Define Your Ideal Client

Posted by Madhavi on Feb 8, 2012 in Featured, Web Writing | 0 comments

If you are a business or a freelancer and you have a presence on the Internet (via a website or a blog), then one of the most essential things for you to do is to define your ideal client. This is because knowing what you are looking for will help you tailor your website’s content accordingly.

Today, lets look at why and how to define your ideal client.

Any business or a freelancer wants to attract new clients. Typically, one of the commonly used strategies is to make a website on the Internet that showcases the business, skills and services. So, why is it important for you to define your ideal client in this scenario? Lets have a look.

Why You Should Define Your Ideal Client

As I mentioned above, once you know what you are looking for, it becomes easy to find it. As a business or freelancer, you provide a number of products or services. And normally, your product or service has a target audience or client base. Also, most of the clients you are looking for will have certain characteristics that will make them your targeted clients.

When you define this specific client base, you will be in a position to do the following:

Tailor your website’s content (this includes the written content and the images used) to appeal to the target audience.
Create content that will serve the specific needs and requirements for your target clients, especially in connection with the products or services you are offering on your website.
Create content that will appeal to your target client base.
Offer products or services that are required by your target client base.

In short, if you know what your target client base wants, needs, understands etc., then you can provide it to them.

How To Define Your Ideal Client

There is a very simple way to define your ideal client: Brainstorm and make a mind map!

What You Offer: For this particular exercise, you will need to take into consideration the kind of products or services you offer, and then visualize your ideal client.

What You are Looking For: Then, just write down / mind map the qualities this ideal client might possess. You can go from the general to the specific – let your creativity go wild! Once you have your mind map in place, you can then whittle it down to create a succinct list of qualities that define your ideal client.

Imagine: After that, comes a very interesting step: Visualization. Close your eyes and imagine this ideal client in your mind’s eye. Give him / her a face and a personality. Make him / her real in your imagination. This way, when you create the content on your website, you will be writing to him / her directly, in person. And it is this twist which will help you to make the content that will appeal to your ideal client.

Define Your Ideal Client: A Quick Example

Let me demonstrate this with an example.

First, here is a quick list of the services that I offer:

Main Service Offerings:
Content Writing for Websites and Blogs
WordPress Installation, Setup and Training

Incidental Service Offerings:
Email Newsletter Setup and Content
EBook Ghostwriting
Proofreading, Editing of Articles and other content

So, now that I have that list on one side, let me make a list of the qualities I would like in my ideal client.

What the Client Would Ideally Want:
Wants to make a website with a blog
Wants a simple and easy to manage website
Wants to learn how to manage his WordPress website
Wants to put out regular newsletters via his website blog
Wants to put out regular blog posts on his blog

What the Client Would Ideally Be:
Small Business Owner
Freelancer
Products / Services Provider

Other Qualities
Should have an interesting products / service offering
Should be looking for high quality work
Should be willing to invest a certain amount of time, money and effort into his website
Should be straightforward and honest
Should be okay with web based communication (iChat, Skype and Email)

Now that I have this list, I can tone it down a bit further if I want to, or leave it just as is.

And of course, with this information, I have visualized the image of the ideal client in my imagination. Thus, when I write the content of my site, I write it in such a manner that this ideal client will like and appreciate it.

In Conclusion…

Do you have an ideal client for your business? Have you used a similar process to define your ideal client? If so, have you seen good results from the content that you have created in this manner?

Did you use this process to define your ideal client? Was it useful for you? What other points would you consider while you define your ideal client? Lets talk about all of this in the comments section below.