You have likely heard the phrase,
“If you are trying to speak to everyone, you are speaking to no one.”
That phrase is usually used in connection with your buyer persona, ideal client, or customer avatar.
These are a few of the terms to describe the fictional representation of your dream customer. It is critically important to the success of your marketing and sales that you have a deep understanding of your Ideal Customer Avatar. But what exactly is this avatar and how can you create one for your brand?
Today I am going to walk you through how you can create one for yourself. Before we get started, make sure to click the link below this video to download my free Ideal Customer Avatar worksheet. You will find this included in my Instagram Bundle.
Now, why do you need to establish your customer avatar? Well, knowing who you are talking to is going to make it a lot easier to establish marketing campaigns that speak to that specific person. It will also help you.
- Determine which social platforms you should be on.
- Spend less money on Paid Ads that are more targeted to that specific person
- Write copy that helps solve their pains and problems
- Deliver better products and services.
When creating this avatar lots of people tend to create a very broad customer avatar. Something like this:
“A female between the ages of 18-30 or a middle-aged man between the ages of 40-70.”
Now those are VERY broad age gaps. If you are a personal trainer, for example, the difference between an 18-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman is very different. You could not speak the same language or offer the same specialized package to both women. They would each have different concerns, goals, price points, etc…
So, by nailing down exactly who your IDEAL customer avatar is you are able to create messaging, offers, etc that speak directly to that person.
Now, a lot of people say well if I create one avatar then I won’t sell as many products or services, and I know that may seem like the case, but just because you are speaking to one person does not mean that you won’t attract many other people that aren’t your ideal client.
This is just a great exercise to help you narrow down your sales and marketing campaigns.
Sometimes in business, you will have multiple avatars, and that’s ok as well. As long as each avatar is thoroughly narrowed down and given different areas of your business.
For example, let’s go back to our personal trainer example.
You may have 2 completely different ideal customers. Say you specialize in personal training for women. You may have one customer avatar that is 22 years old and is looking to improve her flexibility and tone her body.
Then you may have another avatar that is a 40-year-old woman who is looking to lose weight and increase her energy.
So now that we have covered what an Ideal Customer Avatar is and why you need one, let’s dive into creating one for yourself.
Well, I am going to divide this section into 2 parts. The first is for already established businesses with a client base to look through and the second is for businesses just starting out.
Established Businesses
If you already have an established business with the previous clientel there are a few more steps you are going to want to take to make sure you have all the information necessary to create the best customer avatar for your business. Let’s go through this together.
Look at your Database
Who have you worked with most in the past? Depending on the size of your clientel this may be a big job, but most CRM’s or Invoicing software will give you reports on your previous clients to help you out in this process.
You are going to want to look at their age, location, gender, income level, marital status, family situation, past purchases, etc… This will help you to determine if there is one specific type of person that you seem to attract more.
Look to Social Media
Again, look at your analytics. All social platforms will give you analytics based on gender, age, location, engagement etc… who are you attracting most here?
Use surveys to capture feedback from your existing customers.
If you have email marketing in place you can send out a survey to your database asking them some questions based on your products and services. This is a great way to get a more in doeth look at what exactly they are looking for from you.
Adding a Custom Audience Pixel to your website
This is an effective way to track and learn more about people who have visited your website. This custom audience pixel is hooked through Facebook so you will need to have a business account to access this functionality.
Check your Google Analytics
This is a free application provided by Google, so if you dont already have this hooked up on your website I recommend doing that now so you can find out more information about the people that are visiting your website.
With this information, all collected its time to pick out the similarities and answer some questions to define your avatar or avatars. To help get you started here are some great questions to ask yourself:
- What demographic traits do they have (age, sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation, etc…) These are usually easier to decide on and come from the data you collected.
- What phycological traits do they have. This one takes a bit more thought and a deeper understanding of who you truly want to serve( What are their values?, What are their hobbies? What kind of lifestyle do they live? What books, music, tv would they be interested in? What fears do they have? What pains are they currently experiencing?)
- Name your Avatar and give them a face. This is a big one that many people pass by. Giving them a name and face makes them a real person, someone that you truly want to help. So go on google images and find an image that fits your description and give them a name. You can add the image and name to your worksheet after downloading it from the link below.
Now that you have your Ideal Customer Avatar worksheet all filled out. You can take a step further if you like and write them a story. Imagine you are your customer avatar and write down the journey they have taken to find your product or service.
What position were they in before they decided they needed your product or service?
How were they feeling? How did they discover you?
What were they thinking before they purchased from you? What were they hoping to solve?
How did they feel once they purchased from you?
By creating this story you will be able to look back at that frame of mind when creating any social media posts, offer, ads, etc…
New Businesses
Now, what about those of you who are just starting your business? Well, you aren’t going to have data to look through, but you can still answer all the same questions based on what you think your ideal client should be.
When you started your business who did you dream of working with. You probably have someone in mind, so base your Ideal Customer Avatar off that person.
This avatar is going to change, so don’t stress too much about getting it perfect. As you and your business evolve you will be changing who you are targeting, the offers, services, and products that you have.
By having an Ideal Customer avatar in place you will be more effective in your messaging and cut through the noise in today’s crazy online world. So let’s recap what you need to do.
- Do some market research. If you are an established business look through your analytics. If you are just starting out think about the dream customer that you started this business for.
- Give your Ideal Avatar a name and a face.
- Fill out your Ideal Client worksheet and answer all the needed questions. If you have more than one avatar, make sure you tackle one at a time.
There you have it. How to create your Ideal Customer Avatar. Make sure to click the link below to download my Free Ideal Client Avatar worksheet. This will be included in my Instagram Bundle to help you grow your profile. Once you have completed the worksheet make sure you print it out and pin it somewhere that you can see on a daily basis. This will help you keep your avatar fresh in your mind.
Now I would love to know what your favorite take away from this video was, so please comment with it below.
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