Identifying, Attracting and Retaining Your Ideal Customers

Gaining customers is a good thing, but gaining your ideal customers is better by far. Your business’ ideal customers are those for whom your offers fit perfectly, who you are fully capable of serving with ease and who you can reach organically. They will prove to be your best customers - highly satisfied and loyal. As a bonus, it takes less time, effort and expense to retain satisfied, loyal customers than to cultivate new ones.

But how do you identify, attract and retain these ideal customers? At times, they can seem elusive so it’s worth having a system in place to root them out - wherever they may be. Here are some ideas for locating your ideal customers:

Identify & Locate

The first step is to identify exactly who is the perfect fit for your business. It’s been said that if you’re marketing to everyone, you’re really marketing to no one. Marketing is profoundly more powerful when you choose a target audience. Decide upon some general attributes that would make them an ideal customer. What is their:

• gender
• age range
• marital status
• income range
• parental status
• geographic location
• interests/hobbies

Then get more specific by considering factors that apply to your business, like:

• Do they play guitar, mow their own lawn, bake cookies, enjoy fly fishing…?
• Are their children toddlers?
• Do they enjoy fashion, cooking, pro football, superhero movies, photography…?
• Are they planning to move within the year?
• Do they travel abroad?
• Are they planning a wedding?
• Do they use a PC or a Mac?

Where can you locate people you consider ideal clients? Think about where people who fit the demographic that describes people who patronize your business hang out. Where do they shop, spend their time, go online? What do they read; what media do they consume? For what else are they in the market for? Go to the places they frequent, e.g., cafes, gyms, music stores and strike up conversations. Join interest groups and online forums. Partner with other businesses who serve them and work out a shared contact introduction so you can both get in front of a new, yet similar group of potential ideal clients.

Attract

The next step is to discover what these folks need and want. Determine what problem/lack/need/desire they have that your business could help them solve or obtain? Your solution to their issue will attract their interest in what you’re offering. Don’t hesitate to come right out and name the thing they want or with which they struggle. With their desired outcome in mind, design marketing that addresses their situation and how your offerings can satisfy that need. It doesn’t end there, though. Once an original hunger is satisfied, a person has subsequent desires. Try to anticipate what they might want next, then offer that.

An example:

Your potential client is a fiancé with a modest budget looking to purchase an engagement ring for their betrothed. An appealing marketing opportunity for such a client may be to offer a nice selection of lovely rings at a lower price point with the option of affordable financing. Your offering helps solve the initial affordability problem for the couple and they are pleased with the interaction.

Retain

To continue using this example… To ensure you attract their future business, be certain to anticipate their needs and provide logical offerings that may solve future issues: They’re probably going to want to purchase wedding rings and anniversary and birthday gifts for years to come. When you are cognizant of the precise present - and anticipated - needs of your ideal customers, you’ll retain them as loyal clients because you continue to have what they need and they trust you based on previous satisfaction.

Ideal customers are some of the best clientele imaginable. You don’t have to keep proving your ability to serve them, and they gravitate toward you as new needs and desires arise because they know you deliver.

How do you identify, attract and retain your ideal customers?