How to Harness and Use POWERFUL Ideal Client Profiles
This is Part Two of our Ideal Client Profiles series
“I’ve been staying authentic and posting about my weekend activities (mostly hiking) on IG but I’m actually losing followers, why!”
This was something our clients said to us when we were talking about her business. Here’s the hard truth: Unless your business is you, you have to remember that your clients are there for your company and your products, not you (it’s not profilel!).
While our client’s followers love her health food products, if she had created her ideal client profiles with our tips & tricks, she would have realised that they’re interested in how to lead healthier lifestyles themselves, not how she leads a healthy lifestyle. Instead of posting her hikes from her POV, she could’ve used that exact post but captioned it as “Top hikes to break a sweat to!” or asked “On a scale of 1-10, rate this hike!”.
She would be engaging her clients on topics that they were actually interested in, instead of just showing her life.
That’s why it’s important to not only create deep, meaningful ideal client profiles, but also to use them! If you haven’t created your ideal client profiles yet OR you’ve done so without reading our tips on how to make your client profile more powerful, make sure you do so before reading this article!
We’ll go through some actionable steps on how to use that knowledge – because “with great knowledge comes great responsibility”.
Summarise their desires & dreams, fears & struggles
Lay out all your client profiles in front of you.
Review everything about them - their struggles, their hopes, and ultimately what led them to you - and write down these common threads. Remember, this exercise only works if you have more than one client profile to go through!
Have this list handy by taping it on your wall, printed as a poster, or even a sticky-note on your monitor - anywhere you can easily take a glance at it! Make it a practice to reference this handy list any time you’re publishing new content, changing website copy, or brainstorming new products.
For example, common threads for your profiles may be working parents, fear of losing identity and lack of community, so you’d want to make sure you’re always addressing at least one.
Align your client profiles with your strategy
Your client profiles are all going to be somewhat alike, yet so different. It’s helpful to narrow your focus and talk directly to a profile depending on the topic.
For example, if you’re promoting acupuncture for sports-based injuries, you’d want your messaging to speak directly to that profile with the right language. Those individuals may often work out at the gym and are more action-oriented. You’d want to use an invigorating voice with a slight hint of urgency. If you’re promoting postnatal acupuncture for mamas who’ve experienced a traumatic birth, using a calm, reassuring voice is more suitable. The tone and messaging you use to speak to gym-goers vs. new mothers is completely different – even though it’s all coming from the same business!
Remember to check in with your strategy and ensure that it’s aligned with the profile that you’re looking to connect with.
Create a list of topics that your clients want to know
After all that great work you’ve done, you can finally use it to create content! Use your knowledge of what your profiles’ struggles & hopes are to create a list of topics and ideas that they want to hear about.
These lists help you to align how to communicate with your clients and ground yourself to what you should say and how to say it. It takes the guesswork out of social media!
While it’s important to show up in your business in an authentic way, it’s also important to understand why your clients show up for you, as well as where and how they want to be engaged. It will go a long way!
Check everything against a simple checklist
Before you launch any piece of content on social media, your website or even your 5-second elevator pitch to that lady in the acai bowl line, do a mental check of the below:
Does it relate to one or more client profile(s)?
Is it something that my ideal client wants to know, desires for, dreams of, fears, or struggles about?
Do the words and visuals connect and resonate with your ideal profiles?
If you said no to any of the above, it’s time to re-think. Adjust and reframe until you can say “YES!” to all three.
Whew! Trust us when we say that going deep into your ideal client profiles will pay off. Having the summary, the list of topics and the checklist in place will help you when you’re in a fury trying to get stuff out the door. It acts as a light framework when you’re thinking, “is this sentence right?”, “should I post this?” or “what should my services look like?”
Do the hard work of understanding your ideal clients, and you’ll be able to confidently speak and connect with them on a deeper and more authentic level – so much so, that they become your biggest fans and advocates! We guarantee that these tips will help you flush out the details of your profiles and, ultimately, help you find more dream clients!
If all of this feels daunting - don’t worry! If you’re DIY-ing, our client workbook can give you a hand!. If you want some help thinking about your ideal client and how to make your branding work for you, I’d love to support you. Fill in our form to book complimentary call to chat about your business, concerns, goals and how we can help!
Hey there,
I’m Lorena!
I’m a brand designer, illustrator, strategist & cat mom. Spending time with my little one + partner and feline friends fills my soul.
I help purpose-driven business owners invested in helping the world change, build amazing brand strategies and identity – so that their branding can tell their mission and story for them.
Feeling like you’re ready to invest in your brand? Fill out an inquiry form to book a free call and let’s begin our journey together!