How psychologists and therapists can use an ideal client avatar to co create and market their services

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What is an ideal client avatar?

Today I am going to talk about the concept of an ideal client avatar (or ICA), how it can work for you, including some adaptations I have made to the concept, how to create one and how your imposter syndrome can be a superpower when it comes to getting to know your ICAs.

The Ideal client avatar (ICA) is something you will hear talked about A LOT in the marketing world. The principle is that marketing is way more effective if you create all of your content, your blog posts, podcasts, social media content, advertising, as if you are speaking to an individual. So in order to create marketing that really speaks to people you need to get to know that individual really really well. You need to know what they like, dislike, what they do with their time and crucially what they need and what barriers they face in getting what they need.

This concept makes a huge amount of sense. When we imagine we are speaking to a real person we write more empathically, we are more likely to create products and services that meet their actual needs (rather than making stuff that we like) and we are more likely to put our content and our adverts in the right places for them to actually come across us.

Why don't psychologists and therapists like iCAs?

BUT many mental health professionals, myself included, resist the idea of the ICA for a few good reasons.

1. We often don’t WANT people to need us (so ideal sounds a little wrong)
2. The people we help can be extremely diverse (and we want to respect and welcome that)
3. We want to sound “professional” in our content

How to adapt the ICA method for psychologists and therapists

For all of those reasons the idea of the ICA can seem a little unsuitable for psychologists and therapists and that is certainly where I was at when I first launched my hypnobirthing workshops two years ago and I came across this idea for the first time. 

However, I found that it really is much easier to create content, write the text for your website and create offers that people actually want when you know your ICA and just talk to one person. So I decided to try and find a way of adapting it so I felt I was still serving people ethically and in the way I wanted to.

These are the adaptations to the ICA method that I made. 

1. I have at least 5 ICAs reflecting diversity as much as possible
2. I have different ICAs for each of my products and services. For example the ICAs that I have created for my self pay therapy services are different to my ICAs for my low cost therapy programme. This is essential as they are likely to respond to different messages and I am likely to find them in different places (Psychology Today vs GP referrals)
3. I create content for only one ICA at a time but make sure I spread my time between the ICAs. This works because my ICAs for one product and service will likely have a lot in common so it can be as simple as keeping the same text but having images that reflect all five of them. Sometimes different ICAs will require different messaging all together but not always and once you know them well you can adapt things quite naturally.
4. I use my skills as a psychologist to gain a deeper understanding of my ICA and in my head I think of it as co-creation not market research.

Developing ICAs, if done the right way, will make sure you co-create with the people you are trying to serve so you can make the most positive difference to their lives. 

How to create an iCA

I have been on trainings where they have told me I need to know what colour underpants my ICA wears. Personally I think that level of detail can be helpful if it helps you to visualise the person better so you can talk to them authentically but I ACTUALLY have conversations with my ICAs and I find that as a result, I can speak to them authentically without needing to know the colour of their underwear. So you can try to build a picture of every possible detail about your ICA y but to be honest I wouldn’t bother. I would focus on just a few key areas. I will talk you through those key areas now and then suggest some ways you can find out what you need to know.

1. What do they care about? When things are hard what is it that motivates them to keep going? What do they want to stand for in their life? It is deep stuff but you can see it in behaviour even if you can’t see it in words. 
2. What do they worry about? What are the problems they are facing? What are their hopes and dreams for the future?
3. How do they talk about their values, worries, problems and hopes. What specific language do they use?
4. What do they already do to try and help themselves? What barriers do they face and what are the problems with the current solutions they have access to?
5. What media do they consume? What influences them? Is it podcasts, social media, publications, Netflix shows?
6. Where do they go? Where can you find them? Online, networking, through GPs, where do groups of people like this hang out together?

Details like what type of mobile phone they use and what car they drive may help you to answer some of these questions and may be very relevant of you are say, considering providing free online therapy and you need to know whether your ICA is comfortable using zoom on a phone, in that case what type of phone they use would come under “what do they already do” and the barriers they may face to accessing existing solutions. So don’t get tied up in spending hours on creating levels of detail that are just fantasy. You probably don’t have time!

How to meet your iCA

Existing clients

Friends/family

Reach out on LinkedIn (free chat, be honest about why)

Zoom calls 

Social media

Testing (as part of your simple launch) creating small things and seeing how people respond, getting into conversations.

Surveys

Imposter syndrome: Your superpower for connecting with your iCA

We are a professional group who experience HIGH levels of imposter syndrome. By that I mean we often feel uncomfortable with being seen as experts, we often think we don’t know “enough” to be worth anything to anyone and we can really struggle with taking centre stage because we feel like we will be found out.

In my mind imposter syndrome often includes high levels of shame. Anyone who works with CFT knows that shame is the emotion that makes us want to hide ourselves from view. It makes us want to be small. It makes us terrified of criticism and the judgement of others. It is really painful and it mostly crops up when we are “daring greatly”. When we are locked in shame it is very hard to be vulnerable enough to truly engage with others, including our ICAs/the people we are trying to help.

If we can move past our shame and open our minds to connecting with others I think this sense that “we don’t know it all” gives us a huge advantage over other professional groups when we need to do some marketing. If we tune into our imposter syndrome and notice our thoughts about it mindfully (I talk about how to do that in the mindset course in the DMTT membership) we can identify when ether really is knowledge we DON’T have and we need to go and get it from the people that do.

The most common mistake in marketing is people assuming that they know their ICA and what they want without actually listening to them. Our raging imposter syndrome might make it uncomfortable for us to stick our necks on the line and ask for these conversations with people but it means that when we do we have the humility to actually listen.

They key is to notice imposter syndrome, notice how gross it makes you feel and commit to take positive action that drives your mission forward. In the second and third classes of the mindset course in the membership I give you some practical strategies on how to do that so do check that out if you are already part of the membership. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself whenever you feel imposter syndrome:

Who can I connect with who knows one of my ICAs for this project well?

Do I know this ICA already? Can I set up a meeting with them?

Do I feel stuck because of a barrier that also impacts on my ICA? Can I set up a conversation with them to co-create a way around it?

Where can I go (online or in person) to observe and listen to my ICA? Write down five key words they are using to describe their lives/the problem you are trying to solve.

We need to move past shame and into curiosity in order to get to know our ICA.

I hope this episode has been helpful as an introduction to the concept of the ICA and how we can uniquely use it as mental health professionals not only in our marketing but to improve our work.

It is a topic that I believe includes mindset, marketing, business and creativity which are the key areas we cover in the Do More Than Therapy membership so if you would like more support with getting your business or project off the ground do come and check out the membership for expert masterclass, our core mindset course, downloadable resources and an amazingly supportive community of likeminded people. The doors are closed at the moment but if you go to the link in the show notes you can find out more and sign up to be the first to know when I open the doors in August for just one day. 

That’s all for now, as ever I love your feedback so please do rate, review and subscribe and feel free to send me a DM on instagram @rosiegilderthorp with your comments on the show.