how to communicate to your ideal customer

Communication is one of the areas most businesses struggle with. Most times this is because business owners aren’t clear on who their ideal customer is, or how best to communicate the benefits of what they offer.

Without clarity in communication, you won’t move your ideal customer into action. Without action, you won’t see the desired results in your business.

who is your ideal customer?

Building a relationship with potential customers is the key step to converting them into paying customers. However, you shouldn’t target just anyone; focusing on the ideal customer your business is designed to serve and refining your strategy to target will yield better results.

Your ideal customer is the person who gets their exact needs met by what you’re offering.

They are your target audience when you market and promote your products or services. They will be easy to attract because you are offering a solution to their problem. Therefore, if you build relationships with them, they become loyal, recurrent buyers.

why you need to choose an ideal customer

Many of us fear that by being specific about who our customers are, we are turning away potential buyers.

This understandable reluctance to “lose business” is especially felt when you’re starting out.

Other business owners fear the possibility of failure when we rely on a specific customer for our businesses to survive. So we want to have as many options as possible.

However, when we have contingency plans, our focus is all over the place and we don’t make much progress, at least not as fast as we want.

Here are a two key reasons why you should choose an ideal customer:

1. makes it easier to create products tailored to them

With an understanding of who they are and what challenges they are facing, you will speak specifically to their problems. It will be easier for you to provide products or services tailored for them.

For example, my ideal customers are women in business who want to get focused, get confident and get customers.

To help them to do this, I have two programs – the group accelerator Simplicity and a one-to-one, invitation-only VIP Experience.

Choosing an ideal customer and designing programs just for her makes the sales process so much simpler. You don’t need to convince someone to buy, when your solution is a perfect match!

2. helps you use language that relates to them

When you are specific about who your ideal customer is, you can use language that will resonate with them.

Talk about them the way they talk about themselves. Describe their problem in the same words they would use. Get rid of your industry jargon.

Over the years, I’ve had to adapt my wording to fit how my customers spoke.

For example, I realised that most of the business owners I worked with didn’t call themselves “entrepreneurs.” They preferred using terms like “business owner” or sometimes even “freelancer” if they hadn’t yet considered their work to transform into a business.

Little nuances like these make a difference.

If all of my communication says “entrepreneur” yet my ideal customer doesn’t consider themselves one, then they won’t think I’m talking to them.

Making subtle shifts in language and terminology can make a profound impact on how someone receives and interacts with your message. Be inquisitive enough to figure out what your ideal customer needs and wants. What words and terminology do they typically use?

so, how should you communicate to your ideal customer?

Be specific about who you serve in order to communicate directly to them. Understanding how best to communicate to your ideal customer will ensure that your message resonates with them. Speak to the challenges they are experiencing in their lives or business.

Let’s use an example. You are a content writer. If you targeted all small businesses as your ideal customers, you’d be missing the aspect of ‘being specific’ because you’re speaking to a broad audience.

Small businesses might be different in terms of size, age or industry. Their content needs will also therefore differ. Even if you actually can write content for all categories of small business, your message might not resonate with all of them.

Narrow your focus down. In this case, you might decide to write content specifically for Business Development Service providers and target every small business in this space.

what you sell versus your ideal customer’s needs

Not knowing how to talk about our businesses is another reason we struggle to get customers.

Whether it’s because we have no idea what we’re really selling, or we’re not sure how to communicate the benefits of our product or service.

Let’s look at another example. Suppose you’re a content creator and your communication to your ideal customer is that you sell content. What does that actually mean to them?

You might give them an assorted list of the things you’re able to write. From blog posts to newsletters and press promotions. However, none of these things might resonate with them.

Understand who the person is and what their needs are before telling them what you can do for them.

In my case, I could say, “The VIP Experience includes a half day strategy session, an action plan and resources.” But how does this benefit my customers?

So instead I would say, “The VIP Experience includes:

• a half day strategy session for you to get clear on your objectives and eliminate everything that distracts you from your goals,
• a customised action plan, so that you know exactly what you need to do this week, next week, and so on and so forth, to continuously make progress towards your objectives,
• and resources to support your progress, so that you stop wasting time on Google and instead have a solution to implement right away.

Be clear about the benefits that you provide to your ideal customers. And share these benefits in your marketing messages.

Clarity makes the selling process so much simpler.

over to you

Are you struggling to communicate with your ideal customers in a way that resonates with them and yields the results you want to see?

I learnt how to talk about my business with confidence (and in a way that actually converts to sales) through Authentic Selling University with Kendrick Shope.

Kendrick’s program provides you with the EXACT steps that you need to follow to turn strangers into paying customers.  It has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made for my business.

Learn more about ASU and sign up for the next cohort here.