21: Identifying your Ideal Customer by Being True to Yourself

Makers Gonna Sell: A Podcast for Creative Entrepreneurs with Cheryl Ham and Nicky Avery

So, you’ve started your business by posting your crafts online and building an audience, and now you’re ready to start expanding. That’s the subject of this week’s podcast: identifying your ideal customer so that you know exactly who you’re attracting and how best to expand your reach. It’s not just a numbers game where any customer is a good customer. Trying to be everything to everyone is a good way to burn yourself out on doing what you love, so knowing exactly who you’re marketing your products and expertise to is so important to keeping the momentum that you’ve spent so much time building.

As you’re listening and doing the work identifying your ideal customer, it can be helpful to remember that the best way to attract like-minded people is to keep doing what you’re best at: being yourself! The enthusiasm and expertise that you brought to the table and helped build your audience in the first place is one of the best ways to make sure that you’re always attracting the right people to your business. It’s the joy of doing what you do best that is going to keep people noticing your work, and so understanding yourself can be a great way of knowing just who it is that you want to be your ideal customers.

Quotes:

“What we put out online is either going to attract people to you, the kind of people who are liking and resonating with everything that you're talking about, or you're going to repel the wrong people. And by wrong, I'm not using that as a negative, like one person's right, and one person's wrong. I mean some people are going to like what you have to say, and some people are just going to scroll by.” - Cheryl

“When people love your products, they’re gonna want more.”- Nick

“What are people looking for when they're crocheting a project? What do they want to happen? How can my product do that for them, but even better than what they're already getting at their local craft store?” - Cheryl

Like is going to attract like, and you're gonna thank yourself later because you don't want to show up as somebody else and try to be all the things for everybody and end up burning yourself out and disappointing yourself.” - Nicky

Key Points and Take-Aways:

- Who is it that is buying your product? What kind of people are you trying to reach?

- How is your product helping your customers? What problems does your product solve for them?

- Don’t be afraid to ask your customers the kind of questions that will help you understand them better!

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• Cheryl: Indie Dyed Entrepreneur on Instagram or Facebook
• Nicky: Avery Lane Creations on Instagram or Facebook
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• Nicky’s Maker’s Momentum Inner Circle