Creating your soul client profile

Target market, dream customer, ICA (ideal client avatar), audience persona or soul client, no matter which way you say it, defining who you are aiming to provide your product or service to is an important process to go through. It helps you to gain real clarity on who you’re talking to, and attracting to your business.

Yes, you want to help a lot of people with your business, and you will. But it’s not a good idea to try and aim for everyone, because that’s just not going to happen. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” – Meredith Hill

We need to hone in on our people. 

The people who align with our values and appreciate our unique way of doing things.

There is a set group of people that your brand will appeal to, they will all be different, but they will have some characteristics that cross over. 

The point of creating a soul client profile is to get clear on the attributes that would make a perfect customer for your business. 

This is not a real person but the ideal person.

The first step is the demographics, and when I first came across the ideal client profiles, these details always seemed a bit vague, and tbh didn’t really help me. It’s not until I paired them with the psychographics and gave them a backstory that I understood how helpful they actually are.

I now have an extremely clear idea in my head of who my ideal client is. I know where she lives, and how her house is decorated, but more importantly I know how she is feeling, what she is struggling with, and how I can help her. 

Instead of just listing out your ideal clients demographics, it really helps if you get to know them, and give them a backstory.

Demographics – surface level

Age, gender, ethnicity, religion, education, marital status, occupation, income, location etc.

Example:

Female, 25 – 55, married, earns £55,000 per year, lives in Bristol, yoga instructor + food writer.

Psychographics – deeper understanding

Lifestyle, values, beliefs, personality traits, opinions, interests

Example with backstory:

Nina, 38, lives in Bristol with her husband Matt, and their two children Bella and Ed. They have two cats and live in an almost fully renovated townhouse. They’ve been doing the house up for years, since they bought it in a very run down state, at an auction when they first got married. Interesting art adorns their walls, and lush green plants are in pretty much every corner of the house. Nina rides her bike daily, loves good food, all the possibilities of flavour and loves to cook for friends and family in their large, sun drenched kitchen. Her favourite shops are Anthropologie, Free People, and Facethory and can’t resist looking through thrift stores for hidden gems.

Nina appreciates well crafted, minimal design, but loves a pop of colour too. She values family time, real food, mental rest and living life to the fullest. A creative at heart, Nina’s love of food and sharing the process has led to her growing an Instagram following, and is now ready to make more of a mark with a website and recipe book. She has plans for supper clubs and intimate, homely workshops in the future too.

______

From the above statement, you can see how much you can visualise the person when you include the details that make them who they are.

Not a real person but the ideal person

Go through the basics first with the demographics of your target audience.

Give them a name and actual age, not a bracket (female age 25-55). This will help you to envision them and get to know them better. Remember this is not a real person, but the person who in an ideal world would be the absolute perfect fit for your brand, the perfect case scenario.

Then when you have those, you can get creative and move onto the psychographics, giving them life and personality.

Go deeper

Once you have a basic idea of who they are, you then move on to the deeper questions.

These are the things that will help you to understand how you can help them and where your brand could fit into their life.

• What are their values?
• What’s important to them?
• What do they fear? 
• What do they believe? 
• What are their goals?
• What problem do they have that you can help them with? 
• Why are they drawn to your brand?
• How do they feel currently – before they’re had a chance to work with you? 
• How do they feel after they’ve worked with you?
• What transformations have they experienced? 
• What did they love about the experience you gave them?

These answers can help you to craft your offers, and to create a memorable experience for your clients.

Give them a face

After you have written out your backstory, have a look on the stock image sites Pexels or Unsplash and see if you can find a face for them. I see it like casting the role in a movie. You’ll know them when you see them.

Keep them top of mind

You can print out your backstory and profile image or save them to your online workspace, creating a profile that you can refer back to when writing content, social posts or planning out services. Whatever you do, don’t forget about them! 

Branding & your soul client

Your brand identity should be designed to help you call in your soul clients.

It’s important that we get to know who your soul client is, so when we start designing for your brand we are aware of the type of person you want to be attracting, their likes and dislikes, the types of brands that they are already drawn to, and the things that align with them. 

So if you’re going through the branding process yourself, it’s a really good idea to be clear on who you want to be attracting before you start designing a logo and planning colours.

If you’ve not created a soul client profile, or not revisited it in a while, I urge you to go through this exercise, as you will find it incredibly helpful. And if you feel called to, I have created a workbook that goes through the Kindred Calling brand clarity process.

Check out my Attracting Your Soul Clients with Brand Clarity workbook – only $28

Do reach out to me on Instagram and let me know how you get on!