Doing any kind of marketing without knowing your target clients is like heading out to a random part of the sea hoping to catch some fish. You might get lucky and nab a few tiddlers, but probably not the big fish you’d like. And certainly not as many as you’d like.
But what if you’d done your homework and could pinpoint exactly where they’re swimming and how to tempt them into your net? It’d certainly make your trip much easier.
That’s why when developing your marketing strategy, you should put the most effort into finding out who your target clients are.
By doing this, you can create client avatars that paint a picture of what makes them tick, understand the problems they’re having, and why they’d want to buy from your consultancy.
Once you know the answers to those questions, you can shape and tailor all your marketing messages and content around them. Here’s how it’s done.
Get specific on your target client
It’s easy to say that you want to target CEOs. But no two CEOs are the same. So, to really connect with your target clients, you need to understand who they are, what they want and what pushes their buttons.
Instead of being generic, it’s easier to actually think about a real client – someone who you already know – and build a persona around who they are:What industry or sector do they work with?
- What motivates them?
- What are they trying to achieve?
- What are their values and attitude to business?
- What are their interests and lifestyle?
There’s a reason that we often reference actual real-life clients when developing these avatars – because it really focuses you in on who you’re marketing to and what their needs are.
Identify their challenges. And their pain points.
It’s important to think about what your target client is trying to achieve in their business as well as for themselves and their career.
Go deep on the big challenges your target client faces, and the pain points that keep them awake at night. Think of the challenge as running a marathon, and the pain point as the sore knee that’s niggling you from all of the training. Challenges are positive, things you move towards. Pain points are negative, things you move away from.
For your clients, a challenge might be growing revenue or outperforming their competitors. Whereas their pain points might be that a team member is underperforming, or a system they’re using is not providing them with the information they need to achieve their revenue goals.
As a general rule, people are most likely to want to avoid pain above all else, so if your time and marketing budget is limited, focus on solving your clients’ pain points instead of addressing their challenges.
Answer their objections early.
Does your target client already know about you, or what you offer? If they don’t, you can plan your marketing to create awareness. If they do, it’s about building on that awareness to take them towards an initial meeting.
Whatever stage they’re at, think about their key buying objections. Will they have questions about costs, or how much industry experience you have, or whether you really know what you’re talking about?
By thinking about these questions at this early stage, you’ll be able to create powerful content that overcomes many of your prospective clients’ concerns before you even get in the room with them. Simply by listing these out you’ll generate a whole series of marketing ideas that you can start putting into action in your next campaign.
What should you do next?
It’s highly likely that you’ll have more than one client avatar – as we said before, not all CEOs are the same. Repeat this process until you have at least 2 to 3 avatars, and you’ll be well on your way to creating content that will have a big impact on your target clients.
Creating client avatars is just one step of seven in our Digital Marketing Framework – a simple, practical and effective guide to being really clear on what you’re offering, who you’re talking to, and what will resonate with them.
If you’d like some help with building your consultancy’s marketing strategy, get in touch and we’d be happy to help.