Can You Have More Than One Ideal Customer?
In our recent Worker Wing Workshop when we ran a session on ‘Ideal Customer’, one florist asked a question we hear often:
"What if I have more than one ideal customer?"
It's a fair question. Perhaps you're a retail florist who loves serving your regular customers. But you also dream of attracting more weddings. And then there are funeral flowers, corporate work, workshops...
Surely they can't all be the same customer?
The short answer is...
Yes, you absolutely can have more than one ideal customer.
But here's the catch.
More ideal customers doesn't mean more marketing
We’re not advocating creating six customer profiles, twelve different marketing messages and a marketing plan that feels impossible to keep up with. That's not what we mean.
At Queen Bee, we generally recommend having no more than three ideal customers – Bee’s Threes®! Not because your business couldn't serve more people, but because your marketing becomes harder and harder the more audiences you're trying to speak to. And the more messages you try and communicate, the less overall impact you’ll have; your marketing becomes diluted and people feel unsure whether you’re for them.
The goal isn't to describe every person who's ever bought flowers from you. The goal is to understand the people you'd most like to attract more of.
Look beyond the flowers
Let's imagine your business has three ideal customers:
- Wedding couples
- Everyday retail customers
- Funeral families
On the surface, they look completely different; buying different products, in different life situations and spending different amounts.
So it's easy to assume they need three completely different marketing strategies. Not necessarily…
Look for what your ideal customers have in common
Instead of focusing on what they're buying...start looking at who they are.
Ask yourself:
What do they value?
Why do they choose us over another florist?
What do they appreciate about the experience?
What kind of people do we genuinely enjoy working with?
Very often, you'll discover they have far more in common than you first realised.
Think of your ideal customer like a tree
Imagine your ideal customer as a tree. The branches might look different; one is weddings, one could be everyday flowers, another funerals, perhaps another workshops. Each branch represents a different part of your business, but they’re all connected to the same trunk, which is made up of the values, beliefs and behaviours that your favourite customers share.
When you understand the trunk, marketing becomes much easier. You're no longer writing separate messages for dozens of different audiences; you're speaking to the kind of person who chooses your business. The branch they're hanging from simply changes depending on what's happening in their life.
When you really do have different ideal customers
Of course, sometimes your audiences genuinely are very different.
As a florist, you might have:
luxury weddings
local walk-in retail customers
corporate contracts
In those cases, creating separate ideal customer profiles makes complete sense.
The important thing is asking whether they truly are different people...
...or simply the same type of customer buying from you for different reasons.
A better question to ask
Try asking:
"What do my favourite customers have in common?"
Thinking about your three favourite customers, ignore what they bought and instead, ask yourself:
What did they value?
What made them enjoyable to work with?
Why did they choose you?
What did they have in common?
You might be surprised how quickly the overlap appears.
So... how many ideal customers should you have?
We'd much rather see you understand one to three audiences deeply than try to market to thirty superficially.
And more often than not, when you really dig into your favourite customers, you'll discover they're not as different as you first thought.
Once you understand the person behind the purchase, everything else - your emails, social media, blogs and marketing messages - becomes that little bit easier. Check out our signature course, Own Your Marketing, if you want to delve deeper.