The Shocking Way to Pick Your Ideal Customer

The most talked about marketing topic in business in a way you wouldn’t expect

by Summer Sharma

“So you're an entrepreneur, are you any good at it?”

“Yes! Well… kind of… I just have to pick the right audience and then it’s over for everyone!”

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Raise your hand if you're so ready to get your business, blog, social media account to grow & attract the right person! But…. you’re struggling to find that audience that everyone talks about.

I bet right now, you’re caught scribbling a Venn Diagram in your notebook with, “What am I good at” and, “What do I like” and trying to find the space in-between that is the perfect mix between the two. 

Trust me I get it. Been there, burned out, done that. I was so ready to throw in the towel because my functional yet can’t-make-a-decision ADHD brain couldn’t stick with an audience or niche for more than a week.

But hey, this isn’t my business-life sob story. I went through the confusing bits and finally found a way to make my ideal audience stick, no question about it. 

Now I’m sharing what I learned so you don’t have to go through it yourself. 

If you are confused about exactly what, “picking an audience,” means and how to pick the “ideal client,” keep reading, because it’s a lot easier than the social media tips make it seem.

Let’s get into it. 

How to pick your ideal client for the confused & multi-passionate entrepreneur who just wants to move on with their business life. 

1. Understand what type of business you want to have.

Yup, for the first round we are talking about YOU.

Most of the time when you don’t know who you want to work with, it's because you don’t know exactly what you want to do. 

If you do, great! But most people can’t drop their elevator pitch when asked about their business, so I’m going to catch everyone up to the same spot. 

Now, I’m going to bust the commonly known statement, “Do what you love!” Stay with me because it’ll make sense at the end of it. 

Time to get the sledge hammer out and lean in for a private convo. Let’s be honest, if you did what you love, I don’t think you’d be WORKING. Because I sure wouldn't. 

You’d most likely be enjoying life, traveling, eating good food, and not worrying about business transactions, customers and clients, and taxes.

But those tedious things are wrapped up in business so if you can’t find something you LOVE to do to make money, don’t worry.. Here are the questions you should be asking instead:

“What skill set do I like to do” or “what can I do that doesn’t take up too much of your emotional and mental bandwidth.” ???

Here’s an example of what I mean (featuring myself), because we are about to get DEEP like the diving side of the pool. 

So my job is a copywriter & digital marketer for small businesses and women of color owned businesses. 

Here’s how I came up with it.

My dream job is to be an investigative journalist (that’s still happening by the way) BUT I understand that the struggling life of a writer was something I couldn’t afford to chase. I also realize writing comes easier to me than most people.

Once I understood that key part, I could look for a skill set/job that paid well & then I’d worry about who I wanted to serve after. 

On my self realization journey, I also realized I was very interested in customer psychology which translated beautifully into digital marketing.

3 weeks later, boom, I married both together and came up with copywriting + digital marketing.

Makes sense?

Now it’s your turn. 

Are you ready? 

Here are a few natural talents and jobs it could translate to. This is to get some creative juices flowing.

If you like to:

Take pictures & share stories = blogger / influencer

Drawing/ painting / design = digital artist or graphic designer

Drawing & Business = Brand designer

Social media & sales = Social media manager

User psychology & design = UI designer

User psychology & code = UX designer

Writer = content creator or copywriter

Writer & like to line edit = editor

Photography & staging products = product photographer

Physical fitness = coach (you can niche this down to specific types of fitness or nutrition)

Makeup = makeup coach or makeup artist

Interest in science & skin = skin care line or esthetician 

Fashion forward & likes to work with your hands = fashion designer or sewing

Now that you have some juices flowing, you can see what skill set you’d like to try first. See how I said try, not do? Big difference.

Between you and me, I actually tried 7 of the things listed above until I picked copywriting. If you already know what you like to do, you’re ahead of me.

If you don’t know what you’d like to do, I highly recommend… actually no, I’m telling you, dedicate a week to do what you think you’d like to do, and then do it. You’ll find out very quickly if it peaks your interest or you’d rather throw that idea in the trash.

Now that you have an idea of which path you’d like to take, now it's time for the fun stuff!

2. Figure out what bigger impact you’d like to make with your work?

• Is there a certain community you align with?

• Is there a bigger mission you’d like to work towards?

• What’s your ideal group you’d like to work with?
  

If you have an idea of a group you’d like to be a part of while doing your job, you’re getting closer to closing this loop we started in the beginning.

Here are a few examples of what that can look like:

• You are a brand designer who wants to work with sustainable fashion brands. 

• You are a social media manager for psychiatrists who own their own practice/who work with children/etc.

• You are a UI Designer that works with tech companies.

• You are a product photographer for restaurants or food items (because you are a natural foodie & want the free food ;) jk).

Basically you’re going to figure out who you’d like to work with and see what types of issues you can solve based on the work you do. This way you can offer your expertise and get paid!

Now that we have answered all the important topics to figure out what YOU would like to do and WHO you’d like to work with, we can talk about your ideal audience.

By now you’re probably thinking, “Okay Summer, I can niche down all I want, but I still don’t get who my ideal client is yet. Who is my audience??” 

I’ll put it simply.

Your audience are the people that you want to work with (given your skill set) who have a distinct problem that you can solve.

Now that you understand your purpose isn’t the tired saying of “Do what you want and people will come!” No.

That’s not it.

Do what is either interesting or not taxing for you, figure out who you want to work with, what problems can you solve for them, and THAT’S your audience. 

If you are still wondering, “Well Summer, are they older? Women? Men?  TURTLES?” 

The best answer to that is, you have to do some market research (formal and informal) to see what type of people make up your ideal audience.

Do they follow specific trends?
Are they mostly women or male?
What’s their favorite music or TV show?
What specific types of problems do they have on the daily?
What big mission are they working towards?

Remember you can choose who you want to work with!

But if you don’t want to pick a hyper specific group of people, and would rather focus on the type of work that is done, do research to find common issues & position yourself as the expert that can solve them.

And that’s it! You’re done!

You have effectively picked your ideal client and can walk away confident that you are not picking them on specific characteristics, but rather aligning your interests and values with theirs.  

The next step to conduct market research on your ideal audience & use copywriting techniques to hook them.

If you are ready to take a look at what types of market research strategies are out there, my IG post dives into it.

If you found this blog helpful, DM me what your favorite drink is here.