Ever found yourself scratching your head, wondering, “Who exactly is my ideal client, and why does it even matter?”
You’re not alone.
Understanding your audience is crucial, especially when you have to dive deep into writing compelling sales copy for your website, or crafting those catchy social media posts and blog articles,
So, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into the art of creating your very own customer avatar.
What is a Customer Avatar?
A customer avatar, also known as your Ideal customer, Business Prospect, or Target Customer is basically a snapshot of who the ideal customer for your business is.
It’s a fictional persona that you create that is so detailed that it has a name, a backstory, employment history, hobbies, likes and dislikes.
The reason behind being so detailed is so that when you know your ideal customer’s morning routine, their favorite coffee blend, or even their go-to workout playlist, you’re able to engage in a conversation with them that they’re interested in being part of.
Why Would I Want To Know My Ideal Customer?
Once you have a customer avatar, you know exactly what you’re able to say (or not say) to turn or turn off your customer.
Think about it this way – If I asked you if you knew how to get your brother (or another family member) riled up and angry, do you think you would be able to?
Probably. At least I know I could for several of mine.
The reason you know how to get him angry is because you know what buttons to push.
It’s the same with a Customer Avatar.
You know so much detail about your customer that you know exactly what to say to them in an email, in a blog post, or even on a sales page, that makes them start to think “huh, this guy/gal is talking exactly about me and the situation I’m in!”
Here’s Just A Few Details That You’d Want To Learn About…
I’ll be honest, what I’ve compiled below is pretty comprehensive – even I don’t find everything on the lists below.
Having said that, they give you a good grasp of just how far you can go to knowing who your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) is. (feel free to skip down further to read about how to actually gather this info).
Your Ideal Customer’s Demographics
Name: What is the typical name of your ICA?
Age: How old are they?
Household Income: What is their average household income?
Education Level: What is their highest educational attainment? (High school, college, post-college)
Employment: Do they work, and if so, in what capacity? (Full-time, part-time, self-employed)
Location: Where are they based?
Demographic Details: What’s their gender, race, body type, etc.?
Family Life: Describe their family structure – are they married, do they have children, what’s the household size?
Your Ideal Customer’s Personality
Character Traits: Are they snarky, sarcastic, extroverted, introverted?
Happiness Triggers: What things make them happy?
Social Media Behavior: Who do they follow and interact with on social media?
Online Presence: What forums or groups are they part of?
Favorite Websites: Which websites do they frequently visit or recommend?
Media Consumption: What TV shows, music, or podcasts do they follow?
Information Sources: Where do they typically get their information?
Descriptive Adjectives: General adjectives to describe your avatar.
Your Ideal Customer’s Lifestyle
Weekday Routine: What does a typical weekday look like for them?
Weekend Activities: What do they enjoy doing on weekends?
Relaxation Habits: How do they relax and unwind?
Personal Time: What do they do in their free moments?
Hobbies: What are their favorite spare time activities?
Surroundings: What objects are commonly found around them in various settings (desks, rooms, cars, purses)?
Fashion Choices: What do they typically wear at work and at home?
Spending Habits: What products or services do they invest in and discuss?
Shopping Preferences: Describe their ideal shopping experience, online or offline.
Snack Choices: What guilty pleasure snacks might they choose?
Your Ideal Customer’s Goals and Wants
Life Reflections: What aspects of their life do they often think about?
Simplification Desires: What would make their life easier?
Personal Goals: What are some goals they have for themselves?
Definition of Success: What constitutes a win for them?
Your Ideal Customer’s Struggles and Needs
Expressed Needs: What needs have they articulated?
Frustrations: What currently frustrates them?
Challenges: What do they struggle with?
Complaints: What are they often tired of or complain about?
Questions: What do they frequently ask about?
Nighttime Worries: What keeps them up at night?
Unresolved Questions: What are they trying to figure out?
Primary Pain Point: What is their #1 issue?
Unmastered Tasks: What haven’t they figured out how to do yet?
Goal Obstacles: What prevents them from reaching their goals?
Mistakes: What are they doing “wrong”?
Unmet Needs: Why haven’t they found what they need yet?
Alternative Solutions: If your product/service didn’t exist, where would they turn?
Previous Attempts: What solutions or products have they tried before?
Trend Engagement: What trends are they participating in?
Ideal Customer’s Experience With You
Social Media Platforms: Which platforms are they active on?
Brand Visuals: What visual aspects of your brand would catch their eye?
Pre-Engagement Feelings: How do they feel before interacting with your business?
Post-Engagement Feelings: How do you want them to feel after doing business with you?
Testimonials: What positive one-liners might they say after a good experience with your brand?
So, How do you create a customer avatar?
Creating a customer avatar takes some thought, a bit of research and possibly a few surveys. You’re going to want to gather as much information as you can about those who have and haven’t purchased something from you before, as a lot of the questions above suggest.
Send Out A Survey To Your Current Audience
The easiest way to find out who your target audience is and what they are like is, well, ask you’re current audience!
You can send out a survey with a few specific questions (ones that are relevant to your niche and audience) to get a good understanding of their pain points, challenges, and struggles.
You can even go so far as to send multiple surveys out to different segments of your audience, like asking those who purchased one of your services already, why they purchased, and how specifically it helped them.
Use Forums And Groups To Understand Your Audience
Since not everyone has an email list, or customers who have purchased their products, something else you can do is look for relevant Facebook groups or community forums in your same niche.
For example, if you were in the decluttering niche, all you would need to do is join some free Facebook groups around decluttering, and then use what people say on it to help map out your Customer Avatar.
Just use a search function on the Facebook group, and look up keywords (i.e. struggle, motivation, HELP! etc) and specific topics within the niche (i.e. sentimental, downsizing, kitchen) to get as much user’s language and wording as you can.
You would do the same thing for forums, Reddit, Quora, and similar sites. For some of those sites, if they don’t have a good search feature, then just use Google (your search query would be something like “Site:Reddit.com declutter challenges”) to get a better result.
Pull From Reviews Or Testimonials
Sometimes, you may not be able to find forums or FB groups that are in the niches you’re in. Or, maybe you’re creating a new product, and want to know what the audience wants (or doesn’t want).
So, what else can you do to build out your customer avatar?
Best thing I’ve seen (and done a few times) is actually just look at customer reviews or testimonials of other products/other niches that I’m in to get a better idea of what common struggles are.
For example, let’s say that you’re still in the declutter niche, and you want to create a printable checklist for your audience. One things you can do is go onto Etsy (or other sites that sell these printable planners), and see what real, actually customers have said about the different products.
Not only will this help you make sure to address the common struggles that people have with the specific product/program that you have, but you may also be able to find a few things that you should add into your product (i.e. just look at the negative reviews, and see what they say!).
You can also do this with Amazon reviews for any number of other products people may be selling, as there are a TON of unfiltered reviews there that can help you see all sides of your audience.
Start Working On Your Customer Avatar Today!
I can’t stress the importance of working on this as quickly as you can – start today, if possible.
When I first started out, I didn’t do any of this, and really had no clue what I was doing online, didn’t have a good grasp of what my ‘target’ audience wanted (or more specifically needed), and sort of just did things, well, as good as I could on my own.
However, when I started incorporating customer avatars into what I did online, I found that it helped dramatically. I’m not going to say that there was an overnight success moment, since even to this day, I’m still learning.
But what I will say is that once you start delving into actually knowing what your customer wants – what they’re interests are, and what they need, you sort of start to get a better ‘northern’ star.
You know what to promote, how to promote it, and when to promote it. What to say, how to say it, and when to say it.
Things become so much more clearer.
So, take an hour out of your busy schedule today or tomorrow, and start working on building out your customer avatar. Send out a survey, do some searches on forums, or read a couple of reviews.
Let me know what you learned in the comments section below!