The Best Strategy for Strengthening Your Ideal Client Avatar

When was the last time you reviewed your ideal client avatar? Like really looked closely at WHO you want to attract in your business?

It can be easy to fall into repetitive routines when you’ve been in the business game for awhile. But just like you should be going back to refresh your website now and again, you should also review your target marketing efforts. This will ensure that all of your promotion and client experience details are aligned with the type of individual you want to work with.

Business maintenance tasks like this might seem to be time fillers, but they help our business run more smoothly. More efficiently. They help us embrace that slower form of living we’re yearning for. 

I recommend looking at the following ideal client exercises as a bit of a retreat! Get some snacks, some fresh pens and paper, and take your laptop somewhere that brings out your creativity!

Step 1: Review Any Past Notes

When you began your business you likely followed a course, an article, or a video that walked you through a target marketing exercise. Perhaps you even worked with a brand strategist or coach to help you define your ideal client.

I want you to go back to the basics and pull up any of those original notes on your ideal client if you can. (If you’re not sure where they are, don’t sweat it, just try to jot down a few lines about who you originally defined to be your ideal client).

The beautiful (and often scary) part about running a business is that things evolve overtime. As we grow we’ll have to subtly adjust areas of our business to grow with us. Now that you have your past ideal client notes in front of you I want to you to answer the following questions:

1. Do these notes reflect the type of clients I have actually been working with lately?

1. If you answered “yes,” are you happy with the type of clients you’ve been getting? What do you like about them? Would you add anything to your original notes about this ideal client…common themes, traits, frustrations/problems that you didn’t initially write down?

2. If you answered “no,” are you happy with this different type of client you have been getting? (Perhaps you stumbled into a happy accident and began attracting a type of client you love even more!) What do you like about this type of client? What traits do they have?

2. Are you unhappy with the type of clients you’ve been attracting? Do you want to try to recenter yourself and get back to marketing towards that ideal client you defined in your original notes? Or do you feel you need to go in a new direction from your original client avatar?
   1. What do you feel hasn’t been working in your marketing efforts that could be leading to the disconnect with your ideal client?
   2. If you want to go in a new direction and target a new ideal client avatar, write down a few traits to define them! What is their age and sociatal status? What are their goals, frustrations, desires etc.?

When you’ve fallen into a working routine it’s actually quite easy to stray from those original notes. And again, maybe you’ve connected with a new kind of client you never imagined working with because of it! But straying from those notes can also lead to muddier messaging. We start trying to appeal to everyone and are open to working with *anyone* because frankly, we’ve got bills to pay and we don’t want to get bored working with the same type of client all the time.

That being said, there is SO much value in having an ideal client and sticking to it when it comes to our messaging! That’s not to say we can’t work with clients that don’t perfectly fit that avatar (I’m all for keeping things new and exciting), but for the sake of brand recognition and consistent messaging, being clear about WHO we want to serve is essential.

As Meredith Hill says: “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no-one.”

Step 2: Refresh Psychographics Details

One of the most vital parts of your ideal client avatar is the psychographics section. This consists of your ideal client’s personality traits. Everything about them that would influence their world views and ultimately their purchase decisions. 

Whether you have been working with your ideal client or not this is a great section to revisit and update. You can take current circumstances into consideration that may affect certain attitudes, beliefs, or goals. Again, refer back to those original notes, are there any details you didn’t address before that you think are relevant? Now that you’ve been in business for a while, what would you add to the psychographic section?

Here are a few questions and prompts to get you thinking:

1. What is your ideal client’s mindset and attitude on various parts of life? How do they feel about family life, work, leisure time?

2. What beliefs and opinions do they hold in high regard? How would they express these beliefs and opinions…boldy, subtly but powerfully, to the masses or to close connections? Do they keep their opinions to themselves?

3. What are their greatest aspirations, goals, dreams, and wishes? If money was no object, how would they choose to live? What goals do they have for their personal/professional life? What do they wish for themselves or for loved ones?

4. What are their interests and what activities do they partake in? What books would fill their shelves or podcasts fill their digital library? Do they enjoy very focused hobbies or are they multi-passionate? Are they more social or solitary in their activities?

5. How would you describe their personality? What do others think about them when they first walk in a room, how do their close friends see them? What about their personality makes them a great fit for your business?

6. What is their lifestyle like and what are their current priorities? Are they looking to simplify their life or expand it? Are they looking for more ease and peace or more adventure and thrill? Are they on a tight budget or living comfortably?

7. What is their relationship with money? How has early life impacted the way they view money (spending vs saving). Are there certain things they are more hesitant to spend money on than other things?

8. What are their worries and fears in life? What is it they want to avoid at all costs and what makes them feel unstable, unsettled, ungrounded?

9. Finally, what is it that really lights them up in this life? What is their big picture, their “why” that drives them forward? Is it a new-found ideal or something deeply held for many years?

While you likely won’t meet a client who checks every single box that you may write out here, this exercise is meant to help you focus. To really visualize an actual human with goals, fears, and lifestyle choices. When it comes time to create content, write copy, and organize  marketing materials you can imagine you’re speaking to this person, touching on all the chords that uniquely sing to them. When you do this, like-minded people will take notice.

“A great message is not one your ideal client understands…it’s one where your ideal client *feels* understood by you.”- Anonymous

Step 3: Hunt For More Data

Now it’s time to backup all those psychographic notes with real data! How long has it been since you’ve done some intentional target market research? Now’s your chance!

You’ll want to start by hunting down some “Voice Of Customer data”: Quotes, feedback, and language from your ideal client. If you don’t have a Voice Of Customer data document already you’ll definitely want to create one. (No need to be fancy here, just open up a fresh google doc or spreadsheet to store the quotes you find in).

To find Voice Of Customer data you’ll want to start with your own client base (that is, if you consider your current clients to be your ideal clients). 

Pull up:

• Reviews
• Testimonials
• Client questionnaires and homework
• Email threads

Essentially anywhere you can find specific quotes/language from your ideal client! We’re going to be analyzing how they speak and repurpose this information for future marketing efforts. If you don’t feel like you have enough to pull from here you could also create a survey and send it out to your past clients if they were ideal! (Survey’s are the most popular method of ideal client research as of).

If you aren’t currently working with those you feel are you ideal clients you’ll want to start your search elsewhere!

Based on your notes and updated psychographic data, brainstorm a few places your ideal client would hang out (specific Facebook groups, Tiktok communities, Instagram, Twitter etc.). What brands do you think they would follow online? What competitors of yours would they interact with? Once you have a few ideas you’ll want to scroll through comment sections and content to see what people are saying! What are they excited about, unhappy about, what topics do they find interesting? What questions do they ask?

Whether you are scrolling through your own client databases or searching for Voice Of Customer data on social media you’ll want to look for quotes that fall into the following categories:

• Client frustration
• Client needs
• Client desires
• Client questions
• Client objections/hesitations

The more specific you can get to your industry and your type of service the better. But if you are looking for more general data on social media you may not find someone talking exactly about your industry. You may have to infer what they would think, feel, or say about your service based on their responses to other topics.

Step 4: Start A Conversation With Your Ideal Client

For this last step I want to introduce you to an invaluable research tool: informational interviews! Sometimes the easier way to learn how your  ideal customer thinks, speaks, and feels, is to ask them! 

If you’ve worked with a few clients who fit your ideal client avatar, send them a message and see if they would be available for a quick chat.

*Bonus Tip* With any sort of informational interview you want you show your guest how much you appreciate their time! Consider offering a small thank you gift such as sending $10 via Venmo for a “coffee on me”  or a handwritten thank you card.

If you haven’t worked with your ideal client you can do some more digging on social media and locate someone who seems to fit the bill. Reach out, explain who you are, what you’re researching, and that you would love to chat with them if they would be willing to help out.

BIG NOTE: This is not (I repeat, NOT) the time or place to be pitching. These interviews are simply for gleaning information so you can learn to reach your ideal client more effectively! 

So once you have a few guests willing to chat with you, what questions should you ask? I’ve got you covered!

General Questions To Get The Conversation Started

Tip: Let them answer the questions fully, don’t lead them to answers

1. Tell me a bit more about yourself, what do you do, what does your day to day look like? (If they’re a past client, simply ask about what’s been new in their world!)
2. If you could wave a magic wand right now and make one thing easier in your life what would it be?
3. How do you define success in life?
4. What values do you hold very close to your heart if you don’t mind sharing?
5. What are some of your biggest goals in life right now?
6. Is there anything standing in your way to achieve those goals?
7. What hobbies/interests do you have?
8. What keeps you up at night sometimes and stresses you out?
9. When you pick up your phone in the morning, what apps or sites are you going to click on first? (This is super helpful information for planning content in the future).
10. What is your favorite way to learn/get information? Books, podcasts, articles, videos etc…can you name any favorites?

Specific Questions Related To Your Industry/Service

1. What words or feelings come to mind when you think about [insert service or industry].
2. If you were in the market for [service] what would look for/want to know before buying? If they already worked with you, ask what they considered beforehand.
3. What would make you hesitant to buy [service]? What questions would you have about it?
4. If you could build and buy the ideal [service], what would be included in the experience?

Putting It All Together

“Building a good client experience doesn’t happen by accident, it happens by design”

 -Clare Muscutt

As your business grows so will your clients. You’ll learn more about them, how to connect with them quicker, and how to get even more comfortable with them, but only if you’re checking in and refreshing your approach.

Like I said, just like your website needs maintenance so do those notes you made when you first started your business. Your plans, ideas, and strategies should evolve to reflect where you are now! 

Following these above steps will help you design an even better client experience. One where your ideal clients feel completely understood by you. I encourage you to take all of this new information (all the new scribbles on paper) and create a fresh client avatar for this year.

When refreshing your ideal client avatar, touch on the following topics:

• Name (get creative!)
• Occupation
• Age
• Gender
• Location/geographic area
• Family status/lifestyle
• Goals/desires
• Values
• Interests/hobbies
• Current challenges/frustrations
• Possible objections to purchasing from you