it is not up for debate, you must define your target audience for your beauty business. Unfortunately If not done right you could just be just spinning wheels and with that….frustration will be knocking at your door frequently! My goal is to help you determine your target audience in 5 easy steps.
It is common belief that you want everyone to be your customer. Therefore In a perfect world that would make sense because after all we are in business to change lives and make money right? Only thing is this is not a perfect world and business does not operate quite like that.
In this business less is more! The more you narrow down to a specific group of people the better your sales ratio will be. It’s called your niche. These are the specific people that you want to buy your product every single time you promote.
When I first started my Virtual Assistant business Ayotal Services, I made a lot of my messaging general in nature thinking that I needed to appeal to as many people as possible. I did not want to exclude any possible buyers. Man, I quickly learned that, in doing this process I was not appealing to anyone at all and my sales showed it. Later, I was so frustrated and it made me feel like my business was a failure.
So I decided to take 5 steps to figure out who my target audience was so that my message would resonate with the Exact people I wanted to speak too! That ended up being beauty business owners like you!
Step 1
- Consider who is already spending money with you
If you have people that have already used your services or bought your products then that is where you start. Figure out why they chose to spend money with you. Even if it was just friends and family that used your service or product because you asked them too. Get feed back from them. Did any of them inquire about additional services without you asking? What about them made them a good customer or bad customer for you?
When I used to do hair for my friends, I would take note of the things I liked so that I knew what type of customers I wanted in my chair. For example I liked customers that already had a style in mind. I learned I did not do well with clients that did not give me a direction for their preferred style. Subsequently It created such anxiety when a customer would say ”Just do your thang” or “Just work your magic”. Good thing I took the time to analyze the current clients I had because finding out that little bit of information helped me to make sure that was in my advertising messages to customers. This shows how important is it to define your target audience.
Step 2
- Determine makes you stand out
A million places sell burgers but what makes one place different from the other. This is the key as to why people choose which restaurant they will choose to eat at. Your beauty business needs to be the same way. Determine what aspect of your beauty business is different from every other beauty business out there. For instance, This can be as simple as the fact that your customer service is top notch and unbeatable. It could be that your beauty business is run by elves imported exclusively from the north pole. Whatever it is, just make sure you let your customers know.
When I first started my wig making company I was doing what all the other beauty businesses were doing. I figured I needed to blend in so that I would look like the others and get the same sales traffic. NOPE. It was the exact opposite in results. I blended in too well and got lost in the sauce. Just another site in the sea of beauty. It was clear; I had to define my target audience.
Step 3
- Determine the physical person
In order to make any sales in your business no matter if it is a product or a service, you have to connect with other humans. So who are those humans? Get very specific to the characteristics of who that person is. Ask yourself questions to help determine this. Here are a few that I asked myself.
- What is their gender?
- How old are they?
- How much money do they make?
- What kind of education do they have?
- What is their ethnicity ?
- Where are they located?
- What is their style?
- What are their values?
I even went so far as to give my ideal customer a name so that when I write any message about my product or services, I’m talking directly to her. The struggle was real but eventually I did define my target audience.
Step 4
- Find out where the hang out spots are
By this point you have gathered a lot of information and you may be starting to see the framework of who your target audience is. Now it’s time to find them! If I were a customer where would I be? That may sound like a silly question but actually it is spot on. You got to find the places that your ideal customer hangs out at.
If you sell shoes you need to hang out in places your ideal customers will be looking for shoes. So for example if your ideal customer is an online shopper that loves 2 day shipping…then Amazon is where you would post your stuff because she is sure to see it on there.
On the other hand if you sell shoes and your ideal customer is an old lady and looking for supportive shoes she may not be tech savvy to be online and you may have to send her something in the mail to get her attention.
Step 5
- Share your story
It is all about the journey. A wise person once said “People do not buy WHAT you sell, they buy WHY you sell it”.
Share with your ideal customer what made you start your business and why you choose them!
When I first started my beauty business Miyou Wigs I realized that I wanted to help women express their creative hair beauty through cosplay wigs!
Share your “WHY” with your client and they will begin to create a bond with you. In the grand scheme of things, this connection creates loyalty, referrals and repeat customers.
Most importantly just remember to always assess whether your ideal client has changed. You don’t want to be writing messages to a client you no longer resonate with.
If your ideal client changes, no need to start over from scratch. Just change the language of your message and keep going!