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Do THIS Before Anything Else [Ideal Client Avatar Process] · Marketing For Tradies

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can't create effective offers, messaging, or marketing until you know your target market.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everything in business starts with knowing your niche.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you're working with a coach, an agency, or a marketing person, or you're just trying to build your own business or make it better, this is one of the first things you need to be doing.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no one right way to build your business, or no one right way to market your business.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the only way that's going to be effective is the way that speaks to your target market.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty amazing how many businesses are operating without knowing their target market, or they're just very vague or generic with their messaging, or worse, they say everyone is in their target market.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So in today's episode, I'm going to take you through the process of defining your target market, really getting to know their problems and pain points and challenges, their goals and desires internally and externally, and how you can create offers that solve problems, not just offers that are products and services, and how you can then take all of this information and use it to market in a way that's going to resonate with your target market.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, this is going to make your marketing more effective because it's going to speak to people, make them take notice, get you more attention, and bring more new clients and customers into your business and get your clients better results as well.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, defining your ideal client doesn't mean that you can't work with anyone outside of this.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people feel limited by the fact that they've, you know, defined their target market or they're being more specific and intentional with who they're trying to speak to, but it actually does the opposite of that.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking to a specific market will attract a specific type of person, but it's also still likely to attract people that resonate in some way with this person that you've identified.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why it's called your ideal client, not your only client.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't mean that you have to refuse the service to someone else, it just means it's going to connect better with a group of people.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you do this work and you do feel limited and you feel like, oh, like I want to serve more people, then I wanted to preface it just by saying that, but also that if your goal is to make sales and you feel that you're limited by the group of people you're trying to target because it's too specific, you can get too specific with this work, but more than likely that's just a limiting belief that you have because if you have a bigger audience and you have broader targeting, you're going to attract less people because that message is going to resonate with less people.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you have a smaller audience with a very specific message and offers that are made specifically for them, you're going to have a high conversion rate.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you, for example, have an audience size of a thousand people, but your messaging is very vague and broad and no one really takes notice, you might still make sales, and let's say the conversion rate is 5%, for example, that's 50 sales.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an audience size of 500 people, just for argument's sake, but your messaging and offers are more targeted and you know your target market and ideal client better, your ideal your conversion rate is going to be much higher.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And let's say it's four times higher at 20%, meaning that that's a hundred sales out of 500 people compared to 50 out of a thousand.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So don't feel limited by being more specific because the outcome is going to be better.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The other advantage of getting clear on your target market and who your ideal client is, is that when you speak to the problems and goals that they have and you're clear on those, which is the process we're going to go through, they're going to take notice.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to give you their attention.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because when someone hears something that they identify with, their ears perk up and their brain tells them, listen up, they're talking about you.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: If it's something they don't resonate with or something that's generic, they're less likely to do that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where that higher conversion rate comes from, because the initial interaction or the attention from the market is much higher when you're speaking to what they're experiencing right now or what they want.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, even for example, if I was to say, listen up if you have a white shirt.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a white shirt on, you're more likely to listen.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because even if you're zoned out right now, your brain switches on and tells you, hey, you're wearing a white shirt, you should listen up.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's about to say something that applies to you.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the same thing with your marketing and your messaging and who you're speaking to, because if you don't have those things that call out what your target market identifies with, they're less likely to take notice.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess my point in all that is that don't feel limited or that you're being held back by being more specific with your target market.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can go too far and be too specific, and the market gets too small to market to, but that's very unlikely.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, most people will define their target market by demographics and psychographics, which in my opinion is not the right way.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Demographics are age, gender, and profession.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is very surface level, and I don't think it really applies to defining your target market and your ideal client because a 20-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man could have the same problem theoretically.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if you're someone that helps people with back pain, that is not going to be defined by the type of work they do or their age or their gender.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is always based on the current state of that market, what they're experiencing right now, and their desired future state and their desire to solve the problems that they have.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: People also look at psychographics sometimes.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is probably more relevant, but it still is one of those things that's good to know, but the essential information is the problems and desires of your market, how you're providing solutions to solve those problems, and how your marketing is resonating with that ideal client.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you actually do this?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to write down in your notes or on a notepad or if you're driving or walking or doing something at the moment, come back to this activity.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to firstly write down a possible market.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: This can be pretty broad, it's just your starting point.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this whole process that we go through in the beginning is really a hypothesis of what you think.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have your hypothesis of what you assume your target market to be experiencing and what they want, I then want you to do proper market research.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: These are just assumptions.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have proof that these are the issues that they have unless you've already worked with the target market and you've got data to back it up.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to use this as a starting point and then go and actually ask your market what they're experiencing and what their goals are and kind of go through this process with them.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But this will give you a really good idea of what you think is happening in the market, and then you can reinforce that with data.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just make sure that you don't have confirmation bias.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be really neutral in the way that you collect or survey or get market research when you go out with your hypothesis.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Be ready to be dynamic and fluid in how you change this because what you think may not always be correct, and you may not more than likely won't get it right the first time.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to firstly start with your possible market.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is a broad starting point.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: For example, service-based businesses, freelancers, personal trainers, new moms, crossfitters.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who are these people or how do they identify themselves?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing I want you to do is ask these people or make assumptions on what they're experiencing right now in terms of their problems.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the symptoms that these people have?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not the cause, not the actual problem itself, not the solution that you can offer.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are they experiencing that's frustrating them?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And how would they describe their problems in their own words?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Think about it as if you're going to like the doctor.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: You go in there, you tell them how you're feeling, the symptoms that you have, what you're experiencing, what your issues are, and then they're going to diagnose you.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: You don't go in there and say, Oh, my problem is that I don't have a website, or my problem is that this or that.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: They may have an idea of what they need, but at this point, I just want you to write down what you think their symptoms are and what they're frustrated with and how they're feeling.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: For example, for our target market, the symptoms usually are that they're not getting many new customers through their website, they're relying on word of mouth to grow their business, and they're embarrassed by their existing website.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So after years of serving service-based businesses, we find that there is a lot of consistency with those three symptoms or problems or things that our target market is experiencing, and then knowing and grouping those things together, we can then go to the next stage, which is to diagnose a symptom by identifying the cause.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you look at the list that you've written of the symptoms your target market is experiencing, again, this being an assumption, or hopefully you have data to back it up if you have information from past clients.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why are these symptoms occurring?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're usually going to be related, and ideally, for some markets, it's going to be one thing to solve it all.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you may find that there's a couple of things that this or that are the root cause of why these symptoms are proliferating.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't need to be a long list.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, more is not better for us with those three issues that generally spur on to all of these other issues in their business, but they're the general complaints that we'll hear from clients who come to us, is that they don't have a marketing plan or strategy to get traffic to their website, and their website is not optimized for conversion.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can solve those two problems, which are the causes of the symptoms they're experiencing, being not many new customers coming through their website, having to rely on word of mouth and feeling embarrassed to send traffic to their website, we know that that is going to cure the symptoms that they're experiencing and get them to the result that they want.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So by this point, you should have a list of the symptoms and have a list of the possible causes that are why these symptoms are occurring.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is essentially clarity on where your target market is right now or what I call their current state.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now that we know their current state, we need to identify what their desired future state is.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I break this down into two different areas.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: The first being their desired future state externally.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So what result or outcome or objective goal do they have?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: These should be things that are measurable, like they want this many new clients and customers every week.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: They want to hire their first or next team member, they want to scale from say 25,000 per month to 100,000 per month.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: What how or how would they describe their goals or what they're wanting to achieve?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So once you have that down, move on to what they want or their desired future state internally.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how they want to feel, or really the why as to you know, why do they actually want to achieve those objective goals?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: How would that change their life?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: How would it make them feel?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: These can usually be like emotion-based or fear-based.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, for example, our clients always mention wanting to reach their potential in business, they want to have more time to work on their business and pursue other opportunities for growth, and they want to not have to worry about where their next customer is coming from.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see that these things are kind of like a little bit less measurable.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: The more time to work on business is kind of a bit of a gray area, but they want to pursue more opportunities for growth.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't really measure that.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We can't really measure have I reached my potential, and again, not worrying about where their next customer is coming from.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: We could kind of measure that in terms of the number of leads and inquiries that are coming in, but that's more of a feeling, like not have to worry about it.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on your notepad or in your notes, you should have where your clients or target market are right now, so their current state, where they want to be, so their desired future state.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And now and only now are you equipped to create a solution that actually solves their problems and a marketing plan that's going to effectively speak to them.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Which now brings us to the next step in defining your target market, which is creating that solution.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So any offers or solutions that you create have to be created to take your ideal client from their current state to their future state.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is that bridge that's going to connect them from where they are now to where they want to be?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is not what you want to give them, this is what they need.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the solution is not your product or service, that's really important.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So don't say that the solution is to get a massage or get your app or sign up for your coaching program.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually deeper than that in that what do they actually need to solve that problem that they have?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that's going to get them from their current state to their desired future state?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, as an example, with our target market, it's website traffic from high intent, ready to buy prospects.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a simple and effective marketing strategy they can execute with minimal time and effort.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a website that converts visitors into bookings, quote requests, or inquiries for them.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can see, we mentioned marketing website and traffic, but it doesn't say the solution is website design and SEO because that is just the method of solving their problems, not the solution itself.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you had a chance to go through this process at the same time as me, and you have this list of problems, desires, and solutions which defines your target market.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is really unlikely you're going to get this right the first time, and that's why I mentioned having to do market research to really get clear on how your target market does describe their own symptoms and goals and desires.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is just a hypothesis to start with, and you should be ready to adapt and change it based on what your market tells you.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: But the most reliable way to get this information and ensure that it's accurate is to ask your market.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So go out and do surveys and interview people and ask the right questions.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you have a business already and you have data that you can go back on, like from discovery calls or applications or forms that potential clients and clients have completed, look at what they've said their problems and challenges are, what their goals and desires are, maybe what you've done for them that's worked really well or hasn't worked really well, and then use this to create the hypothesis and still go out there and ask if you feel like you need extra clarity because you really can't just assume these things.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Create the hypothesis, get confirmation, try it out, test things, but always be ready to adapt and change as the market tells you because you're not there to force things on people, you're there to solve problems.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a business that's going to make sales consistently, and that you don't have to always be forcing people into things, the best thing to do is to go out to the market and create a solution for problems that are already there rather than create products and services and then just try and sell it to a market.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are struggling with your marketing, you're not getting the results that you want, or you're just not attracting the right people into your business, please define your target market because this is going to inform everything that you do in your marketing and is the foundation of every business plan.