Your go-to guide to mastering your in-person market experience
An exclusive online membership for makers and creative business owners ready ditch the overwhelm and hustle for consistent sales and flexible schedules.
Hi! I’m Lucy.
Chardonnay and vintage finds lover, founder of the handmade jewelry brand bel monili *and* your new guide to making your handmade business WORK online.
Ideal customer. Customer avatar. Perfect customer. These are all different descriptions for the same concept. As a small business owner, you must know and understand the people who are most likely to buy from you.
Your perfect customer is not EVERY woman between the ages of 30 to 65! As much as we’d like to think that our products appeal to everyone, it is just not possible. And that is absolutely okay!
In fact, the more you can pinpoint “your people”, the more effective your marketing will be, and the more sales you will make. I promise!
So let’s dive into the world of your perfect customer.
Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
What does the term “perfect customer” mean to you?
“Perfection” is sort of a myth, but we use the term “perfect” to help bring forward the traits of the people who are most likely to buy your products.
For me, a perfect customer is someone who is a FAN of my work. They love my designs, and they tell their friends about my shop. They are someone who enjoys wearing color, and bold jewelry that shows their personality. They have money to spend on themselves for things that make them feel special. I see them as someone who is artistic or who appreciates art, and is a supporter of small businesses.
Your perfect customer will most likely look different than mine, although they may have some similar qualities. I think people who shop handmade tend to have similar traits. But based on what you make and your price points, your specific perfect customer will begin to come through.
If you haven’t done this yet, I urge you to spend some time creating a full Perfect Customer profile. Write down everything about them that you can think of. The more specific you can be, the easier it will be for you to find them.
Now that you know exactly who your perfect customer is, you can seek them out and say hello!
Craft shows are a great way to identify and connect with your perfect customer. Being in person and speaking face-to-face is a sure-fire way to see who responds to your products and who doesn’t.
If you’re attending craft shows as a seller, be very aware of the people who stop and ask questions. Who is interested in your products and what assumptions can you make about them?
Don’t be afraid to chat them up a bit. Ask them what appeals to them – why are they attracted to your products?
Oh, and make sure you have an email list sign up sheet so you can stay in touch with them!
If you’re not doing in-person shows, then you may need to make some assumptions about your customer, and then adjust as you go.
Most creatives make things that appeal to them, so you can use yourself as a starting point.
Use social media to post your creations and then see who responds. Check out their profiles and interact with them. You can get a good sense of who they are and then adjust your perfect customer profile from there.
Be sure to read my blog post on Three Things You Need to Know About your Perfect Customer to get even more clarity about this process.
I know you just want to get out there and start selling! But if you skip this important step, you’re going to be wasting a lot of your precious time.
Really knowing and speaking to your perfect customer is going to yield the best results when you create content and market your products.
There’s so much more to say about this topic, and I go into great detail about it in my signature course – Get Online, Grow Online!
The course is opening for enrollment soon – get on the list to get notified when the doors open, and get ready to watch your handmade business BLOOM!
After running bel monili (my handmade jewelry business) for 10 years, I launched Bloom in 2019 to create a community where handmade business owners could learn, grow, and support each other in this wild venture of small business ownership. Welcome to Bloom!
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