As I work with my clients to help them build their online audiences and grow their businesses; the topic of specificity always arises- and, more specifically, the topic of specificity and your ideal client.

Most of the time, my clients resist getting super specific. I get it, because I’ve done that too.

I never wanted to specify my ideal client, mostly because of FOMO- fear of missing out.

I was worried that I would inadequately capture the description of who I really wanted to work with, and, as a result, my absolutely most perfect clients would just skip right over me and work with someone else.

So I resisted specifying for years. (Please don’t be as stubborn as I was.)

And yet, I began to notice that there were, actually, specific clients that I could help the most- and that these specific clients had the best results.

In my business, these people tended to be ambitious, highly educated, and often creating an online business as a second career or additional income stream. In most cases, they run successful service businesses, or content businesses. They understand that growing a business takes time, and they want to work in partnership to improve their results.

So, even though I was resisting specifying these clients, they were showing up specifically anyway. Which got me thinking- what if I actually was very specific about who I wanted to work with?

What would happen then?

(It was very good.) (And I didn’t miss out on anything.)

So, now, when I work with clients, I, the self-professed non-specifier, focus a lot on helping my clients get very specific about who they work with and who they want to help.

They tend to resist this, again, because they don’t want to miss out on their absolutely perfect ideal clients either.

Yet, those who agree to try this out find it much easier to make connections, and to keep communicating with their more specific client base.

It’s difficult to know what to say to everyone- but you can usually figure out what to say to someone.

The more specific you can be about who you work with, why you work with them, and what you help them with, the easier it will be for clients to pay attention to you and remember you.

Yes, you can have different ideal client profiles if you have different services you offer.

But when communicating in one channel with one group of clients, keep the communication tailored to who they are, and what they need.

It’s taken me a long time to adopt this, and I wish I’d done this so much sooner.

So if you’re not attracting exactly who you want to work with, it might be time to revisit your ideal client profile and make it even more specific.

This can help you target your message, target your marketing, reduce your marketing costs, and increase your sales.

It’s also one of the first steps in building a solid referral system for your business.

Referrals represent one of the most cost-effective ways to build your business.

For me, they are my top performing marketing channel. Yet many people don’t know exactly how to set up a working referral system for their business. This is why I’m pleased to share with you my newest report: 10 Referral Marketing Mistakes You Might Be Making