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Do You Know Your Ideal Customer?

You can’t reach customers if you don’t know who they are.


Man in red shirt sitting on a giant magnifying glass with a laptop. Text asks "DO YOU KNOW YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER?" SPARK March 2025 logo.

In the course of your career, how often have you worked with customers that you just “get?” Customers that you enjoy working with and benefit the most from what you have to offer? What do they have in common, and how do they differ from customers that seem to drain your time and energy?


These are your ideal customers, and identifying them can point you toward significant business growth.



What is an ideal customer?


Simply put, your ideal customer is the person who is most likely to buy from you. This person’s needs and circumstances align with your expertise, and you’re well positioned to deliver a positive outcome. Knowing your ideal buyer allows you to create content and a customer experience that truly resonates, so you can keep attracting more of your ideal customer base.


Follow these steps to define your ideal buyer:



Step 1:



Study your current customers. Go through the list of clients with whom you had a successful sale in the past few years, and look for similarities among those clients. Identify their goals, pain points, and successful outcomes. What life events brought them to you? Make note of their characteristics, such as age, occupation, education, hobbies, marital status, etc. You can also gather data by surveying customers or looking at your current social media followers.



Step 2:



Review your value proposition. This is a statement that summarizes exactly what you offer, what problems your product or service helps solve, and why customers should choose you over a competitor. A simple way to do this is to start with the framework “I help (A) do (B) by (C).” For example, you might say, “I help first-time buyers achieve homeownership by educating them on the process and showing them how to approach their home search.” Being clear about what you uniquely offer will help you identify which clients would benefit most from your services.



Step 3:



Create a buyer persona. Once you have a list of client characteristics, use it to create a detailed buyer persona (or customer profile). Think of this as a fictional person that represents your ideal client. For example, your buyer persona may be parents looking for a family-friendly neighborhood, or a retiree looking to downsize to a low-maintenance residence. Keep in mind, you may end up with more than one buyer persona.


After you’ve defined your ideal customer base, you can strengthen your expertise in meeting their specific needs, and you can tailor your marketing to reach those buyers. As you create satisfied customers, you’ll build your business through referrals and continued targeted marketing.


That’s a pretty huge return for a three-step process!


 

Related reading:


 

"Everyone is not your customer." - Seth Godin

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