So we know that every single time you write, you should be writing to just one person at a time.

But who do you write to?

Great question.

And you’ve come to right place.

I’ve been working on this for the last 6 months, trying to nail down my ideal client persona for Ghostletter, and also figuring out who to write to on X and LinkedIn.

It’s not as easy as I thought it would be.

But, it’s also not super hard either.

You basically need 2 pieces of information:

• Demographics

• Psychographics (FRED)

Demographics

This part is pretty easy.

Age, gender, socioeconomic status, what part of the world they are from, etc.

Most social media platforms will give you this information based on your current audience.

If your current audience isn’t your ICP, then you can just prompt ChatGPT:

Act like a data analyst specializing in customer demographics and market segmentation. You have years of experience in analyzing demographic data to help businesses understand and target their ideal customer base effectively.

My objective is to identify the core demographics of my ideal client profile for the service I offer. Here’s what I need from you:

Demographic Data Analysis:

List key demographic factors (e.g., age range, gender, income level, occupation, education level, marital status, etc.) typically associated with clients for my type of service.
For each demographic factor, explain why it might be relevant to my service offering and how it can affect client engagement or conversion.
Market Segment Identification:

Based on the demographic characteristics provided, create a profile for 2-3 main customer segments likely to need my service.
Describe any distinct traits of these segments and suggest specific methods for reaching each one (e.g., online platforms, offline events, or direct marketing channels).
Competitor Benchmarking (if applicable):

Using your knowledge of similar services in the industry, provide examples of demographic targets for comparable services and how they differ or align with the identified segments.
Highlight any unique market niches my service could capitalize on to reach underserved demographics.
Detailed Action Plan:

Propose data sources (public databases, surveys, social media analytics, etc.) and metrics I should use to verify and refine these demographic profiles.
Recommend next steps to conduct targeted research or surveys to better understand the identified client demographics.
Take a deep breath and work on this problem step-by-step.

FRED

In other words, psychographics.

What is the profile of the person you’re targeting with the stuff you write?

Once you have that defined and under your belt, writing the message takes care of itself.

Why?

Because you know what they care about.

And what they want.

For the few clients I’ve gotten recently, I use a framework to define this for each customer targeted psychographic (learned this from Tim Stoddart)…

FRED

It’s an acronym:

• F = fears

• R = results

• E = expectations

• R = results

Essentially, what does your target customer FEEL?

FRED helps you define this.

Are they afraid of missing out on the current short form video trend?

Do they want to 2x their business in the next 3 months by hopping on TikTok?

Is the expectation that they’ll experience growth in their career immediately?

If they use your service, they will expect a 1.5x revenue increase as a result.

Etc.

Once you nail this down, you can talk to whatever your target’s FRED is.

All this work is for 1 reason…

When you start to understand your customer avatar better, you can ask better predictive questions, which will lead to you towards more targeted writing that answers those questions.

Which makes you more valuable.

And that keeps people coming back.

To your super success,

Swanagan