Who is my ideal client? Who are my Tribe? I get this question all the time, and right after it, how do I find them?
The first answer is your Tribe needs to be specific enough so that you can find them! Okay, that may sound obvious, but I hear people struggle with this all the time. Too many of you are trying to serve everyone. And while it may in fact be that you are able to serve almost anyone if they come to you and working together is a fit, you can’t market to everyone. Not even companies with marketing budgets as large as Coca Cola do that. So, you need to be able to define your Tribe.
And when people ask me, how do I find my Tribe, that usually means either (1) their Tribe isn’t well enough defined, or (2) they are not thinking creatively enough about where they are and how to connect with them. Today we’ll address step one, and next week, we’ll address step two.
Your Tribe needs to be identifiable through a shared set of pains, problems, and issues, and commonly held desired outcomes and results. When you understand this about your people, you will be able to address them specifically—and you will be able to find them more easily.
For example:
- IF You are a health coach, you might choose to focus on 20-30 something women who want to look awesome, have tons of energy, and protect their fertility, but now feel tired, bloated, and are concerned that they may not be able to have a baby when they are ready to have one sometime in the future —
~ > THEN You are going to address how they feel in their clothes, if they have to have an alarm clock to wake up, if they have PMS and are worried if the birth control pills they are taking are going to screw up their changes of getting pregnant later. You’re going to work with them on diet, exercise, their self image and relationship to food and their bodies, and alternative forms of birth control that won’t mess with their hormones.
- IF You are a shamanic practitioner and wise woman, you might choose to focus on 50+ age women who want to put a greater emphasis on their life purpose, and who are challenged because of hormonal changes, lack of sleep and energy, and family responsibilities (children and parents) –
~ > THEN You are going to help make themselves a priority, refer them to the resources they need for greater physical and emotional health, help them manage their family responsibilities by engaging resources and additional people to assist, all while fostering their deeper sense of purpose and help guide them to bringing it out into the world in a bigger way.
- IF You are a videographer, you could choose to focus on solo entrepreneurs and small businesses who know they need to get into the game of video, but have no idea how to do it so that the videos help them build their businesses.
~ > THEN You would teach them the fundamentals of a marketing video, give them examples for them to review, help them write a script, shoot b-roll of them doing their work, set up an interviews with some of their clients or customers, get photos relevant to their work, create a 3 minute promotional video, and put it on their website, on YouTube and on their Facebook page.
When you’re determining your Tribe, you need to know what they are looking for, and where they need help—specifically. Then you create solutions that address their issues, and help them get what they want.
Everything becomes MUCH EASIER when you focus in (don’t think of it as narrowing) on who your people are.