No matter how many customers you have, some are going to be better than others. Certain customers tend to spend more money, stick around longer, and help spread the word about your business – if you had it your way, all of your customers would be like this.

Since these ideal customers are so valuable, you want to focus a good portion of your marketing strategy on attracting them, and your customer service should aim to keep them around.

But how can you tell who these people are? And once you know who they are, how do you best reach them? Settle in because we’re about to tell you just how to identify and reach your ideal customers.

Part 1: Who are they?

Your ideal customers come in two forms: existing and potential. Your existing ideal customers (EIC) can provide you with a ton of information about who to market to and how to attract those potential ideal customers (PIC).

To identify the ideal customers you already have, you’ll want to look at some of the important metrics for your business. Look at rate of retention, average customer lifetime value, and customer satisfaction. Your ideal customers will boast the highest reported satisfaction, above average customer lifetime value, and above average retention rate.

To measure customer satisfaction, all you have to do is ask your customers and listen to what they have to say.

Now that you’ve identified the ideal customers you already have, you can find valuable insight into who your potential ideal customers are. Many of the trends that you see in demographics and other information should give you a good idea about who your PICs are.

Some things to take note of include: age, gender, marital status, children, income, education, religion, and geographic location. You want to create a detailed persona that outlines the characteristics of your ideal customer.

Part 2: Where can I find them?

By now, you should have a pretty good idea of what your ideal customers look like. Now you just have to find them. Once again, you can tap into your EIC base to pull out important insights about where you can find your PICs.

Sending out customer surveys is always a good idea because it can provide you with tons of valuable information about who your customers are, how they use your product, and how satisfied they are. The same holds true here – design a survey to measure key demographic information about your EICs, as well as information about where they hang out. Do they frequent the local coffee shop? Check Twitter every 5 minutes? Sit down and read the newspaper first thing in the morning?

Finding out where your customers hang out, where and how they consume information, and how they use your product is the key to finding and reaching your potential ideal customers.

Demographics

Certain demographic information can be very telling and allow you to safely make some assumptions about how best to market to them.

For example, if your existing ideal customers are all between 18-25 years old, you can be confident that you’ll reach them through social media. If they’re married, you may need to consider marketing to both them and their spouses, who may be involved in the buying decision. If all of your EICs live in the Northeast region of the US, you can avoid wasting time and money targeting the Southwest.

Where Do They Hang Out

Knowing where your ideal customers are spending their time – both on and offline – will help ensure you’re targeting the right channels and actually reaching the right people.

If your EICs get their news from the daily newspaper, you might be able to skimp on the social media marketing. If they spend all of their time at the local gym, you can focus your time and dollars on  reaching them there.

The best ads and marketing in the world are only as effective as they are visible. Choosing the right channels to reach your potential customers is a huge part of getting marketing right.

Start Your Search

Identifying your ideal customers – both existing and potential – is absolutely vital to streamlining and optimizing your marketing strategy. Now that you know who’s most valuable to attract and retain, you can start to grow your customer base in the most meaningful and beneficial way.

Have you seen success from targeting your ideal customers? Share with us!