The number one thing that will make or break any business is your ability to attract new clients.
In this second video of our Brand Bootcamp series, I’m going to show you 5 EASY strategies that not only identify and attract your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar), but keeps them coming back, allowing you to grow a loyal customer base for your business.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through my own business ventures as well as working with clients is that if you’re trying to help everyone, you end up serving no one.
By niching down, getting hyper focused and specific about WHO you serve, you’ll finally be:
✨Attracting clients who *want* and *will pay for* your services.
✨Deterring *nightmare* clients
✨Saving thousands of dollars on marketing to a broad audience
(no exaggeration… learn from my mistakes)
✨And most importantly – positively impact your bottom line.
Not only are you making a return on your investment by marketing to the *right* people, you’re also making a huge Return On Intention: the reason you started your business in the first place. The more you connect with your ideal client avatar (ICA) and their experiences, the more you’ll attract the people you’re meant to serve! Keeping you in alignment with the intention and soul of your business.
Be sure to download this FREE Workbook that will help you discover your ICA:
BRAND BOOTCAMP SERIES:
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Crystal Clarity: Discovering your ICA Workbook: https://learn.aligncreativeminds.com/5-easy-strategies-that-attract-paying-clients
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The number one thing that will make or break any business is your ability to attract new clients. Sure, you've heard this before; but if you've ever gone out and tried to find new clients yourself, you'll know that this is extremely hard. People have a million things going on, and they don't have time for you, regardless of the fact that you can help them or make their lives better.
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Now, this is not a sales video or tips on how to get a lead. This is about getting people to pay attention to your business, your products, and what you can do to help them.
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Listen, I have to tell you. Whether you're doing in-person sales or selling products online, I have seen far too many businesses banging their head against the wall, getting little to no results when it comes to attracting new customers. That's why in the second video of the Brand Bootcamp Series, I'm going to show you what you can do to help make yourself as successful as possible when it comes to attracting new clients.
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How? Well, I'm glad you asked. We're going to talk about how to get laser-focused on your ideal client avatar, also known as your ICA.
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Gary Halbert, arguably one of the world's best copywriters, once told a really powerful story. He was talking about what advantages you need to have great success in your business. He went to his audience and he asked them, "If you and I were in a competition for who could sell the most burgers at our respective burger stands, what would be the single advantage that you would need?" The crowd came back with tons of answers, from the best quality meats, special sesame-crusted buns, the best discounts on the street. The list continued. Gary came back to them with a proposition, "All right," he says, "so if you pooled all of your advantages together, I still have a single advantage that would blow all of you out of the water." The advantage? A starving crowd, and you can find starving crowds everywhere if you're willing to look and if you're willing to get specific about who you're trying to serve.
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One of, if not the biggest, lesson I've learned through my own personal business ventures and working with clients is that if you're trying to serve everyone, you end up serving no one. Oftentimes, business owners, especially if you're in a purpose-driven or a service-based business, have the mindset of, "But my business is for everyone, and I can help so many people. I don't want them to miss out on me, and I certainly don't want to turn away any business." I totally get it, and I've been there before. Even seasoned entrepreneurs have wrestled with this, thinking, "If I market to a wider audience, I'll have a larger number of customers." This belief is not only untrue, it's actually hurting your business. Ironically, by niching down and getting super focused and clear on who you're meant to serve, you'll finally be attracting clients who will and want to pay for your services.
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Deterring those nightmare clients. You know what I'm talking about. You'll have a way easier time creating engaging content and high-value offers. You will save yourself thousands of dollars from not marketing to a broader audience. Please learn from my mistakes. And most importantly, positively impacts your bottom line. Not only are you making a return on your investment by finally marketing to the right customer, you're also making a return on your intention, the reason why you started your business in the first place. The more you're serving the people who you are truly meant to serve, the more your business is going to be in alignment with what you originally sought out to do. This keeps you in alignment with your intention and the soul of your business.
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Identifying your ideal client avatar, who I'll refer to from time to time as your ICA, is one of the most important first steps in building your business and any of your products. It's one of those steps that many entrepreneurs often skip or avoid entirely because it can be a difficult, costly, and honestly quite scary process. But the good news is, it does not have to be that way. I'm going to show you five easy strategies to help you not only attract your ideal client avatar, but also keep them coming back, allowing you to grow a solid customer base for your business.
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Before we dive in, if you're in the market for more design hacks that will help grow your business, hit the notify and subscribe buttons so you never miss a beat.
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As for me, I'm Lesley, co-founder of Brand Therapy Sessions. I'm about to show you the various strategies that I use with all of my one-to-one clients and that I've also taught to dozens of our students in our awesome online course, Abundant Brand 101. I'm not going to lie. This one is a bit of a doozy. I've gone ahead and created a document that has every single detail I'm about to share so you don't have to hit pause every two seconds figuring out what I just said.
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And while you're downloading, here's what's inside, we've got an awesome and thorough workbook full of questions and hacks to get crystal clear on your ideal client, some exercises to help you truly see the world through their eyes, and we're going to take things a step further to get an even deeper understanding to dive into their subconscious.
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Knowing and truly understanding your client is a critical piece to a profitable and a purposeful business. What we're exploring is compassion-based branding, meaning going into your client's world to truly understand their problems, their passions, their fears, and their desires. Because until you're able to truly understand someone's experiences and empathize with them, you will not be able to connect with them, let alone provide a solution to their problems.
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It's so common for entrepreneurs to create a solution without a client in mind, resulting in ... You guessed it, crickets. Let's make sure you don't run into even an inkling of this issue by using these five strategies to help identify the ideal client avatar for your biz.
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Number one, start visualizing your ICA. Think of your favorite clients, maybe someone you adored working with and you would want a hundred more of. Or if you're just starting out your business, think of someone you would love to have in your client base. List every common trait, both demographic, meaning age, gender, marital status, industry; and psychographic, meaning worldview, values, beliefs, interests, hobbies, and so on. The goal is to describe this person so well that you can actually step right into their shoes. You want to know them intimately so that you can think like them, speak like them, feel their emotions, and for the purpose of this exercise, be them.
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Which brings me to my next point, embody your ideal client avatar. It's time for some acting. What we're going to do is I'm going to get you right in the shoes of your clients. We're going to go a little method here, and we're going to feel their pain, their passions, their desires. What are their fears?
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I don't want you to just think about them, actually be them. What is their day like? How are they feeling? What did they have for breakfast? Really get right into their shoes. Seeing the world through your clients' eyes allows you to understand their emotions and what they're feeling at this moment because these are the factors that are going to influence whether someone wants to connect or make a purchase from your business.
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Help take your client's pain away. Which obstacles or pain are they currently enduring, and how can you help relieve that? I don't mean this by sleazily poking at their pain points or capitalizing on an innocent person's vulnerabilities. The reality is, people are awesome at compartmentalizing their lives. So until you're able to truly empathize with them and remind them of the problem it is that they're trying to solve, you won't be able to help them make their lives better, let alone make a sale.
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Remember you created your business to help make people's lives better, and you might have to drag them kicking and screaming and shed some light on the not-so-awesome parts of life. But at the end of the day, your product or service is going to help make their lives better. So get super familiar with your ICA's mindset by answering the questions and prompts from the workbook in grave detail. This will help inspire them to take action. Do not skip out on this exercise. I assure you, trust me when I say, you will have pages upon pages of material that will help you connect with your ICA authentically from a place of both compassion and understanding.
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Whether you're writing websites, sales pages, marketing material, social media content, or you're creating a new service or product offering from your business, come back to this exercise and allow this information to inspire you.
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Next, strategy three, connecting with real ideal client avatars. What we're going to do is we're going to take your empathy muscle to a whole new level. Over the next week, schedule some time to talk or Zoom with at least three existing clients or people who fall under the category of your ICA based on the previous exercises. In the case that you have a brand new business and none of these people in your network, not to worry. Take to social media and visit accounts that have similar ICAs to your biz. Look at some of their posts and read through the comments to find people that fit your criteria. Contact them via DM. Explain the situation that you're creating a new business with someone like them in mind and request that they share 20 minutes of their time with you. It's possible that some people are going to turn you down, but I'm sure you'll find three people who are willing to participate and help you out. If you feel awkward contacting someone at random, a nice incentive could be a gift card or a free service if that fits within your budget. Be sure to cap the call at 30 minutes to be respectful of each of your time.
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During the call, you're not trying to sell anything. You're going to let your ICA do most of the talking while you tap into their fears, their wants, their desires, and their frustrations. In the workbook below this video, I've included a script and some questions to help you along in the conversation. Of course, you don't have to stick to this exactly. It'll just help you stay focused and aligned with the overall objective of your call.
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Next, the fourth strategy, observing your ICA out in the wild. Check out the social media platforms of brands with the same ICA. Take note of which images, captions, stories, and questions your ICA is engaging with most so that you can use that as inspiration to create new and unique ways to engage your ICA with your own brand.
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After that, take a visit to your competitor's website. Take a look through all of the testimonials and read in your ICA's own words about the obstacles that that business helped them with. What did they achieve through this company? This information is so helpful when developing your products or your services. It's straight from the horse's mouth, for a lack of a better explanation. While you're there, take a look at your competitor's sales page to see ways that you can differentiate yourself from similar offers.
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Lastly, the fifth strategy, reflecting your ICA in all of your marketing materials. This one might seem a little bit obvious; but I assure you, as a designer, I have seen firsthand when entrepreneurs completely dismiss this option and they offer their own personal preferences, leaving their ICA completely out of the picture. Pun intended.
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Nowadays, consumers are bombarded with options. The more they see themselves in your service or your product, the easier it will be for them to connect and commit to your offering. Clarity inspires action. We touch on this more in video five of the Brand Bootcamp, but here are some examples of how you can reflect your ICA in your material.
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A color palette that is not your favorite color, but one that strategically resonates with your ICA based in color psychology. An example of this could be a pale blue palette to help calm someone down, and that might be a little better suited than fuchsia.
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A font that they will want to read. Even if you love script fonts, if your client is older or maybe has a bit of a more masculine energy, they might be completely turned away by your choice to include scripts because it might be too feminine or, honestly, kind of hard to read.
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Choosing photography that has them in it. When someone lands on your website, your favorite picture from your trip to Thailand will likely mean absolutely nothing to them. Of course, if you're a service-based business or a consultant, you will want to show pictures of yourself to put a face to the name, but you do also need to make sure that you identify and include your ICA in this photography as well.
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All right, now that you know all about compassion-based branding and the five strategies to attract your ICA, it's time to get to work. You'll find all of the prompts, questions, and scripts you need to really hone in on who your ICA is in the link below this video. I assure you this step is one of the most important and strategic exercises you'll do in the building of your biz.
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That's it for video two of the Brand Bootcamp. If you liked this video, please be sure to hit the subscribe and the thumbs-up button. Thank you for watching.
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