Lessons

Lesson Info

Day 6 Bonus: "Your Target Client"

I talk a lot about client communication and what we're going to be communicating to our clients and howto communicate that value that you've defined and you know, you think about it like this, you know, people don't want to be marketed to they want to be communicated with and so we have to think about that message we have to think about what we want communicated and then who we're going to be communicating it too so that's going to be the next thing is really thinking about defining your target client now that you've to find your niche and your specialty, we're going to think about who to market that niche too. So let's, go find your target client together a lot of times when people start thinking about defining their target client, they think about their target market and that's more about demographics thinking about the area that you have the market to the people that are around you but when I want to do when I'm thinking about target client is actually shrinking that target market a...

nd so it may not be an area anymore, but it might be a certain segment of people and what that does for me is the marketing resource is that I have make a whole lot more impact in that smaller pond, so demographics is going to be statistical information it's going to be information about specific groups or areas of people but we're going to dive deeper and we're going to look at psychographic ce because that's going to tell us more about the people that were marketing too it's even more interesting because psycho graphics tell us even more about their buying habits it lets us know where people are spending time and where they're spending money and that's what I want to concentrate on there's a book called the pit full of personal development by larry wing it and one of the things that larry says is that your time and money always follow your priorities and that's something that I really try to think about when I'm thinking about horning in on my target client and I really want to think about what their priorities are, what they're buying habits are and what they're buying expectations are are they expecting a certain level of customer service are they expecting for somebody to hold their hand through the process? You know where are they spending that time and spending money and what are their expectations psychographic ce have to do with what interests people so we're going to find out and I have a little bit deeper into their lifestyle and really you know what they're spending money on how they're spending it and how often they're spending it you know we want to find out all those things and really track and to find what motivates people what gets them excited what keeps them going back to another business again and again and I liked to look at that for myself you know what businesses do I keep repeating? What where do I go into every single time I need a car wash? Where do I go every single time? I want to buy an outfit for a nice event where do I go every single time? I'm going to get my hair cut even you know who do we go to again and again and then really start thinking about why? So if you can stop and think about those things for yourself, you know, what are the businesses that get your business over and over again? And why do you continue to go there when I own a hair salon back in the day? My previous life? You know, I knew that if I could get somebody in our hair salon the first time for a haircut, I knew they would come back again and again and it really wasn't because they were going to get the best haircut in town, you know, there are always lots of girls working at the hair salon and, you know think I wanted him to have a good haircut of course I wanted them tio you get that great haircut, but it was really more about the experience it was about the pampering it was about the atmosphere and all the other elements that tied in together that kept them coming back again and again and so I want to think about those things as well moving into my photography business why do I keep going back to other businesses and what can I incorporate into my business that would keep people coming back again and again to me so I wanna really, really narrow in on who that target client is and get very, very specific I used the analogy before about the big ocean or the small pond or the little pedal and you know personally that's where I want to spend my time jumping up and down is in that small puddle where I can make a giant splash a carefully selected target client is much more manageable than just, you know, throwing it out there and marketing to anybody and everybody in a certain area so let's get down to really thinking about who that target client is and I just want to throw out there that the more specific you can be, the better the better you're going to be able to be communicating and marketing to that target client so really get specific and I've got a whole list of questions for you there in your workbook but think about anything that you can think about I want you to think about a life a a week in your client's life and think about every place that they're going to be every place, that they are doing business with anybody that they have communication with, where are they spending their time, and where are they spending their money? And I also want you to think about just lifestyle circumstances, so everything from where she lives and who does her landscaping and, you know, those kind of things we think, well, why do I need to know that? But if I know where she lives, I find I know who built her home, even, and I know who does her landscaping, maybe even does she hire a professional cleaning service? You know, all those little details that we can find out, we start learning about the people that that we're doing business with, what are they willing to spend money on, where they saving money? And, you know, also, we can find out who we need to be networking with, and we'll talk more about networking and how you can get networked with those people in another segment. So if you're photographing kids or families, or even high school seniors or weddings, you know, your target client is going to be a female, so these questions airbase chased around that mom or that female client that you have, and you're going to rearrange these questions just a little bit, depending on your market and what you're photographing, I've got these questions based around photographing kids because that's what I love to photograph, but, you know, this is this is just to brainstorm some ideas with you and, you know, go ahead and make thes personal to what you want to be photographing. So I'm thinking about that woman that we're marketing to think about whether she's a working mom or a stay at home mom and the reason that's important is because, you know, we're going to market to those moms in different ways. The mom who's working outside of the home is gonna have more income that she feels like it's, hers probably she's going teo may feel a little guilty about the time that she's not spending with her kids, and so we can use both of those things to our advantage. The mom who's, a stay at home mom really cares about family and she's got, you know, probably a very homey home and atmosphere, and we're going to market to those moms in two different ways. Neither one is writer are wrong, but think about who it is that you're marketing teo, and it doesn't mean that one hundred percent of your clients are going to be one of the other, but think about the majority and really who it is that you're focusing on. I also want to think about how many kids this mom has and that's important because I may be marketing to new moms, and so they've got that one newborn I want to start photographing them so that I can photograph their family as it grows and that's going to help me down the road as well. I can continue continue marketing back to that person, or maybe my focus is moms who are having an oops baby. And honestly, that happens a lot and there's also moms who are waiting longer and longer to have babies and even into their late thirties and early forties, and that might be your target client. They're gonna have that one baby maybe, too, because they're waiting longer in life and those are two very different. They both have newborn, and so we might think of them in the same way, but we're going to market to those two differently. If we're marketing to the older mom, we might be looking at fertility specialist, we might even be looking at adoption agencies to network with. If we're marketing to the young mother, we might be networking with somebody who does baby yoga or, you know, water aerobics for pregnant women, or maybe they have a a shop that really specializes in great fashions for the young pregnant mom. If our marketing to the mom who's got three to five kids, we're going to be looking in completely different areas to network with and completely different demographics about where they're spending that time in that money it's going to be dance, it's going to be sports clubs, it's going to be, you know, maybe even different charities that people get involved with as their kids get older, we want to look at youth groups, you know, there's all different areas to look at, depending on how many kids somebody has, where they live what's important to them, and we want to look at all those things. I also want to think about where her kids go to school, and even if you're photographing newborns, you might want to think about where they're going to plug their kids into day care. You know, they're some daycares that have list miles long, and people are putting their their kids on these list before they're even born and it's crazy, you know? Or you might be photographing older kids and families, and you know that you want to be photographing kids that go to a certain school there's a school in our market area, and I'm calling my market area the market area that's an hour away from me. But there's a school there where it costs about forty thousand dollars a year to have your child in school there so I want those clients absolutely I do those are people who are really willing to invest in their children and in their children's education and in the future of their children you know family is important to them their life and future is important to them I want to be marketing to those people and if I know what's important to them it's much easier for me to do that to market too you know that that right demographic of what they're thinking and feeling and what they're what those priorities are, you know, like like larry said, their time and money always followed their priorities and so it's getting to know the things that are important to them I want to find out what groups my target client is involved in I want to find out where she goes to church where she works out and if working out is important to her think about her favorite restaurant and where she buys her clothes or her shoes or her kids, clothes and shoes and you know, that's one of the things that I really love looking at and it seems you know, like maybe it would be insignificant but there's a whole different experience when you go to a boutique to buy your clothes and the person walks in, you know, you walk in and the person there knows your name or they ask for your name right away, and they put your name on a little talk forward toa hang on a dressing room door no, they're helping you with things, they ask you, what type of event you're buying for, you know, and really give you that personal attention, and I know I like buying that way, I actually like being sold, I like when I go into a dressing room and I'm brought accessories and shoes and things that are going to go with my outfit because I'm not great at putting outfits together, and so I like that personal help. And so, you know, think about those things is that the experience that your client is experiencing or would they rather shop a target where they can go in and they can make their own decisions quickly, easily and get out of there and neither one of those air writer wrong, you know, both of those air very we and people might choose one thing for some things and one thing for another that's great to really think about, you know, is your target client heading over to target for all their, you know, maybe toilet paper in bathroom supplies and make up and that kind of thing and then really choosing their specialty items from places that they're willing to go and spend the money for to get that personal attention you know we can use that information on you know, how are we going to work with us people when they come into our studio? We have to make sure that our service and our product is that high end item that they're willing to spend the extra money on and we all will spend extra money on certain things in our lives we choose some things that we want to save money on and some things that were willing to spend a little bit more on and so really digging into finding out those things what's important to your client is very valuable and how you run your business? Where does she purchase her furniture? Is she and do it yourselfer or is she really planning things out and her pottery barn catalogue or restoration hardware catalog? You know where she find things? She shopped local and she loves going to the local furniture store to make sure that she's being loyal on a local level that's something that's really important in our area in the midwest and it's advertised a lot of places that we want people to think about shopping local and buying local and I'm going to bet that that is also important in your area because more and more people are buying things online and we want to keep that revenue in our local markets and so that's something that you can capitalize on as a business, you know, not going teo the chain photographers even though those air, you know, dwindling down as we speak, you know, the private photographers have really taken over but you know, make sure that you, if that's really important to your marketplace that's something that you can use in your marketing that no hey shop local stay local I'm supporting our local economy by owning a building on our downtown square and that's something that's really important to our community, so if that's the case market it and all these questions as you go through there so many more, you're going to think about other things to think about as you go through these questions, but as you go through just, you know, realized that the main reason that we want after ourselves these questions is really finding out more about who we're mark hitting thio and what our message needs to be to reach those people were also going to find out more about what our customer service needs to be like and what their experience needs to be like when they're working with us and I can also find out a little bit more about even howto make that customer experience happened by knowing who they're spending time and money with because I can go in do some research on those businesses or find out a little bit more about you know why they love to shop there, why they love to spend time there and don't be afraid to ask people you know, that's that's something to that you know, as you move on and your business and even, you know, go through this list and start trying to think of things you may be in a position where you were really don't have that person to model this after and you really don't know so think about just your dream client just make her up and if you can do that and start thinking about all these different things, these different experiences and these different priorities and really just expectations that your target client is gonna have its going to help you mold your business, your customer service, your marketing hollis sing right into that right message that you want to project to the target client you're after hopefully you've gotten some great ideas today on really narrowing in on your specialty and your niche and defining your target client and really thinking about who your marketing teo and getting that message out there and you know, the more focus that you have in these areas, the more rewards you're going to reap as you go out and make these things happen because bree, you know, when we do what we love we can really we can focus on those things because it's exciting to us and it keeps us going and keeps us passionate and kind of helps us avoid burn out a little bit when we're not spending time with those people who suck the life out of us and we're not spending energy on marketing in certain places where we're not going to get those right clients in that are motivated to work with us and spend with us so the importance of doing all this time I hope that that's been clear and that you really can't think about who you want to be doing business with and how you're going tio reach those spend some time every week really thinking about who you want to attract to you who you want to attract to your business and if you're concentrated on those things and you spend some time doing that then you will start attracting those people no client attraction is a kind of buzz word these days but it is so true that the things that we focus on are going to be the things that other people are attracted to so don't focus on that negativity don't focus on the clients that you don't have focused on the clients that you want tohave and that target market that you want to have focus on the things that you're good at and your strengths and learned to grow those and then communicate those things