How psychologists and therapists can use an ideal client avatar to co create and market their servicesLinksIf you would like more support with getting your business or project off the ground do come and check out the Do More Than Therapy membership for expert masterclass, our core mindset course, downloadable resources and an amazingly supportive community of likeminded people. https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/home (https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/home)
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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.
We often don’t WANT people to need us (so ideal sounds a little wrong)
The people we help can be extremely diverse (and we want to respect and welcome that)
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. 
I have at least 5 ICAs reflecting diversity as much as possible
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)
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.
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...