Each New Year we make resolutions to lose weight, stop smoking, save more money and a whole host of personal self-improvement proclamations. This is great! Anytime is a good time to take measures to improve your life. What about taking measures to improve your client base? Take advantage of the New Year and create a strategy to attract your ideal client.
The first step to your New Year, New Clients resolution is to create a vision statement. In this statement you will write an intention for your business. This may include goals or it may be a brief paragraph about where you want to take your business. It’s also a great idea to visualize, in writing, what your business looks like now that you’re working with your ideal client. How has your business changed?
Step two is to decide who your ideal client is. That may be an easy decision or it may take some time to clarify. Is it someone who has more money to spend? Someone who has a firm commitment to improve their life? Someone who really wants to get involved in your community? Someone who has the same beliefs and aspirations you do? Take some time to outline your ideal client.
You may want to go so far as to create an identity for them. Give them a name and age, outline their habits and why and when they’d use your products and services. Best Buy is a great example of how to create a customer profile or identity. Some of their customer profiles include Buzz (the Techy), Barry (Wealthy Professional), Ray (Family Man) and, Jill (Soccer Mom). From these personas they have created individual marketing strategies, which takes us to the next step.
Your third step is to outline how to market to your ideal client. Ideally, if you’re stepping up your chosen client, you’re going to also want to step up the emphasis on your credibility and authority in your industry. Depending on your industry this can be accomplished in a number of ways.
Some possibilities include:
* Speaking engagements
* Publication
* Testimonials from experts in your industry
* Partnerships with experts in your industry
* Case studies and white papers
Finally, create targets and strategies to achieve these goals, and systems and metrics to measure success. This is an important final step to achieve your New Year, New Clients resolution, and it’s often where people drop the ball when trying to achieve their resolutions. We’re great at setting intentions and wanting to improve, and often not so good with the follow through. Entrepreneurs are a different breed of course; you know how to make it happen!
