The Secret to a Successful Online Business that Will Surprise You
Running a successful online business is not for the faint of heart. Building your business from the ground up takes strategy, grit, determination, and work. As business owners, we know work is worth it, but what if you’re missing an essential element holding you back? What if there is a secret to a successful online business?
When I talk to online business owners, they usually blame their lack of social media followers, absence of an email list, or even their calendar for their business’s lack of growth. I can usually guess they haven’t done this essential step in the first 15 minutes of speaking to them. Can you guess what it is?
Let’s get into it.
Content Overview
– Build It, and They Will Come?
– What is an Ideal Client Avatar?
–Dig Deeper
–Using Your ICA to Grow Your Business
–Your Next Steps
Build It, and They Will Come?
There may be many situations in which this saying is true, but I can say that the online business world is NOT one of those circumstances.
I have seen online owners create entire businesses (elaborate funnels, multi-tiered offers, and thousands of dollars invested) and not make a single sale.
I’ve seen other online business owners launch with nothing and become wildly successful.
What’s the difference?
The difference is understanding your ideal client avatar (keep reading because I’ll tell you how to do this).
What is an Ideal Client Avatar?
An ideal client avatar (ICA for short) is essentially a personification of your ideal customer. This person fits the target age, gender, and other parameters corresponding to someone searching for your business’s solution.
I’ve seen some other marketing professionals oversimplify the concept of an ideal client avatar. I’ll tell you, it will take more than knowing your ICA is a female in her thirties who likes the color pink to make a sale.
When I’m doing my free consultations, I can’t tell you how many online business owners have an ICA, but it just consists of demographics like where they live, if they have kids or not, and how much money they make in a year.
An ICA goes beyond just demographics. It’s about understanding your ideal client’s deep-seated needs, desires, and pain points. It’s about knowing what makes them tick—what keeps them up at night and what drives them to seek the solution you are offering them.
More importantly, it’s important to understand their language so that when they consume your content and read your sales pages, they truly feel like your business understands their needs and desires.
To illustrate this, I would explain it as if you speak French to an audience that only speaks Japanese. They might like what you have on a surface level but feel you don’t understand them because you speak a different language. Dialing in your ICA is learning their language and making it easier to like, know, and trust your potential customers.
FREE RESOURCE: Customer Avatar worksheet
Dig Deeper
I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but crafting your ICA should be one of the top priorities for your business if you’re not happy with your current revenue. You need to perfect your ICA more than you need to grow your social media following or update your website graphics.
The more detailed this ideal client avatar, the better. You should know what keeps them up at night. Know their biggest fear? What does their ideal world look like? What matters to them when they’re purchasing from a business like yours?
We have an ideal client avatar template that is FREE to download. All you have to do is grab it here. This will help you dig deeper and better understand your ICA.
If you’re unhappy with your current revenue or feel you’ve been attracting clients who aren’t a good fit for your personality, it’s time to examine that ICA more closely.
Let’s Clear This Up
Now, I have had clients ask me, “But Jennie, if I get really specific about my ideal client avatar, am I excluding people who don’t fit the ICA but would enjoy my product?”
Crafting an ICA does NOT exclude potential customers who don’t necessarily fit all its parts.
Getting clear on your ICA is mutually beneficial for you and your audience. Will some people not fully relate to your ICA? Maybe.
But imagine a business that attracts these ideal clients by using your ideal client avatar information to guide marketing strategy and messaging. This business attracts the number of clients/customers that you have always wanted to have, and you fully enjoy working with these clients/customers. Even better, these clients/customers have life-changing results from your business, and they are so excited that they share your business name with everyone they know, growing your business even more.
The bottom line is, “If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.”
Don’t be afraid to dial in because all you’re doing is attracting that ideal client and, at worst, repelling a non-ideal client… it’s a win-win to me!
Using Your ICA to Grow Your Business
Okay, so we’ve talked about what an ICA is, why it’s important to dig deep, and cleared up some myths, now let’s get to the fun part. Let’s talk about how to use this ideal client avatar to grow your business. Shall we?
Branding
There’s no disputing that visuals make a difference in attracting customers, but this is also in the overall “personality” of your business. Does your ICA relate to someone very simple and minimalist, or do they prefer fun and bold? These small things can hold some heavy weight in that initial attraction of an ICA, but it’s hardly make-or-break.
FREE RESOURCE: Brand Building workbook
Content Creation/Messaging
This is one of the most important ways to use your ICA, but like I said earlier, “speaking their language” will generate more business. Utilize questions and comments from your audience using phrases that are as close to the exact as possible. Do market research on what they’re typing into search engines. And even better, TALK TO A REAL PERSON who fits into your ICA. Learn to speak their language in your content, emails, and website copy, and watch your business explode.
Audience Targeting
Your audience demographics and psychographics are valuable when running social media ad campaigns. You can utilize all the different targeting options to more effectively target the audience, which means your ads will convert better AND have a lower ad spend budget. Again, win-win!
Offer Formation
Before you create an offer just for fun, make sure this offer solves a customer’s/client’s problem and that it’s something they’re willing to pay to fix. Don’t invest your valuable money and time creating an offer that you’re unsure how it will help the customer/client. When you’re clear on your ICA, it’ll be easier to see what they need and how your business can provide it.
Your Next Steps
#1: Dial in Your ICA
First, it’s time to flesh out that Ideal Client Avatar, my friend. If you wanna save yourself a lot of extra time and energy, you can grab the free ideal client avatar template here to get started on that.
#2: Do a Business Self-Check
Once you’ve finished your ICA, look at your business and determine where you can more effectively relate to that ideal client avatar. This part can be tricky since you always look at your business, so having a second set of eyes for this is valuable!
FREE RESOURCE: SMART GOALS Template
#3: Schedule a Free Consultation Call with Me!
If, at this point, you think that this all sounds a little overwhelming and you’re just not completely sure how to proceed on your own, the good news is that you can schedule a free 15-minute consultation call with me where we can talk more about your ideal client avatar, your business goals, and how Jennie Lyon Digital Marketing Inc can help you grow your business into the business of your dreams.
Links for This Episode:
– Marketing Office Hours
– Discover Your Digital Marketing Success Path
– How to Use Our Digital Marketing Team
– Schedule a free call with Jennie today
Get in touch with Jennie:
–Free Consultation
-Social Media: @jennielyonmarketing
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