How do you make your ideal client avatar more inclusive?
You likely have come across the term Ideal Client Avatar (ICA) when branding and marketing your small business. An ICA allows you to build a profile of who you want to work with within your business to attract new clients strategically. Your ICA is a critical part of building a brand or marketing strategy as it helps to define your audience and allows you to create relevant and influential content and offerings to solve their challenges. Your definition of your ICA evolves through learning, interaction, and experience. Who you serve today might change dramatically tomorrow, and that is good as long as you are consistent and intentional about that shift.
For most new entrepreneurs, your initial definition of your ICA reflects your story and path to how you got to where you are now. You are inspired to help people go through the challenges you have personally experienced. This connection between your own story and your solution is helpful when launching a purpose-driven brand, but it, by its nature, can be limiting. In this post, we dive into five steps to define your ICA better and ensure your ICA is inclusive. Your ICA should reflect your story and the stories of others from all walks of life who could benefit from your talents. Entrepreneurs must be mindful of their impact on others and create a more diverse and intricate brand that artfully navigates the world around us. An inclusive ICA is a step towards that vision.
Remain Curious Every Day
Remain curious about your ICA and be open to the unexpected. Our narrative around who we want to work with and who we can best serve is primarily influenced by what we see or have experienced personally. Nothing is wrong with that, but it can limit our openness to other ideas, narrowing our view of our ICA. Curiosity allows us to question what we see and ushers in alternative viewpoints and perspectives that could lead to a more developed and diverse ICA.
Listen More, Talk Less, and Engage Often
Go out and actively find opportunities to engage with people in your target audience and listen to them more than speak. What they have to say will inform and illustrate your ICA. If all you do is craft a story about your ICA in your mind through branding exercises and journaling, your ICA will look more like a representation of you than a depiction of who you could serve. It helps if you build your ICA through input from others and listen to them without your agenda being top of mind. When talking with potential ICAs, use this helpful ratio: let your ICA speak 80% of the time (so you can actively listen to them) and talk only 20% of the time. The more you practice this ratio, the easier it gets! You might be surprised at first how hard it is to listen more than talk.
Focus on Guiding Your Clients, Not Saving Them
Focus on collective pain points and realize that your ship differs from others. We all face challenges, but sailing through a storm in a luxury yacht is very different than a kayak. Your privileges and resources influence your tolerance to weather adversity. Your challenges likely differ from your ICA, even though your demographics may match on paper. Their challenges may vary in magnitude from your perspective. Focus on how you can help your clients overcome barriers but realize they are their change agents and face their own set of obstacles; you are a supplemental resource and guide, not their savior. Toting a one-size-fits-all solution to their problems can be offensive and a turn-off to potential clients different from you.
Actively Engage in an Inclusivity Audit
As you build your brand, ensure that you create a practice of inclusion through your written and graphic brand elements that engage with your ICA. Apply an auditing process with a critical lens to all interactions with your ideal audience.
Ask yourself these questions:
Is this welcoming to all, or am I turning away a particular subset of people through my use of language or imagery? Is this filtering intentional or unintentional?
Can I tweak something to make it more inclusive?
Am I leaving space for input and collaboration, engaging in conversations and dialogue?
Am I open to input and feedback?
Are the words and images I am using attracting or deterring my ICA? Is that intentional or unintentional?
How can I represent a wider crosscut of humanity from gender to sexuality, race, and socioeconomic status?
Branding is not about being for everyone but creating a safe space for your customers to engage with you. Be intentional and educated about what safety means for your ICA. Be open to learning more about what safety means to your clients directly from them. Be aware of your bias and filters that are unintentional.
Build Attraction Through Values and Culture
Rely on the laws of attraction when defining your ideal client type. When you lean into integrity, you will attract others who resonate with your core values and brand culture. This way of branding yourself is inclusive by nature. When you seek out your ICA, you lead with your motivations and agenda; alternatively, you rely on alignment when you let your ICA come to you through your messaging and content. This tactic of attracting your ICA means your results will be more authentic and less coerced, and your ICA will likely be more diverse as you can't predict how you will influence others by being yourself. For many new entrepreneurs starting to define who their ICA is, this wait-and-see approach requires a mindset shift, but patience and focus can lead to better results. You aren't actually "waiting," but shifting where you put your attention and how you strategically expand your ICA from a focus on attracting over seeking.
Continue the Conversation
What else would you add to this list? Help inform the dialogue of what inclusive branding looks like by sharing your ideas. How do you ensure inclusivity in your brand strategy and ICA development?
