Branding is tricky, sticky business. There’s a lot to consider, right? There’s a logo, colors, fonts, messaging, and a target audience that you address in a specific way. And each of those pieces needs to come together as a cohesive whole.
I speak with a lot of business and non-profit owners who are nervous to focus their target market too tightly for fear of leaving out those they love to serve- and understandably so!
Often, I feel like a surgeon giving someone bad news that we need to cut something out for the good of the rest of the body. While these convos can be a little uncomfortable and make business owners feel like they’re leaving money on the table by reining in their focus, I’m going to show you how it can liberating and help you grow your business even more.
What I’m about to share is something that I’ve heard bits and pieces of from time to time, but there was just something about this last time came across as revolutionary to me.
I recently listened to an Amy Porterfield podcast with Jasmine Star as the guest talking about attracting and repelling potential customers.
The part that really struck me was when Jasmine talked about something more extreme than even cutting out some groups of people to focus all of your efforts around a more targeted niche. She said that you should focus on only one person. Even more extreme, this person doesn’t need to be real. Say what?!
Here are my ideas on how to go about this. Think of one person who is your ultimate client.
- what is the person’s name
- what does he/she look like
- what is his/her background
- what does he/she do for a living
- what are his/her struggles
- what does he/she really need that you can help with (as specifically as possible)
- how much time does he/she have to devote to working on the area where you want to help
- and what specifically do you want to say to him/her
Feel free to add in any additional details you want or think could be helpful in guiding you in identifying this person.
Now, in all of your communications, social media posts, business projects/areas of focus, create everything specifically with that one person in mind. Let that shape your voice, communication style, and brand. Like I wrote at the beginning, this is pretty radical stuff!
Here’s mine. Her name is Jessica. I won’t bore you with every detail I wrote down that describes her to a T but here are some of the highlights. She isn’t super outgoing but wants to have a full life and soak in as many sweet and beautiful experiences as possible. She likes to read, be inspired, and take on occasional challenges. She is smart, witty, works a full-time corporate job while her real passion is creating sculpture and ceramics.
She wants to learn how to share her message clearly about her art in a way to get people excited about and buying her work. She also wants to expand the audience who enjoys and seeks out ceramics and sculpture for their home and offices. She wants to educate people, expand their horizons in this specific area and needs help clarifying her message in a way that interests/excites/inspires/educates people.
Essentially, Jessica represents the epitome of who I want to help: those who have a limited time to work on pursuing their dream business, so the time they do spend needs to be extremely focused and help them make real progress.
Now, I have worked with artists and others who are building their dream biz on the side of their corp moneymaker but no one quite like Jessica, in her niche with her quirks. Having the freedom to only write and create for her makes my life easier and much more targeted.
Doing this exercise can actually be a ton of fun. Now I only have to ask myself, would Jessica find this helpful? Would this draw her in to find out more? I no longer have the stress of trying to think of a ton of a dozen different scenarios and people, and wanting to capture all of their struggles and needs.
Here’s the REALLY beautiful part. Not only does this make my job easier but now I will connect with REAL people who share aspects of who Jessica is. Not only will I connect, but they are gonna feel like I am speaking to them as though I’m peering into their soul. They are going to trust me more.
We all know that relationships (biz or personal) are built on trust. So speaking the language of this targeted individual will make a whole lot of real life Jessica’s want to work with me because I know them inside and out and am speaking their language. It’s also gonna bring a lot of others who don’t seem like Jessica to me but they feel the same way.
While this approach won’t draw in everyone out there who needs help with business strategies and communications, it will draw the ones that are best suited for me.
I have to tell you that over the last couple of weeks, this has made my content creation and branding strategies so much less stressful.
I hope you give this a try and that it offers you freedom, peace, and exhilaration all at the same time. Please let me know if you give it a try and what you think.
