Who is Your Ideal Customer? A Guide to Identifying and Targeting Your Perfect Audience

Whose problem are you solving?

Many posts will say to start with marketing research or define your offerings. And while both of these activities are important and can bear fruit, it’s crucial to begin with the problem you or your business solves.

Who is it you’re trying to help, and what is the problem they are trying to solve?

If you can’t answer this confidently and immediately, you’re not ready to do the work of creating a product offering, conducting research or developing a marketing strategy.

At Better Story Marketing, we help impact-mindful entrepreneurs who want to make a difference but need help telling their story effectively and efficiently. This level of clarity drives what kind of clients we pursue, what products we offer and how we market them.

Once you can clearly articulate who you’re serving and what problem you solve, then you’re ready for the next step.

What’s your superpower?

Alright, you know who you’re serving, the critical problem they’re facing and their desired outcome. So now you just need to make their dreams come true. 

But what exactly do you sell?

A common mistake entrepreneurs make is a broad, I can do everything approach. Sometimes, this is necessary to get started landing clients and even discovering what you are good at and enjoy doing.

When identifying your superpower, try answering two questions

1. What are you really good at?
2. What could you do for days and still enjoy?

When I started offering marketing services as a solopreneur, I took the I can do whatever you need approach. I was a fraction CMO, developed strategy, built websites, wrote content, did graphic design, ran ads…

And I learned there are some things I’m really good at and love doing. And some things just aren’t my jam. After a year, it became clear that focusing would benefit both me and any client I served. This level of focus meant offering less. 

Having the collective of Better Story Marketing broadens what can be offered a little, but it’s still pretty focused. Our team all love designing and building brands. I love working with people to pull out the story of their business or nonprofit and then collaboratively designing and implementing a customer journey to tell that story well.

We don’t run people’s marketing, but we design a marketing strategy that mostly runs itself. Partly because creating that is our superpower and partly because we think it’s the best option for most entrepreneurs and nonprofits out there. 

Now it’s your turn. 

Take a piece of paper, and at the top, describe your ideal customer, the problem they’re facing and their desired outcome. Now, set a five-minute timer and write as many products and services that could be offered to them. Don’t filter when an idea comes to you. Write down as many as you can.

Now, look at the list and circle the ones you’re really good at. Then draw a star next to the ones that are life-giving, and you feel like you could do over and over again. 

Look at the sheet and focus on the products or services that are both circles and have stars. Your ideal customer is someone looking for these services.

Bring it all together.

We’ve fleshed out who you’re helping, the problem they’re facing, the outcome they want and the services you could provide them. Now it’s time to combine them madlib style.

I’m looking for [who you’re trying to help] who is facing [problem they need solved] but would be able to [outcome they desire] if they could get [service you provide].

You now have a one-sentence description of your ideal customer. This is the customer you want to design your marketing, products and systems for. You’ll find more satisfaction and success by focusing on your ideal customer, even if it means saying no to other customers.

Validate assumptions

Now that you have your ideal customer clearly identified, you will want to validate by connecting with some actual customers.

A common strategy for testing is to create a landing page to present your targeted product or service to your newly identified ideal customer.

It’s ok if you don’t yet offer the product or service. This is a promotion page to test if your superpower matches their problem and desired outcome. 

Once you find an ideal customer, show them the page and ask them to process it out loud as they review it. You can learn a lot by user-testing a simple landing page with some customers.

Refine the persona

Now that you’ve validated some of your assumptions, it’s time to refine your ideal customer persona. Consider the following questions: 

• What are their demographics, such as age, gender, income, and location? 
• What are their psychographics, such as interests, personalities, and values? 

You can also include testing out social media ads, email marketing campaigns, or even direct mail. Analyze your results and refine your targeting until you find what works best.

Find out who else offers what you provide, how they target their audience, and what sets you apart. Look for gaps in the market and opportunities that you can capitalize on. Consider the following questions: 

• How are your competitors targeting their customers? 
• What marketing channels are they using? 
• How are they positioning their brand? 
• What is their unique selling proposition?

You can conduct additional market research by reviewing industry reports, reading online reviews, and speaking with your customers.

Tell the story well.

When you know who your ideal customer is, the problem they’re facing and a solution to provide the outcome they desire, then you have most of the pieces you need to tell your brand story effectively.

When the story isn’t clear, customers don't pay attention. 

Having a compelling and clear brand story helps you stand out from the competition and invites your potential customers to engage. Clarifying your brand story is critical if you want to expand your reach. 

Once you have your story clearly told, you’ll want to integrate it across all your marketing collateral. This can feel like a lot of work, but it’s foundational to marketing your small business or nonprofit. Writing your story and integrating it into a targeting marketing strategy is the key outcome of our Better Story Brand Intensives.

Identifying your ideal customer is essential to creating effective marketing strategies and growing your business. Remember to track your marketing campaign's performance, analyze the results, and adjust your strategy accordingly. With the right approach, you can build customer loyalty, increase sales, and achieve business success.

Identifying your ideal customer is the first step to building an effective marketing strategy. 

It’s also a key element to writing your brand story. Or if you get overwhelmed and just want help from someone who does this every day, reach out and schedule a story session. We’d love to hear about your business and explore how we can help you tell your story in a way that directly impacts the bottom line and enables you to make a more significant impact.