The "ideal client avatar" concept is broken (Ep#6)

If you've never quite managed to figure out who your "ideal client" is, or you thought you had but don't seem to be attracting many of them, this video is for you.

The whole concept, or the way it is typically taught at least, is broken, and it's a real problem for everyone who is trying to market online in 2024.

If you find your "ICA" is an arbitrary collection of characteristics you feel no connection to, it's time for a new approach. The "Anti Avatar" approach.


You can download your copy of "The Ideal Client Anti-Avatar" that accompanies this video here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/anti

You can download your complimentary guide to "Three Techniques to Validate Your Offer Before You Launch" here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/validate

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Transcript

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Have you ever filled in one of those ideal client avatar worksheets? If you have, let me ask you a question. Where is it right now? Is it framed above your computer screen? Um, so that you can refer to. Every single time you're writing a piece of content and make sure you're focused on that exact person. Or did you talk it into the back of a notebook? Never to be seen again. No judgment. If you did. Because if you did this episode is for you. You've been told by the gurus thousands times that having an ideal client is critical to your business success. But you've never quite figured out how to work out who they are, or perhaps you thought you did have it all figured out, but haven't managed to attract many of them today. We're going to be looking at why most ideal client avatars don't work. And what we can do instead. and at the end, I'll share a great free resource that will help you figure out exactly how to do this. So your offers are messaging on noticed by exactly the right. People. Let's roll the credits. Using marketing to persuade people to buy your thing is hard, icky and not an effective use of your time. It's an upside down way of doing things. Introducing upside up marketing. Helping you create offers people want to buy and share them in a way that feels good. All over a nice cup of tea. Hello, and welcome to the upside up marketing podcast. My name is Katie Spreadbury and I help online service-based businesses. Like you create offers. People are excited to buy. so you can ditch the pushy marketing tactics and run a successful business in a way that feels good, both to you and the people that you serve. This is part two of three episodes looking at every business. Owner's favorite thing. The ideal client avatar. So if you've not listened to the first one yet, make sure you catch that when you finish listening to this one. Um, and stay tuned to the end. As I'm going to give you an exercise you can do today to get you focused on the things that matter most to the people that you want to work with the most. Um, to make sure that your offers and your content are connecting with the right people, not just any people. Although that's a good start, but the right people. No. If you've done any business or marketing programs or had any form of business coaching, you may have noticed a pattern. Nearly every program course, five day challenge webinar. Coach you on boarding questionnaire would always start with one question. Who are your offers for? And then they give you a set of ideal client avatar worksheets to fit him. So you do to fully fit in the boxes. Some of them seem a bit weird. Uh, you don't know. Okay. What that cat's name is, but you fit in the box with, I don't know. Tittles. And, uh, she was size a six. Uh, well, they watched you on Netflix. Oh, Um, baby reindeer. Everyone's watching baby reindeer. Aren't they? It must be that baby. Ready? Yeah, let's go with that. You complete the worksheet sitting there making up rubbish about an imaginary person. Um, in the hope that those suddenly materialize out of nowhere and make you a millionaire. You have that profile of Doris in all her glory. But. You have no emotional connection to this fictional being you've created. Nothing excites you about them. So even with the best wind in the world to build on this. You ended up finding that scrap of paper away in the back of a notebook. One day, maybe it falls out on the floor, gets put in with the recycling. Out into the bin. You don't even notice because you're not looking at it. And this leaves us with a problem. From my experience of working with heaps of business owners to figure out their ideal clients. And this is something that I've done a lot of in my time. The reason most people hate ideal client avatars is that essentially that focusing on the wrong things and getting people hung up on things that don't even matter. Most ideal client advertise exercises. Um, focusing on top-line characteristics, which once they can be important and not the build and Enval, and certainly not the starting point that most people use them as. Like always the top of these avatar worksheets. You've got name, gender. Age. Salary. These aren't always the most important things. And if you use that as a starting point, you're very quickly going to get lost into an area of just making things up and losing that emotional connection and excitement that you had. For this perfect ideal client that you're meant to be creating. The things that you need to be really clear off when it comes to your ideal client are simply. The things you need to know to attract more of them and the things you need to know to serve them best. There is a reason that all these programs start with ideal client. It's one of the most important fundamentals in your business, knowing who you serve. It underpins everything you do. Um, after all the reason for having an ideal client in the first place is to help you focus your offers, a messaging on the people that need you most, the people that will value you most, and the people that you enjoy working with the most. Um, so if you're focused on them, you can attract more of them. And it's one of the fundamentals of upside up marketing to, if you're going to start all of your offer creation and marketing with the person you need to know who the person is. But most ideal client avatars focus on random demographics and characteristics, many of which have no bearing at all on the problems your client is facing and how you need to be connecting with them. So today I want to share with you my anti avatar approach and approach that takes a different tack. The anti avatar starts with what matters and reverse engineers. Until you have someone you're excited to work with. And super clear on how to attract. So you can talk to them in a way that connects with them and that deeper level. So they just know without even thinking. That you are talking about them. You are there to help them, and it is worth their while listening to what you have to say. And the way to do that. Isn't through making up random characteristics. Um, I'm fitting in a form, but by understanding what really matters to them. Not just what their struggles are, but the impact that has on their everyday life. Not just that they want a solution, but how the solution that you provide aligns with their values and the way they like to go about things. And not just what they watch on Netflix, but how you can relate to them more deeply so they can see you're a good egg and you're the kind of person that they'd get on with in real life. As I've mentioned in previous episodes, one of the best ways to get people's attention. And to keep it is to describe situations that are super specific to the ones they actually experienced in their real, everyday lives. The things that lead them in no doubt that it's them you're talking to, and that it's worth their while listening, reading, or watching on. So let's take the struggles they have as a starting point. You might say their struggle is, um, let's have an example, but they're so tired and overwhelmed. They find it very hard to be organized in their life or to give their best. Now a lot of people have that issue. But you need to be more specific. Someone who's tired, overwhelmed and not organized does not necessarily know just from you pointing out that they're tied, overwhelmed and disorganized. They don't actually know that what you're going to do is going to help them and their situation. So show don't tell that's something. They say a lot in creative writing. Isn't it show don't tell it applies here as well. So in the example, I just mentioned being tired and overwhelmed. Meaning, they find it hard to be organized in their life. It might look like. They forgot. They promised their kid, they could be Hedwig on world book day, and now they find themselves up at 1:00 AM, stitching feathers onto a cut-up bed sheet. Uh, cursing Hogwarts. We're not being more practical in their delivery method for mail. It might be they pour boiling water. But empty margain didn't notice they've forgotten the teabag again until they'd left the brew for five minutes. They suddenly remembered it was their mom's birthday. Yesterday. They sat their full, to do list full of enthusiasm, ready to smash the day. Next thing, you know, it's that lunchtime and nothing's happened, even though they've been super busy all morning. Oh, it might look like thinking, oh, it's okay. I can do that this evening, but then find themselves invited out for a quick drink after work, which turns into several drinks until they run into the house at 11:00 PM with no time or energy to do anything but fall into bed. Now all of these things, always that being tired and overwhelmed. And therefore disorganized in their day-to-day life. Show up for people. It could all be waste that shows up for people. But all these five situations relevant to the same person. And this example. All those situations could be relevant to someone who works. But there are some differences. The first situation about the Hedwig costume would be relevant to a parent, probably a parent of a primary school aged child. However, the person, the last situation probably doesn't have kids or not ones that are still at home that they live with. Anyway. They're different people. So ask yourself each characteristic. Do people in different categories here experience the problems that you solve differently. So they need the solution presented in a different way. Or the ultimate goal was from overcoming the struggle different. If the answer to any of these is yes. You may need to niche down further. If it's no, not significantly. You're fine where you are. Oh, I hear you say, but what if I find differences? How do I know where to focus? This is the point where I remind you. They are your ideal client. You need to be the ideal solution for them. But they also need to be the ideal person for you. And the ideal person is the one that's going to value you. The one that's going to be a joy to work with and having your world because you connect on a personal level as well as professional. And the one that's going to be the least work for you to attract. If you find the problems that you solve are showing up differently for different people, then you need to add a level of specificity to your target audience. So here's some things to think about when doing that. Number one is how well can I relate to that life? Do I feel empathy with them. It will be a lot easier for you to write content and build connection with people who you already feel. Some sort of connection to. So that's the first thing to think about. Number two is what would that person be looking for? If they were to work with me? Do they have constraints on their time and or money? Um, do I feel I could deliver the result they want within those constraints? Until they even want help. This is what I see a lot of people falling foul of., and it's a really, really critical question. If you're looking to support people who can't afford what you want to charge, what you need to charge. You're going to find it very difficult to build a sustainable business. And you can't want this more for people than they want it for themselves. They've got to want the help. so for example, I see. Um, a lot of people are really passionate about helping new mums because they had such a tough time themselves when they were a new mum. Um, you know, And they want to, let's take an example. They want to help people remember who they are and not lose their own sense of identity as they evolve into this new role. But most new mums for those first few months, at least in survival mode. They're just trying to keep themselves in this new being that means more to them than anything else in the world ever had that. Just trying to keep them both alive. And. The whole life has been upended. They don't have the mental space and capacity to be. looking for solutions or. Even realizing they have a problem there. They're just not in that place at the moment. The only important thing to them is them and their baby and getting through this time. And they're not there for that support. Not yet. Anyway, you can't want this more for people than they want it for themselves. And the third thing to consider is how passionate do you feel about helping them? The more passionate you feel? The easier it will be to show up for them every day, even when you're not feeling great, even when you're pushed for time and the easier it will be to stick out the bad times when things aren't quite going to plan and everything feels like it's against you. If you have that passion there. Then it will be a whole lot easier. So there's a few things to think about. If you're trying to think. Um, if you're trying to figure out how to narrow down the people that you want to work with, your ideal clients. Based on their characteristics. My auntie avatar approach. Turns normal ideal client practice on its head instead of picking out random characteristics about a made up stranger, you start with what really matters. before figuring out where you need to get specific and how to get specific. With the details. And all this will make sure that your message is consistent and focused on the people that you want to work with most. And that means that it will be heard by them. It will be noticed by them and they will want to know more. Ultimately they will buy more of your offers. Um, if you are trying to talk to generally, it will be hurt by no one, no one is homing in on that because it doesn't speak directly to them. You're not building a fake avatar. You're describing a persona that is as real as you or I, a real person with real lifts situations and a whole complexity to their life beyond just the problem that you solve for them. If you've been nodding along tool, this and you're thinking, yes, I need to create this anti avatar persona for my business. Then good news. I have just the thing for you. My free download the ideal client anti avatar. removes all the fluff and really hone in on what is actually important about the people you want to work with. Most it takes you through this whole, um, process that I've talked about in this, podcast. And it goes even deeper. It takes it a step further so that you end up with something that you can really use to make that message consistent and focused and attract more of the right people. so you can stop overthinking and start creating offers and content that really connects with precisely the right people. And if not, your find your content continues to get lost in the noise, continues to get engagement from anyone, nevermind the right people. Um, and you'll just feel like you're shouting into the void. So if you'd like your copy, then go right now to www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk forward slash anti. A N T I Anti. That's www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk forward slash anti I'll. Also pop the link in the show notes that you can do it with one click. Um, Popular email address in there and by the power of technology, I'll make sure that goes straight to your inbox so you can download it and get going straight away. Now I promised you an exercise that you can do today to really get focused on the things that mattered to your ideal client. So you can make sure your offers and content are connecting with people. And not just any people, the right people. So I want you to go out on your social media today and ask this question. Fit in the blank. If I could, and then enter there, the problem that you solving, the problem that you helped them with. So if I could. Uh, be more consistent with my, my social media. If I had offers people actually wanted to buy. That sort of thing. Then I could stop. And then give them a blank space to fit in. And this will help you to, to determine the ways in which solving the problem you help them with will make a tangible difference to their lives. And help you see where the different sorts of people answered that question differently. Um, this will help you understand what characteristics are most important for you to focus on when you're thinking about your ideal client, persona, your offers and your messaging, and it will give you things to talk about in your content when you are addressing those people. To go and ask that to your audience today. So it was filling the blank. If I could solve the problem that it is that you help them solve. I could stop blank. Do you come into my Facebook group, the upside up marketing movement. I'd love to invite you to have you along there. Um, and let us know how you got on that's the place to carry on any discussion in this podcast, or ask any questions about how it applies to your business. Uh, please do come in there and let me know how you get on. If you ask that question. And even if you don't come along anyway, just for the chat and the cups of tea, every lovely to see you in there. Now, the next episode of this podcast will be the third and final episode in this mini series. about what's gone wrong with the whole ideal client thing and the way it's currently talk. And we'll be talking about the biggest fallacy in doing your ideal client work, the thing coaches and gurus either don't want you to know or haven't realized themselves because this is definitely not the way they're teaching it. Um, So make sure that you hit subscribe so that you're here for that episode when it comes out in two weeks time. and until then stay curious and keep that marketing upside up.