Who is Your Ideal Customer?

Have you ever taken the time to sit down and define your ideal customer? We don’t mean a customer avatar defined in vague generalities but very clear “ideal customer profile” in great detail.

What does an ideal customer profile look like?

Creating your ideal customer profile really isn’t that complicated but it does require some thoughtful contemplation. Compare the quality of the following customer profiles.

Get it?

See how richly defined the “great” profile is? Can you picture Roger in your mind? We think he probably looks like this.

How do I create my own ideal customer profile?

Alright, it’s time to write your own Ideal Customer Profile. Let’s get started.

1. Start with age and sex. These are pretty easy, so it’ll help to get them out of your brain and into your notes. Pro tip: Don’t write down an age range. Instead write down one specific most likely age. (You can’t envision a person who is 35-55 years old, but you can envision someone who is 41 years old.)
2. Where do they live? Use Google Analytics, your company’s internal CRM, etc. to figure this out. If you had to bet money on where the next customer is going to come from, where would it be?
3. Now start probing your mind for any other information that seems to describe your ideal customer.
   • What do they do for a living? How much money do they make?
   • Did they go to college? If so, which one and what did they study?
   • What brands of clothing do they like to wear?
   • What’s their marital status? If married, how long have they been married?
   • Do they have kids? Do they want kids?
   • What kind of phone do they have? How old is it?
   • What apps do they use most? What apps do they have that other people probably don’t have?
   • What kind of movies do they like to watch?
   • Are they on Facebook? What groups are they part of? What pages do they follow?
   • What political issues concern them? Do they favor a political party?
   • Where do they like to go for vacation? What do they do to relax?

Keep going until you feel like you’ve painted a very detailed portrait of this ideal customer.

Okay, I’ve defined my ideal customer? What do I do now? How do I use this information?

Once you’ve clearly defined your ideal customer profile, you’ll use it as a tool whenever you’re developing content or products.

If I ask you to describe “men who love barbecue” or even “affluent 25-45 year old men who live in the South and enjoy barbecue”, do you have a vivid image of this person in your mind? Of course not, it could be anyone. He could be an accountant or a car salesman. He could be unemployed. Does he have kids? What kind of music does he listen to? What does he do on the weekend? You have no idea. 

But you know Roger. You’ve met someone like him. If he’s your perfect customer you’ve probably met a whole lot of people like him. 

If you don’t know your customer this intimately, how do you ever expect to speak to him in a way that will resonate with him?

How will you even find him in the first place? 

Will he be a perfect representation of all your customers? Of course not! Some will prefer modern country music. Some will earn $96,000 a year. Some will even be accountants named Steve! But guess what, if you can speak to Roger in a way that genuinely resonates with him, then you’ll also resonate with a lot of Steves! Yay! 

So stop what you’re doing for 15 minutes. It’s not that important. This is more important. Grab a piece of paper and write down as many attributes of your perfect customer as you possibly can.

This is step #1.