how to create your own customer avatar

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Easily Conquer Creating Your Customer Avatar Today

Do You Actually Know Your Clients?

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One of the main challenges that businesses face is attracting their ideal client. You can have the best sales funnel and the product or service offerings but if you are not attracting the right people then you have a huge problem. Your problem only gets bigger when developing and implementing your marketing strategy because you end up doing more and producing less results…all because you didn’t have a specific image in mind of who you needed to attract.

This specific image of your ideal client is called your customer avatar. It’s a detailed persona made up of the best aspects of your best clients put together into a single person. This person can have a name, age, hobbies, interests, a specific job, certain relationship status and any other details that are relevant to who you want to attract.

One vitally important aspect of creating your avatar is that they must have a pain point that is associated with the service that you provide. Without this pain point, you will have a significantly harder time connecting with them and convincing them that you have the solution to their needs.

You’ve probably heard me say that when you are creating your marketing materials, social media posts, positioning statements, or developing your offerings that you should picture a specific person in your mind and tailor your message to that one person.

Your job is to step out of your shoes and into the shoes of your avatar. Become that avatar as you create your marketing materials and product offerings. This helps your message come across as sincere. Focus your message to speak to someone specific to emotionally connect with them instead of a generic audience of everyone where no one listens.

The key to developing your avatar is not just reading this article one time and answering the questions as quickly as you can, but actually commit to it. Take the time to write your answers

“It’s a detailed persona made up

of the best aspects of your best clients put together into a single person. ”


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down. Invite your team to help you with this process. Maybe even have a character drawn to represent your avatar and give him/or her a name. Use this name internally just as you would an employee. Make your avatar a real person. I would also encourage you to print the details of your avatar out and hang it around the office so your team can be regularly reminded of who they are targeting.

Here are a few questions to help get you started:• Are they married?• What are their physical attributes? Hair, eye, or skin color.• What degree do they have?• Do they have specific experiences?• What clubs, associations, or organizations do they belong to?• Do they have kids?• What news sources do they read?• What shows or movies do they watch?• What podcasts do they listen to?• What do they do in their free time?• What are their goals?• What values are important to them?• Who do they admire?• What emotions are they feeling? Why are they feeling them?

Ultimately it is an individual person or a team of people that will

make the decision to hire you. The more successful

you are at emotionally connecting with them, the more likely you are

to land that new client.


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• Who are they responsible for?• What keeps them up at night?• What are key phrases or quotes that they use?

Since most of my audience is B2B, you’re probably thinking “I don’t care about the answer to those questions because my market is B2B”. To a point, you are right and I also disagree with you. You see, ultimately it is an individual person or a team of people that will make the decision to hire you and the more successful you are at emotionally connecting with them, the more likely you are to land that new client.

How is an avatar different than my target market?

That is a fabulous question! Think of it this way, your target market is external focused, it helps you identify a segment of the overall market that is likely in need or interested in the products or services that you offer. The avatar helps you clarify who in that market would make a good client for you. It allows you to go deep and get to the bottom of your client’s irrational fears and desires. It adds that personal touch so you don’t come across as generic. Simply stated, target markets typically focus on the demographics, while avatars focus on the psychology of your clientele.

We’ve all been in that situation where we work with a client that needs the product or service we offer, but they still aren’t a good fit—whether it be personality conflicts, industry complications, or timing, it honestly doesn’t matter. Not everyone in your target market is a good fit for you. This is all a part of the funneling process that you create in your marketing. The target market that you identify is who you go after but all of your marketing and product offers are tailored to your avatar. Your avatar directs your targeting and makes your next client real. It will help you personalize your message and emotionally connect with your market to help you build your brand.

“Not everyone within your target market is a good fit for you.”


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Why can’t I just use statistics?

Statistics are valuable to you when you are defining your target market. They will help you understand the size of the overall market, who your competitors are, and if there are substitute or complementary products or services available to the market. Statistics are best for broad clarifications.

Where statistics fall short is in the personalization that the avatar provides. Remember, even if you actually offer a product or service that “everyone” needs, consumers align themselves with brands that reflect how they think about themselves. So when you target “everyone”, you’ll actually attract no-one.

Can I have multiple avatars?

Yes!

Most companies will end up having multiple avatars. The key is to not develop too many. You’ll want to start off by creating an avatar for each product or service that you offer. Or, some companies prefer to start with market segments that they work in. This will allow you to really get to know each ideal client and their pain points. Once you have created these avatars, then look to see if there is any overlap, or if you have saturated any of the target markets. If you have, that is great! If not, you can look into going deeper into a specific market instead of casting a wider net.

Remember, the more targeted and well-defined your audience, the more success you’ll have.

The reality check.

The creative process is messy. It’s supposed to be! After all it is when we step outside of our day-today comfort zone that we are the most creative and innovative.

“The more targeted and well-defined your

audience, the more success you’ll have.”


TM

After you take the time to fully develop your avatars, and you’ve taken a break…step away for one to three days, then go back to what you’ve created and do the reality check. You are then verifying that what you came up with is actually a good profile of your ideal client, that it’s realistic and consistent.

Based on what you’ve learned, is the pricing of your products and services accurate? Should you raise your prices or maybe you should decrease the price to be more competitive? Are there new products or services that you could be offering?

How about your communication with your avatar(s)? Do you communicate with them? If so, how much? Are you using the right tone and the right message?

The reality check is about making your avatar real to your business and to the market. It helps you focus your intentions and efforts in a way that is meaningful to your clients and to attracting more of the type of client you want in your business. It also helps you assess the products and services that you offer to identify new opportunities.

On the next page is a template that you can use to create your avatar. Fill it out and introduce me to your customer avatar!

“The purpose of the reality check is to make your avatar

real to your business and apply it to the market. ”

Mixing brand development, strategy, and implementation, Mel DePaoli works with her clients to build brands worthy of going viral. She is a powerful, sought-after speaker and international author of three books on culture-driven brands. For more on Mel DePaoli, please visit www.omicle.com or join her Facebook Group, Brilliant Branding.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/brilliantbranding

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OFFERING: MARKET SEGMENT:

DATE UPDATED:

AVATAR NAME:

Age:

PERSONAL DEMOGRAPHICS:

Gender:

Relationship Status:

Children:

Education:

Occupation:

Job Title:

Location:

Other:

Number of Employees:

COMPANY DEMOGRAPHICS:

Industry:

Market(s) They Target:

Channel(s) They Sell Through:

Department Budget:

Budget for Offering:

Location:

Other:

Revenue:

Books / Magazines:RESOURCES & HOBBIES:

Websites / Blogs:

Conferences:

Associations / Nonprofits:

Other:

Values:Goals:

Pain Points:Challenges: Phrases They

Say:

Objections

& Role in the

Purchasing

Process:

how to create your own customer avatar

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