Fille'r Up- Part 2 -Back to School- Niching Down to Your Ideal Client

Did you make it to the bus stop in time today?! If you are like most everyone else in the US, this week or maybe next week is Back to School time! All my dietitian friends that do media have had their back to school episodes, here is mine…shameless plug.

Now that there is a bit more time and structure back to your day, we are going to take this marketing business to a deeper level and talk about your niche. There is a million and ten different names for figuring out your ideal client, life, avatar. Whatever word you choose is fine by me, I want you to walk away from today’s blog post with a VERY clear picture of who you are going to serve with your practice

Finding Your Humans

When starting out, you might have this mindset of scarcity and want to see everyone and anyone just to fill up our calendar. Ok, maybe it was just me who did that. Or you might be thinking “Why should I specialize? I want to serve everyone?” When you specialize or focus on a few areas it helps you to be known as an authority in that area. It makes it super easy to find your ideal clients. People view specialize can also be a generalist but generalist can not be specialists.  If you don’t know who is your ideal client is making it virtually impossible to know what to put on your website, who to network and market to.

Meet Your Ideal Client

Take time right now to get through these questions to get a general idea of who is your ideal client. I have an in-depth questionnaire in iLiveWell Business Academy that I teach those students to really narrow in on their ideal client.

• • Who am I trying to attract to my practice?

    • Sketch out the person – age, gender, what do they do for fun? favorite local place to go?
      • Knowing all these specificities of your ideal client helps you know how to write and craft your marketing strategy. You would not chat about Snapchat if your ideal client is over that demographic age.
    • How would they get help?
      • Do they ask a friend, Google the question, post on FB a question
    • How do they learn about new things in their area?
      • Friends give advice, see a post on social media, see something in a local publication or news program
    • Who is this person to connect to? –
      • community, church, mom group, support group

Networking Based on Your Niche

You know have a good idea of who you are talking to and how you will best serve them so now we have to get the word out to those key influencers to get your ideal client in your office. Seems like an easy task…

• Who should you market to?
  • Just like above, I want you to think about what other providers might be in your ideal client’s lives? –
    • therapist, massage therapist, personal trainers, chiropractors, pedestrian.
    • Do any of those groups have a meeting that you could provide a talk to and position yourself as an expert? (If you don’t know Google for your area)
• How do you actually market to people?
  •  BE YOU! Go into these meetings, emails, situations authentic and honest you and that is what people will respond to the most.
    • Email Example- Hi I’m Adrien!- I see we both love working this eating disorders/ office in South Austin/ went to school in the mid-west. I would love to hear more about your practice- would you like to get together for coffee?
    • You will not get 100% of people responding, that’s normal and don’t take it personally. You are slowly trying to build your network and there will be baby steps through out the process.
  • Follow up follow up FOLLOW UP!!! – this is often what people forget to do, which has the most value in it. Practitioners that refer to you, or ones you have had coffee with, put in your calendar 3-6 months out to follow up with them. This step is GOLDEN and truly will be the most valuable tool in marketing!

• Your Website
  • Make sure it is clean and speaks to that one ideal client. Use their language and talk to them in a way they will feel like you get them. Don’t try to impress anyone.Too many words can be overwhelming.
  • When you list out what you do try making it not so general because a generalist can’t be a specialist but a specialist can be a generalist.
  • Blogging – (or Vlogging) – this is where you can get on your soapbox and share all your super nerdy passionate topics. When a client is coming to your website the main parts need to be simple and easy to follow. Allow your blog area to be more about education, passion projects, your stuff. This is also the place where clients can read more about your personality and style to see if you would be a good fit.

Action Items:

1. Go through the Ideal Questions and really narrow in on your ideal client
2. List out all the communities and other professionals your ideal client would or are interacting with in your community
3. Take action!!- A list is just a dream, set it in motion by scheduling when you will accomplish things