Branding: Why Finding Your Ideal Customer is So Important & How to Get in Front of Them

By guest contributor Mariah Danielsen. Photography by Elizabeth Messina.

Working with customers you love makes running a business much more fun. This is why it’s important to focus your marketing efforts on your ideal target market.

Get Inside Their Head

Envision the most ideal customer or reader in your mind. Once you know who they are, you need to get inside their head. You must know exactly who they are, what they’re thinking and feeling, and what they like/dislike. When you use the same language and tone that they use, your ideal customer will feel like you are speaking directly to them.

You'll also want to get a clear picture of what their personal style is. Use Pinterest to create an "Ideal Customer" board, then pin images of what your perfect customer buys and wears. You’ll also want to figure out what blogs and books they read, and what conferences they attend.

Get to know this person as well as you can, and build your products and services around him or her. Not only will you have happy customers, but you will also love your work. Handpicking your customers tends to do that.

How to Get in Front of Your Perfect Customer

Once you know your perfect customer, you’ll want to get your name in front of them as much as you can. The best way to do this is go to the places they already hang out.

Because you know what blogs they read, you can start to comment regularly on those blogs. You can also pitch to guest post, sponsor a post, or purchase ad space on these blogs. This will help your ideal customers get to know you. You could also pitch to speak at, or provide goodies for, the conferences your ideal customer attends. This gets you (and your products!) in front of them.

Once your customer sees your branding all over the places they already spend their time, your name will start to become more familiar to them. Soon enough, they’ll start to follow you and your business as well.

Take some time to think about exactly who you want to work with, and the different ways you can get in front of them--you’ll be a household name before you know it. Share your "Ideal Customer" Pinterest board in the comments, so we can all see who you’re dying to work with!