If you feel like you haven’t quite ‘nailed your niche,’ you’re not alone!

Believe that you DO have your perfect target market? 

I talk to coaches every day who say “My ideal client is a person who _____, but I can’t seem to find my clients!”

The problem is a mistake in defining your ideal client or target market – that’s what is keeping your ideal clients in hiding! 

Check out these 5 target market mistakes to see whether you need a tweak to get ideal clients who are eager to say “Yes!” to your offers!

But first, let’s distinguish between an ideal client, a target market, and an avatar. 

A target market is a description of a group, like ‘Professional Men, ages 35-50, who struggle with…’

An avatar is a single example of a target market, like ‘John, age 42, who works at XYZ corporation, and has been struggling with…’

An ideal client is an avatar who also is willing to be coached, happy to pay you, etc.

Now that we have those distinctions, let’s dive into the five mistakes. 

Mistake 1: Too broad

If you start your target market with ‘women between the ages of 25 and 65 who…’ that’s almost certainly too broad a target market, unless you’re talking about a specific condition (like a medical condition). 

Why? Because the lifestyle and challenges of a 25-year-old woman is not at all similar to the lifestyle and challenges of a 65-year-old. The former may be planning a family, or have young children. She’s probably just starting a career. The latter, the older woman, probably doesn’t have children in the house, and may be retired. 

Here’s the thing: Even if you help them both with (for example) health, talking about why they want to become healthy, lose weight, get in shape, etc. – all the pain points and the benefits will be different.

Ask yourself: Is my target market too broad?

Mistake 2: Not obviously identifiable

If you base your target market on a symptom that they don’t know that they have, that means that you have a ‘not obviously identifiable’ target market. 

One example of this is saying ‘I work with people who have energy blocks and limiting beliefs, helping them to clear those patterns.’ 

Most people don’t know what energy blocks and limiting beliefs are. Even people who are aware of energy and limiting beliefs aren’t always aware that they are being blocked in a particular way. It’s also very hard to get referrals because their friends don’t know either, so they can’t refer you.

Ask yourself: Would a 10-year-old be able to identify my target market?

Mistake 3: Picking a cause, not a business

“My ideal client is in a women’s shelter…’ 

That’s a very noble cause, to want to support women like that. And you may find it difficult to create a business model that allows you to be paid doing that.

Instead, try picking a different target market for your business, and create a ‘give back’ where you work with a certain number of people like this per month, or start a foundation to help those less fortunate. 

Ask yourself: Do I have a target market that has at least some of its members who can pay me?

Mistake 4: Multiple avatars

Similar to mistake #1, multiple avatars mean that you’re trying to provide similar services to very different clients. For example, if you say ‘I’m a relationship coach, and I help married couples improve their lives, and I help single people find their soulmate…’ those are two VERY different target markets! 

Whether someone identifies as single or married is fundamental to most people’s identity. When you say ‘I can help either this group, or that one’ and they are completely different – people will self-select out of working with you.

Ask yourself: Would one of my avatars completely reject the identity of the other avatar?

Mistake 5: Ideal client not target market

“My ideal client is someone who is very coachable, has free time and money, and wants to work with me.”

While that may be a PART of your ideal client description, it leaves out the critical part of your avatar description. 

Ask yourself: Would my description apply to people with very different problems?

That’s it! How’d your target market do? Share with me on Facebook…