I work with many small business owners and when I start talking about ideal clients and target audiences I know that 9 times out of 10, I’m going to hear something like …. ‘well, anyone can be my client’. Of course, anyone can be your client, but should everyone be your client?
It is scary to think about turning away a prospective client or even thinking that there might be people who aren’t a good fit.
A recent experience with a client has helped me to come up with an easier way to frame this. Here’s what happened. She’s a wellness professional and was putting together a Get Healthy 2012 package for potential new clients. Of course, anyone could be a good patient for her- but she did say that she really liked to work with moms with babies or toddlers.
As soon, as we went from anyone to moms with toddlers or babies- the marketing fell into place. Where do you find moms like this? What do they read? Who do they talk to? What messages will resonate with them?
All of the proper marketing activities became super easy to figure out! She could put flyers in preschools; talk to women she knew who had connections at those places; post electronically in the places they’d be looking; run ads in the right places; clarify the messaging so it spoke specifically to them and they knew they’d be welcome; What had started out as overwhelming if we were marketing to anyone became straightforward and doable.
Of course, her next program could be for a different target audience… So, in speaking to my clients going forward, I’m going to frame it as sequential target audiences rather than only one! Who is going to be your first?