, focus, and real revenue.
The moment I started building for a specific audience
Two years into my business, I was having a morning conversation in a business program with women entrepreneurs, listening to them describe exactly whom they served. The organizer worked with women entrepreneurs trying to reach their first six figures in business. Another was using her health journey to help other women navigate theirs.
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When it was my turn, I said, “I help women tell their stories.” Someone asked, “Which women?” Essentially, she asked, “Who is your audience?” I could not describe the person in a specific scenario with an urgent problem. If I couldn’t, neither could the people deciding whether to hire me.
A couple of weeks later, I paid for a workshop with that same organizer about identifying a single customer avatar. During that workshop, I had to answer critical questions. They were not about demographics or broad values, but specifics.
What keeps her up at night?
How does she like to spend her time outside of work?
What outcome would make this investment obvious?
These combined questions revealed that I had been building for an idea. During that workshop, I started building for a person, aka my ideal audience. I rewrote my offers and revamped my website. Next, I changed how I described my work in conversations. Also, I learned how to say who I am, what I do, and whom I do it for in less than 30 seconds.