Here are some common mistakes to avoid when creating Ideal Client Profiles for your business.
1. Not Creating Them At All
As already mentioned, you should be creating an Ideal Client Profile if you don’t yet have one. Without these, you will be shooting in the dark when trying to create content, offers, and prospect for clients, and also will not know when you’ve found someone who is a good fit for your business.
Spending the time to create these from the beginning will just reduce the extra churn and costs that may happen from bringing on “bad fit” clients and then realizing later on that they aren’t a fit for your brand or services.
2. Creating Unrealistic Profiles Based on Desires
Of course it would be amazing to bring on a bunch of clients that will be spending $20 million on your products or services during their lifetime working with you, but that’s not necessarily realistic (if it is, then good on you!) If something doesn’t really make sense for your business and is more part of your wish list, it’s not really going to help you with your positioning. You’ll likely need to revamp your services, processes, and more to get to that point, and will need to look more closely at the bigger picture instead.
3. Assuming Your Ideal Client is Like Yourself
There may be some aspects to your customers that are like yourself, but you want to make sure that you’re not pigeon-holing your Ideal Client Profile. They may have different values, requirements, challenges, and other qualities, so you need to look beyond what you know, towards what is actually the case for your clients.
We tend to see the world from our own perspective first and foremost – the challenge is to ensure this doesn’t colour what your real client profile looks like. Dig deeper to find out the real reasons why your clients are the way they are.
4. Being Too Broad or Too Specific
If you’re too broad and try to include everyone in your profile, you’ll defeat the whole purpose of creating it in the first place. Don’t cover everyone and their dog when coming up with these profiles, or you’ll have a hard time with creating the relevant marketing materials to go along with them.
At the same time, you don’t want to be too specific either. It should accurately reflect the Client’s Needs, Wants, Challenges, Values, and Motivators so that you aren’t limited to seeking out the view of one specific person. You can always start out with a single Ideal Client Profile, and add new ones from there as and if it makes sense to do so.
5. Not Reaching Out Externally to Define Them
While you and your team are the ones who are always working with your customers, that doesn’t mean that you know everything about them. You can make many assumptions and have a best guess on how they may answer certain questions, but that doesn’t mean you will know without bias.
Make sure to reach out to actual clients – past and present – that fit your current business, using surveys, emails, and interviews to really understand who they are.
Summary
To summarize, Common Mistakes when Creating Ideal Client Profiles include:
- Not Creating Them at All
- Creating Unrealistic Profiles Based on Desires
- Assuming Your Ideal Client is Like Yourself
- Being Too Broad or Too Specific
- Not Reaching Out Externally to Define Them
Now that you understand more about what common mistakes to avoid when creating your Ideal Client Profile(s), make sure to check out our recent blog posts covering more useful targeting and persona tips.
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