How I Use "Ideal Customers" To Sell (Marketing)
The person you're talking to is all that matters.
If you’re creating content online, the person you’re talking to is all that matters.
Whether you’re looking to educate someone or entertain them, their feedback is the only thing that defines whether you’re providing value or not.
I can’t stress this enough: it’s not about you. You could be the most amazing horror writer — if you’re talking to romance readers, they’ll think you’re disgusting.
The most important question you should ask yourself with every piece of content, with every product you develop and every service you offer is this: who is this for?
If you ignore this, you’ll suffer.
Not just in business, you’ll suffer in life.
Wrong audience equals rejection.
If you fall in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same way — rejection. If you interview for jobs that don’t match your skills or experience — rejection.
If you pitch your offers to people who don’t find value in them, you’ll feel like you’re worthless; like this online business game wasn’t made for you.
And you’ll probably give up too soon.
Instead of giving up, all you have to do is zoom in on the people you’re talking to. But how do you know who they are?
The big mistake solopreneurs make when they start is they confuse category with ideal customer.
In my content, I talk to solopreneurs, so it’s easy to say that that’s my audience, but it isn’t.
“Solopreneurs” is too broad of an audience to be effective in the context of selling.
(And as you should know by now, everything is selling.)
Instead, I view solopreneurship as a category, subcategory of entrepreneurship.
Why categories should be broad.
The category of solopreneurship gives me huge creative freedom.
I could write about sales, marketing, productivity, writing, finances, personal growth. I could discuss trends in work, AI, or the crazy Super Bowl ad of Kanye West.
The reason I chose this category was because I love solopreneurs. They’re the people I want to serve.
But when I think about my ideal customer, I go way deeper.
Continue to read:
Identifying your ideal customer.
Development categories.
Interest categories.
Problems or desires.
You have multiple Ideal Customer Avatars. Now what?
For everything you do, think about your audience.
Examples of how I use ideal customer awareness to sell.
Identifying your ideal customer.
When I know my audience is made of “solopreneurs”, I can use that as a starting point.