One of the lessons I learned in Burbank this past weekend is that you are not your ideal customer.
In fact, your ideal customer is far different from you. Worlds apart, usually.
The things you do, they don’t necessarily do.
The things you prefer, they don’t necessarily prefer.
For instance, you might say “I don’t check or read email that often.”
But your ideal customer does.
You might say, “I personally would never do that.” But your ideal client does.
Your ideal customer can be (and usually is) wayyyyy different from you…the way a masculine man is different from a feminine woman.
They’re not you. They have different needs, preferences, and desires.
Whereas you might like complexity, they might love simplicity and prefer having shit spelled out in plain English.
They think and act differently than you do.
They respond to things differently than you do.
There may be some similarities, but the DIFFERENCES are more important. Honor these differences!
You might say, “I never read personal stories about people’s lives.” But your ideal customer loves that shit...especially when they also love your product.
So therefore, write stories about your daily life, and plug your products when applicable. Share stories about your customers… same.
(This is why I wrote the “Pad Thai and Bees” article the other day! It had absolutely NOTHING to do with anti-marketing! It was all pure passion. Readers loved it!)
Here are more examples of how this idea might show up in your business:
- “I don’t like posting on social media” –> but your idea customer is on social media several hours a day.
- “I don’t like posting YouTube videos” –> but your ideal client loves watching videos and is more inclined to buy from you if they can see you, and hear your voice
- “I never listen to podcasts” –> but your ideal customer always listens to them while doing brainless activities such as making breakfast
- “I love explaining and pontificating my ideas for 20 pages” –> but your ideal customer prefers a simple 1-page distilled version of the idea, written in ape language:)
- “I don’t read any email newsletters” –> but your ideal customer gobbles up emails that are fascinating to them, while forwarding them to friends
Get it?
Your ideal customers aren’t you.
Michelle Lopez
Anti-Marketing Manifesto
P.S. How much $$$$ are you leaving on the table because you think your customers are exactly the same as you?
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 