Come on, fess up!
You can’t stand the majority of your clients, but feel like you have no option but to work with them. You think getting clients is hard enough so why would I let a paying customer walk even if it means getting paid less, taking on work that isn’t really what you love to do, or dealing with extremely needy clients that take up way too much of your time.
Or maybe it’s even worse… you really struggle to get any clients at all.
That’s ok, don’t beat yourself up. Almost everyone who has started a client based business has faced some if not all of these struggles before. However, NOW is the time to make a change.
The first step and most important step in making this change is to define who your dream client is.
In this article we’ll dive into everything you need to know to effectively define your dream client and understand why this is so important to do.
Below are the main topics we will be discussing:
- What is your dream client
- How to define your dream client
- Avatar examples
- Finding your dream client
- Common questions
Your dream client, aka your customer avatar
There may be nothing more important to your business not just to it’s success but also your happiness as the business owner then defining your customer avatar or as we like to call it your dream client.
For our purposes let’s define your avatar as a person who embodies your dream client. When you define them you want to make them feel as real as possible… give them a name, maybe even find a picture of someone that you feel resembles your dream client, and define them in as much detail as possible.
They will be the person your business lives to serve and will become the foundation that your business is built around such as:
- where to advertise / demographics to target.
- the way to craft your ads & messaging.
- what type of content makes them tick.
- what to offer as bait and offers.
- what to charge for your high-ticket offers.
These are just some of the reasons why why defining your dream client is so important!
Defining Your Dream Client
Ideally you want to define your dream client once you decide you’re starting a business. However, many of you reading this may already have a business and that’s ok too it is never too late. If you’ve already started a business there is a good chance you already have at least a basic idea of your dream client and if it isn’t on paper you’ve probably had many experience with current and past clients that have given you an opportunity to see who you do and don’t like working with and what type of person fits the best with your business and what you want to offer.
If you haven’t yet started your business defining your avatar will give you the tools to create a successful business where you have a clear vision of who your business is serving. If you do currently have a business defining your avatar will help you get over current roadblocks or hurdles you’ve been experience with growing your business.
Example Definitions
To help get you thinking about how to define your own dream client let’s take a look at a few examples.
A really bad avatar:
My dream client needs help with topic y and wants to hire someone to help them with this.
A decent avatar:
My dream client is between 25 – 50 years old, they have a small business and a family to support. They struggle to find new clients for their business and are becoming increasingly frustrated with the unpredictability of their business. I am going to help them create a predictable client acquistion system so they will always have clients and know how much money they will be making every month.
A really good avatar:
This is Emery, my dream client she is a 28 year old photographer. She has a wedding and family photography business that she started 5 years ago. When she started she was still a barista at Starbucks but after 3 years she was finally able to get enough clients to quit Starbucks and focus solely on her photography business. She has hustled nonstop for the past 3 years to try and grow her business and has tried doing just about anything and everything she could to get more clients such as blogging, social media marketing, running ads herself, groupon, mailers and more. This has worked to an extent she has made roughly $80k/year for the past 2 years, but is growing extremely frustrated that she’s hit a road block and can’t seem to grow anymore and even moreso with the fact she has months where she’ll make $10k+ and another where she will make $2k.
She’s getting burnt out as she is spending so much more time marketing her business and trying to get clients then actually doing what she loves to do taking and editing photos. She just got married and wants to be able to travel with her husband for a couple years before they have kids but she doesn’t know how this is going to happen because she feels if she isn’t constantly working on her business it is going to crash and burn.
I am going to help Emery by creating and managing a client aquisition system for her so she will never struggle finding clients, will have so much more time on her hands to take on more clients as well as have the time to travel with her husband. For this she will pay a monthly fee that she will still make a profit on the first client I get her every month.
The difference between a really bad avatar and really good avatar is obvious, but just to highlight to have a great avatar you want to know not only their demographics but also their biggest challenges and pain points as well as what they truly dream of achieving and they life they want for themselves.
I’ve put together a worksheet that will help you define your avatar.
Click here to get access to the worksheet.
Finding Your Dream Client
One of the biggest benefits of effectively defining your dream client is that it makes it so much easier to actually find them.
You can use this insight you now have on your dream client and find them in online communities, networking events, and even within your own network referrals become more effective as you can let them know if they know anyone like your avatar.
However, we believe in removing as much legwork from your marketing efforts as possible and utilize a system that brings your dream client directly to you.
If you haven’t already downloaded our FREE Client Acquisition Workbook that gives you step by step instructions on how to setup this system. Click here to get instant access to it.
So for our purposes we believe the most effective way to find your dream client is with paid traffic and as of the time of writing this article facebook ads specifically. One of the beautiful things about facebook ads is there are about 2 Billion active users on facebook and guess what facebook knows so much about each one of their users. When it comes to setting up your ads since they have so much data on all their users you are able to show your ads only to your dream client (avatar).
Since you know who your dream client is you can not only target them to make sure just they see your ads, but you also know how to speak directly to them with your ad (copy, media, etc).
Common questions about your avatar…
Can my business have more than 1 avatar?
Yes, you can have as many avatars as you see fit for your business. In fact I’d recommend it. If your business serves both men and women you should have at least 1 seperate avatar for the men and another for women. You may even offer services for one of your avatars and not the other and that is A ok!
Can my avatar change?
Yes and it should! I recommend revisiting your avatar frequently can at least once or twice a year and make tweaks to your avatar to reflect positive experiences you’ve had or possibly even add an additional avatar that reflects a new customer type you’ve encountered.
If you didn’t access the avatar worksheet aboveI recommend doing it now as you can revisit this worksheet and update it as your avatar(s) evolves.
Have questions about how to define your avatar? Ask us or share your avatar with us in the comments section below!
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