Why Your Business Needs More Than One Ideal Client Persona

Have you ever been told you need to pick just one ideal client avatar? You know, that mythical person who's supposed to represent your entire customer base, as if all your potential clients are exactly the same person. 

Meh, I don't buy it.

In this episode, I'm calling out this "one ideal client" rule for what it is—outdated advice that might be holding you back. 

I'll show you why having multiple ideal client personas isn't just okay—it's actually essential for most businesses. You'll learn how to market effectively to different client types without watering down your message or confusing anyone. Plus, get practical strategies for adapting your content across different marketing channels while keeping your brand voice strong, along with actionable tips for identifying and speaking to your own multiple ideal clients.

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EPISODE 140.

Read the show notes and view the full transcript here: https://erinollila.com/why-your-business-needs-more-than-one-ideal-client-persona/
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Here's info on your host, Erin Ollila
Erin Ollila believes in the power of words and how a message can inform – and even transform – its intended audience. She graduated from Fairfield University with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and went on to co-found Spry, an award-winning online literary journal.

When Erin’s not helping her clients understand their website data or improve their website copy, you can catch her hosting the Talk Copy to Me podcast and guesting on shows such as Profit is a Choice, The Driven Woman Entrepreneur, Go Pitch Yourself, and Counsel Cast.

Stay in touch with Erin Ollila, SEO website copywriter:
• Learn more about Erin’s VIP intensive options if you’d like to learn more about how you can hire her to help you with your marketing efforts

Transcript

0:01

When was the last time you saw a car dealership that only sold minivans? You know, a giant banner hanging over their entryway that says Soccer Moms Only, and, you know, maybe some salespeople standing outside that turns people away who are looking for pickup trucks. Yeah. You never saw that because that would be ridiculous. If you've been hanging out with me in this brand messaging series, you know that my guests and I have been breaking down everything from being choosable, You know, without that dreaded USP, like we did with Belinda Weaver, to creating powerful , mission, vision, and values statements like last week on the podcast with Ashley Singh, we even peeked behind the curtain at both my brand messaging guide and how my friend Zoe from Lexicon CopyCo does her brand messaging guides, which By the way, is what really sparked today's topic, because here's the thing. When you're creating your brand messaging, one of the biggest questions that will come up is, who am I talking to? And somewhere along the line, the marketing world decided that we needed to pick one person. Person and stick to them forever like some strange business version of monogamy today I'm gonna try to bust that myth wide open for you because this is one of those marketing hills I will die on we do not have one ideal client. We have a range of clients that come into our business So I'm going to talk about why having multiple clients isn't just okay, but it's actually essential. And more importantly, I'll show you a few examples of how you can speak to different clients while still maintaining your brand voice and the message that you want to share with your audience. But first, let's break down why car dealerships may secretly be marketing geniuses. They will always come across, potentially, as sleazy salespeople, but they've actually nailed a few marketing things. First, they've got those shiny red convertibles in the front window that speak to the person who wants to feel young and free and maybe even impress everyone at their high school reunion. Right next to it, A practical SUV, screaming, I can handle your Costco addiction and your camping trips. And let's not forget the reliable sedan right next door to it that's basically saying, hey, I'm going to get you to work without drinking your entire paycheck in gas money. And here's where it gets interesting. Watch how they adjust their approach for each type of car. That convertible? They're talking about the thrill of the open road and the latest tech features. The SUV? It's all about safety ratings and how many car seats can fit in the back. The sedan? They're breaking down monthly payments and fuel efficiency. Same dealership, same brand, same overall message of quality and reliability. But they're not trying to convince the sports car enthusiast that they really need great car seat attachments. They know exactly who they're talking to with each vehicle, and they adjust their message accordingly. So why have so many businesses in this online business world bought into the idea that we need one perfect ideal client avatar? That is like trying to convince everyone that vanilla is the only ice cream flavor worth eating. And if we're gonna be honest here, if that were true, Ben Jerry's would have gone out of business a long time ago, and I wouldn't be a lot sadder because I love ice cream and its varieties. So before you start thinking, think. Wait, does this mean that I need to sell to everyone? Let's clear something up. Notice what the car dealership is not doing. They are not selling bikes, boats, and mobile homes just because those things can also get you from point A to point B. They've niched down to vehicles. That's their expertise. That's their zone of genius. Niching down your offerings is not the same as narrowing to one type of client. The dealership specializes in vehicles. That's their niche. But within that specialty, they serve different types of vehicle buyers. They are not trying to be everything to everyone. They're being the right thing to the right people. You can be that too. But before we talk about how you can get your own ideal client, , personas or avatars, whatever you want to call it, let's look at a few examples. Let's take, for example, a website designer who specializes in photographers. That's niched. Am I correct? She has one industry that she serves. So at first glance, you may think, well, photographers are photographers. But let's think about it. Different photographers have different needs, and different photographers will showcase their expertise and how they meet the needs of their clients differently on different websites. Wedding photographers, for example, need a website that tells the love story before couples even reach the contact page. Their galleries need to be organized by wedding, not individual shots, and their inquiry form better ask about wedding dates and venues and other type of vendors in order to get the best information from their clients. Brand photographers? Completely different ballgame. Their websites need to scream professional, yet creative. Their portfolios need to be organized by industry, or maybe shoot type. And their contact form needs to ask about any type of brand guidelines, team size, or location for shooting. Another type of photographers could be product photographers. Their websites need to demonstrate technical precision. So they may have galleries that showcase different product categories, and their inquiry forms would ask things about product dimensions,, quantity, anything like that. And here's what makes this all work. All of these photographers need websites. Just like those different car buyers need vehicles. And just like that great car salesperson guides each buyer to the right vehicle for their needs, the website designer in this example can guide each photographer to the right solution, website solution that is, for their specialty. She doesn't need to be three different versions of one website designer or water down her expertise. She just needs to understand that while all of her clients need websites, they're coming to her with different goals and challenges. And her job? It's to point them toward the solution that fits their specific needs. That's what makes her an excellent website designer. Let's look at one more example. Actually, maybe two. First, there's a health coach that niched down to supporting women through their entire motherhood journey, but specifically the early days of motherhood. Again, sounds very niche, right? Correct. But she has a larger group of ideal clients than you may think. Think at first glance. Like the woman who's been trying to conceive for six months and is ready to throw her ovulation tracker out the window. The pregnant mother who's wondered if her weird craving for pickled everything is normal or whether she's making the right dietary choices to support her pregnancy. The postpartum woman who wants to feel human again and maybe find time to shower when she's trying to take care of a newborn infant. And then a woman who's further along in her postpartum journey who finally has felt like she's gotten her body back and it's not necessarily a body that she recognizes. Same coach, same expertise in supporting women through their motherhood journeys, specifically early motherhood journeys. But just like that car salesperson knows not to pitch a two seater sports car to a family of five, this coach knows that each stage needs its own approach and is on its own level of a health journey. And we'll do one more example for you, and I'll kind of bring in how this works in my business. I have two distinct types of clients, the DIY folks and the done for you folks. Those DIY people, they're downloading my templates, they're buying my courses, and they're implementing things themselves. They're the ones who get so excited when they learn a good framework, or they have a template that kind of kick starts their creativity. They, in particular, want to understand the why behind everything. Kind of like, I'm taking this car dealership example too far, but kind of like when someone is buying a car and they want to know exactly what's under the hood and how it works and what shape it's in before the purchase. My done for you clients, on the other hand, they would rather have a root canal than write their own copy. They just want the magic to happen. They understand the return on investment already. And just like the car buyer who doesn't care how the engine works, as long as they know it will safely get them where they need to go, they're willing to make the investment to have that done for them. Okay. So let's talk about how you can take these examples and think about it as it relates to your marketing. We're going to talk about the real world implementation of identifying your ideal client personas and adjusting your marketing and messaging to meet their needs. Let's first do that with the examples I just shared, and then I'll give you a few tips on how you can do that with your own marketing and your own ideal clients. The Website Designer She's showing up differently for each type of photographer. On social media, let's say Instagram for an example. Here's how it plays out. Monday's post speaks to wedding photographers. And here's like a completely made up example of what it could say."Swipe here to see how we transform this home page into a love story that books clients before they even see the pricing." Wednesday's content on Instagram can target brand photographers. And it could be, again using some quotes here, "three must have portfolio features for landing corporate clients without losing your creative edge". And Friday, it could be a reel that's showing product photographers."Watch me organize this product gallery to increase add to cart rates." All of these are examples with completely targeted to individual client personas, but I'm showcasing how they all make sense within attracting people into her like business sphere. No one is going to look at those three days of Instagram posts and think like, wow, like what is this person talking about? They're all about website design. Specifically, they're about what a homepage of a website looks like, what a portfolio of a website looks like, . How you can take, site navigation or user experience and influence the design elements. So they all fit within her overall messaging. They all make sense to the services that she provides to her business. But yet, each subset of her clients that come to her can see themselves within her social media messaging. Let's try something different for the health coach. Let's talk blogging for them. For example, for those who are trying to conceive, she may talk to them about fertility supporting lifestyle changes and stress management. For their pregnant moms, she could discuss safe movement and nutrition for each trimester. For postpartum mothers, she could focus on recovery and finding moments of self care. And her blog strategy? For example, Category 1, Fertility Foods, What to Eat When Trying to Conceive, that's Speaks directly to the audience who is Googling right now foods that can help prime their body for pregnancy. Another blog post could be Pregnancy Safe Core Workouts for Each Trimester. And a third could be A Real Talk Guide to Postpartum Recovery. What's great about blogging is that the categories on her blog can organize this easily for her audience, which means when, , anyone within her. Ideal Persona group comes to her website, they can find what they need by clicking on something like Trying to Conceive or Postpartum Moms, and they will be served up content specific to their needs. Or they can browse through the blog collection and just pick and choose what they find based on their own interest. But in doing this and creating this content, she is inviting all of these different subsets of her client base into her business and providing quality content that nurtures the lead and makes them feel trust in her and her business. for my clients, for an example, . Let's think about personalization and email actually. This is a really good example. When you have a business that serves two different larger subsets, again, DIY versus done for you, you can set up segments in your email marketing software where you can identify which audience they are, whether they are the DIYers or people who want it done for them, and use your sequences or use personalization tools like Liquid in Kit in order to speak to them directly. You know, for DIY clients, it could be something like, you know, do you want to take charge of your own brand voice? Let me give you the tools to make that happen. Whereas for done for you clients, I could say, your brand voice is too important to leave to chance. Let's make it unforgettable with no DIY required. Silly examples. If I'm developing an email marketing strategy, you know, in order to make that super clear, maybe the DIY folks get a subject line like, Your Brand Voice Homework. Don't worry, I made it fun. And the email has actionable tips for them in order to start doing the work to create their own brand voice. The done for you folks are seeing why yes, you can stop stressing about your website copy. And the email is showing them transformation stories of clients I've already worked for, worked with, and how we've worked together for their brand voice development and I have done that work for them. Here's what makes all of those approaches successful. None of those business owners are trying to speak to everyone at once. Even in the example, I just gave you for done for you clients and done with you clients or done DIY clients, I'm not saying those messages in the very same email. I mention segmentation so that I can talk to them in a different way. But I would not want to try to muddle my message by talking to them both at the same time. The website designer is not writing one Instagram post that tries to catch all of those photographers. As an example, portfolios, all of those photographers should have a portfolio on their website. But they're not showcasing why What to do with a wedding portfolio. What to do with a, oh gosh, I'm forgetting the, oh, a brand photographer's portfolio. What to do with a product photographer's portfolio. Like that, that's way too much for an Instagram post. They're just using one ideal client persona. and speaking to them, but the message is still valid for any photographer. What's happening with these examples is intentionality. We're being intentional about who we're talking to in each piece of content, each social post, each blog, and every email. So what does this mean for you? Here's where I hope we can be a little bit more actionable. First, I want you to look at your current offerings.. What is your car dealership specialty? What's that big umbrella that all of your services fall under? Kind of like how all of my stuff is marketing and messaging, just delivered differently depending on the type of copywriting I'm doing. Now, identify your main client types within that specialty. You don't need to go crazy here and have a list of 15 to 20 different types of clients. Nor would you want just one. Even my example of the done for you versus done with you, I personally think is a bit too . , I don't know if vague is the right word, is not done correctly. I think that an ideal amount of ideal client personas would be approximately three to five, three would be the minimum. And I would say maybe seven is a maximum because then at that point, again, your message is getting just very muddled. Most of my clients tend to have four, five, but identify the a handful that you can start with. You're not creating new services here. You're not niching into their particular needs. You're just recognizing that these different people need your expertise in a different way. Once you have this small group of people Created I want you to start writing down what you know about this group. What are their pain points? What are their aspirations? What are their needs? What gets them excited? What would be a win for them? How are you best able to meet any of these needs that they have? Part of your expertise would be what would win them over. Create, a file for, that's not the best way to put it, but create kind of like a file for each of these ideal clients and add to it over time. This is not something that you need to do overnight. This is not, , Something that can be figured out in a one hour setting. You can get a great foundation, sure, but your ideal client personas may shift depending on the more of them that you work with. And you might even find, for example, using the health coach, she might find that of those four different clients that she has, that she's not speaking enough to the, trying to conceive group. Or she might find she doesn't enjoy working with a trying to conceive group because they have some very specific health challenges that either she's not qualified to work with or that she just doesn't feel comfortable working with. So maybe as she grows, as she works with different types of clients, she cuts that group out, which is fine. Just because you have served one group of clients does not mean you need to continue serving them for your entire career. When you work with people, you learn what you like, potentially what you dislike, and that's really what helps you mold these characters, for lack of a better word, that you're creating with your ideal clients into multifaceted Individuals or groups of people that you would love to work with and that you can serve well. You know, when you do this exercise right,. The content you create starts to resonate much more deeply than it did before. Your ideal clients may be thinking things like, "Oh my God, are they in my head?" And best of all, you, as the creator, stop feeling like you're trying to be everything to everyone. So remember that car dealership we started with and talked about this whole time? They aren't confused about who they are or what they're doing. They're selling vehicles. That is their thing, but they know that different people need different vehicles and for different reasons. And they're totally cool with that. You can be too. You don't need to just pick one ideal client and ghost all the others. You just need to be clear about who you're talking to in any given moment. It's like having different conversations at a party. You wouldn't try to tell the same story the same way to your grandmother as you would to your college roommate. That's what you do in your business. You have a message and you deliver that message in the way that the particular audience you're serving in that moment needs to hear it. So the next time someone tells you that you need to narrow down to one perfect ideal client persona named Sarah who drinks oat milk lattes and has two golden retrievers, just smile and think about the car dealership. They're out there right now selling minivans and sports cars under the same roof and their world hasn't ended. In fact, if we've seen anything in the last handful of years, they're selling cars for ten times more than they used to. So, Speaking of getting clear on who you're talking to, next week we're going to dive right into elevator pitches. Because if you thought having multiple ideal clients was fun, wait until you learn how to talk to them without sounding like you are reading from a phone book. So for now, pick one piece of content you've created recently. It could be an email, A social post, whatever. Just look at it and ask yourself, who are you really trying to talk to? Is it everyone? Or were you really clear about which one of your ideal clients needed this message?. See you next week when we'll keep talking copy.