Your Ideal Prospect Redefined

Who is your ideal prospect anyway? I know you have an avatar or persona document completed on every variant, right? In the event you have lost(?) yours, if you go here you can download a comprehensive sample and create new ones.

But, avatars or personas as I like to call them need some updates now and then. What was once a composite picture of demographics, psychographics, and behaviors has been modernized to include more information required to home in on where to best attract them to you.

Stop Making Assumptions

Just because you have researched their age, gender, occupation(s), and geographic location doesn’t mean you can guess the rest. When you ASS-U- ME you are doing so; making an ass out of you and me (well, not me, just you).

Don’t make the mistake of limiting yourself to a few knowns and make up the rest because YOU think they act a certain way, have particular buying habits, or that you understand them based on people you know who seem similar. That’s the wrong way to approach this much-valued exercise.

What are their hobbies? Where do they hang out? What types of magazines do they read? Radio stations? Television shows? You see, all of this information can help you better target where to perform your marketing, rather than merely rely on Facebook because you’re comfortable with that platform.

What is going on in their heads? What do they think about? What’s keeping them up at night? These and many other questions must be answered and not guessed at. Read. Research. Interview.

Survey. Then compile the information and find the dominant traits.

If you’ve been in business for a while and have a database of former customers, clients, or patients, go back into those files find the commonalities of them, and do the same compiling. Believe it or not, more than likely those that have the most similarities ARE your ideal persona.

 

As long as you are in your database identifying who to target for client acquisition, look for top performers and long-time clients for a reactivation campaign. This is another topic so I’ll only touch on it briefly.

 

Pull those contacts out of mothballs and create a “we miss you” type of campaign. Create three emails or letters that address the fact they were once loyal clients and that you would like to find out what can be done to bring them back into the family. Three touches or more will be best because people see something, think about it, and then move on to the next thing. First, express your intention, second touch is a reminder, and third is your final attempt. If you don’t gather up all of them, those who didn’t respond will more than likely be gone for good.

 

Back to the Business of Personas

Let’s say you are a service-based business, like a plumbing company. Your typical customer might be a 40-year-old female homeowner who is married. She’s an administrative assistant in her day job and doesn’t have a lot of time to deal with hassles. She wants what she wants on her time, and makes it quick.

Her home is a small, single-family home with her husband, two children, and a dog. She doesn’t spend time on social media due to her hectic life and has little patience for B.S.

Now that you know her, how will you adjust your approach to market to her? What is your ad going to look like?

If you decide on a graphic, you don’t want to put a picture of a teenage boy in the ad. The prospect will ignore your ad completely. Put in a pic of a woman that resembles your persona. That’ll catch her attention. Then your messaging’s job is to hold her attention and draw her in. Knowing what you know, tailor your message to her avatar. Mention no delays, quick response, pet friendly, and on call

24/7. You’ll more than likely make a friend.