Identifying your dream customer is the first step in creating your online course.

It affects your course material, your marketing message, and your digital content.

WHY? Because you need to know who you’re speaking to.

If you create content that tries to speak to everyone, it won't resonate with anyone.

In the online space, you cannot be a generalist... You need to be a specialist!

So, this article will walk you through the process that will narrow your focus and help you connect with the specific audience you want to work with.

​Make sure you have a pencil and a piece of paper, so you can walk through this process in real time.

Start at the broadest point, which is the area of interest your customer has, and the one your course is in.

For example, if your course is related to fitness, that would be your starting place.

But, fitness is a very broad category.

A course (or any content at all) in general fitness would be difficult to get engagement on, or sell.

​That’s why you need to go a few more levels deep.

Your next level down is choosing a particular topic within the general area of interest.

If we stick with the fitness example, your chosen topic could include things like:

Weight loss, Muscle building, or Sports specific training.

I hope you can see that just by choosing a topic within the area of interest, you've already narrowed the focus for your content and your course.

A muscle building course would be much more appealing to someone who wants to build muscle, than a general fitness course would.

At this level, you’re starting to segment specific interest groups.

That means people who want to build muscle would find your content interesting.

Those who want to lose weight might not.

​This segmenting is good, BUT we’re still not done.

Using descriptive identifiers will help you pinpoint your dream customer even more.

For example, your customer might be stay-at-home Dads, busy executives, or postpartum Moms.

So, from our previous example, you can break down your audience even more, by adding muscle building for stay-at-home Dads.

By adding 'stay-at-home Dads', you can now make educated assumptions about the type of content your customer would find useful.

We could assume that he doesn’t have much equipment at home, so needs workouts that use bodyweight or minimal equipment.

We could also assume that he might need quick workouts, to fit in during children’s nap times, or times when they are occupied with activities.

​This gives another level of specificity, to appeal to a particular audience.​

Next up, you can dig down into the demographics and geographics of the people your course helps.

Demographics refers to things like the gender, age, education, income, and nationality of your dream customer.

They are statistical data points you can use to further segment the group you would like to work with.

Leaning into our current example, you could add demographics to what we already know about the audience we’re looking to help.

​So we have a stay-at-home Dad, aged 30-50, living in London, who wants to gain muscle.

The next level you’ll consider is psychographics.

These refer to the values, lifestyles, beliefs, attitudes, interests, etc. of the individual or group.

That could include a huge combination of factors, but this is where you get to choose more specifically who you want to help and work with.

For example, they could be plant-based eaters, environmentally-friendly, outdoorsy, family-oriented, and much more.

Adding this extra level means you can create a very niche persona of your dream customer.

… So, once you break all this down, you could end up with a course that caters specifically for:

Stay-at-home Dads, aged 30-50, living in London. They're interested in building muscle through quick, bodyweight workouts and a plant-based diet.

So, we’ve gone from a broad area of interest to a super niche customer avatar in just 5 simple steps.
So the formula for your who, becomes:

​Area of Interest > Topic > Demographics > Descriptive Identifiers > Psychographics

Be clear about who your target customer is, from the very beginning.

It can be the difference between content that brings you customers and content that falls on deaf ears.

Take the time to complete this exercise carefully. It will help you identify what type of person you really want to help.

It will point out where you may be restricted by what you know and where you’re based.

It will also identify any restrictions on your customer too.

In our example, our stay-at-home Dad may have been limited on time and equipment.

He also follows a plant-based diet.

All these bits of information help you tailor your content to this individual.

For example, designing workouts that can be done in a short space of time and with minimal equipment...

... or creating high protein recipes made with plant-based ingredients.

You want your dream customer to know that YOU are the ‘GO-TO’ for their specific needs.

​Knowing all these small bits of information will really help you stand out in the crowd!