Determining your ideal client is vital to the health of your business. If you don't know who you're talking to, or who you're aiming to work with, then you won't effectively be marketing yourself to reach that person.

Your ideal client doesn't have to be the type of person you're currently working with either... you can make a switch to attract different people at any time! But do remember that normally, the person you attract, will come to you because of the whole package you present. If your company has values that don't align with your marketing, it will be noticeable, and you won't be attracting the people you want to be.

Make sure everything matches up, and you'll be sure to find your perfect people a.k.a your ideal clients. Okay then, let’s dig in!

When starting to evaluate who your ideal clients you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions…

1. What do you OFFER, PROVIDE OR SELL?

Most likely your clients are coming to you because they want what you’re offering, in the way (or at the price) you’re offering it. You can adjust the ways in which you’re providing your service or product and your clients will change too, so it’s best to start by evaluating what you really want to be offering!

This might be slightly backwards from the advice a larger company would have, where the individuals working for the company don’t matter as much as the customers, but if you’re like us, and you’re a small business, solo-preneur or similar, then what you do really matters to your day-to-day and your ability to provide your offering.

So! What makes your product or service different and special? What makes the experience you offer different? Dig deep and get really specific about the gap you fill or the way in which you provide your offering in order to find your niche or unique selling proposition.

Some examples:

A make up artist might work within the wedding industry mostly, but they could work with feminine brides having traditional weddings, or they could prefer working with creative and unique brides who are having an untraditional wedding.
A web designer may work with small businesses, but one could work with Wordpress and one could work exclusively with Squarespace.

In both of these examples, the ideal client will be quite different, even though they do the same job in the same industry or niche.

2. Picture the future

So you know what you do, but looking forward, how do you want your business to evolve? Will your current clients (or customers) help you get there, or do you need to make a change?

For many of our clients who are doing a rebrand or going through a growth stage, this is one of the biggest changes they’re making in their business and believe us, it impacts your brand and website hugely!

Many small businesses or individual freelancers and contractors start out by offering their services to a wide range of people, and then after a few years of experience can start to look back and see who they actually enjoyed working with, what projects went smoothly, and what type of person or business they’d therefore like to continue working with.

3. Break it down

Okay! Now we can get into the nitty gritty about your ideal clients! Looking at your current clients or customers (or totally imagining this person if you need to), you can pull out the traits, characteristics and values that make them who they are.

If it helps, write out a profile including their name, job and salary. Then start to flesh them out by thinking about where they live, what type of house they live in (how is it decorated, who lives with them?), what they typically wear to work or at the weekends and what they do with their time. You can even take it one step further and think about the other brands they buy from and what prompts them to spend their money with certain companies.

More and more people are shopping with their values these days so thinking about what your ideal clients care about can help you to align your own brand with those values accordingly.

4. IMPLEMENT

Once you’ve crafted an ideal client profile or person, it’s time to start putting it to use! If your current clients don't suit the direction you want your business to take, make steps towards attracting your ideal client. What can you change within your website, your social media or your work connections that will help you get there? You might need to look at changing some of the visuals of your brand, or it might require changing some of the language and marketing tools instead. This can be a change that takes some time so don’t rush it or get too overwhelmed, just start small and start working towards attracting your ideal client or customer as and when you can.

Want to work with us on your brand identity? We’ll help you craft your ideal client persona as part of our brand strategy process! Send an email to hello@saltdesignco.studio to get started.

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