A customer profile or avatar is a profile that describes everything you could ever want to know about your dream client or customer.
Imagine how useful that could be!
No more guessing about who you’re trying to connect with. No more guessing what they want from you. You can tap into an endless source of information that makes sure you’re providing services and products that are of value to them, and make marketing them super simple.
A really useful customer avatar is
- Specific to your business
- Contains demographic information (who and where they are)
- Contains psychographic information (what influences them)
- Profiles their communication and language
- Built into a buyer persona
A really useful customer avatar is specific to your business
The benefit of having a customer avatar is that it gives you information that is specific to your tribe and how they interact with your business. There’s no use using an avatar that’s been created for someone else. You need to create your own (or pay someone to do it for you!).
The process of super-stalking your dream client isn’t as hard as you think. Here are some of the places I go to stalk for my clients. Having this list makes it easy to compile the rest of the information I need to create a really useful customer avatar.
- Facebook audience insights
- Google Analytics insights
- Current client lists
- Testimonials and reviews left on my clients sites
- Testimonials and reviews left on competitors sites
- Testimonials, review and comments left on Amazon
- Social media group/page comments
A really useful customer avatar contains demographic information
Demographics are the physical details of my dream client
- Gender
- Age range
- Location
- Income range
- Employment
- Career
- Education level
- Car ownership/home ownership/boat ownership (if relevant to my business)
- Monthly payments on health/wellness
- Where they hang out online
- Which social media they are active on (and for what reason)
I need to know the demographic details of my dream client because it helps me create the basic outline of who they are. Am I connecting with women or men? Are they aged 25 or 75? Are they employed?
If I know these details I can tailor my products, services and marketing towards what influences people with this profile.
A really useful customer avatar contains psychographic information
Whereas demographics are the physical details, psychographic information describes the emotions, feelings, motivations and drivers of your dream client.
Diving deep into what drives your customers can give you an incredible range of information that can help you develop your services and products, and market them effectively.
- What their problems are
- How they feel about these problems
- Why them have these problems
- What their dreams, aspirations and goals are
- How achieving their goals would make them feel
- What their dream life looks like
- What drives them to make change
- Are they moving towards a goal or away from a problem
- Who influences them (and why)
- Who makes the final (payment-related) decision
- Where are they in their customer journey with you
- What questions they need answered before they engage with you
A really useful customer avatar profiles their communication and language
Now you know WHO you’re engaging with (demographic details), WHY they need your help (psychographic details) the next step is to communicate it in a way that makes it easy for them to see how you can help them.
Our language doesn’t just communicate the words we speak or write. Using specific language enables us to tap into a massive amount of non-verbal or implied communication.
Imagine this. I live in New Zealand. We have a word we use to mean brilliant or really good. The word is ‘choice’. “It’s really choice living in New Zealand”. “I went to the beach today and surfed all day. It was really choice.”
By using this word I’m not just communicating that something was really good, but I’m also telling them I’m from New Zealand. If they’re also a Kiwi (New Zealander) they may feel more relaxed because I’ve used a word that they relate to. They will automatically make many sub-conscious assumptions about me, just because I used that one word.
Now, think of that situation in your business. If there’s a word or phrase that your clients use that when they hear it they know you’re one of them. You get them. You understand.
Using our customers actual language when we communicate with them means they’re more likely to listen (Hey, Katrina! It’s like you’re reading my mind!)
- Make a list of common words or phrases you see your clients using
- How do they describe their problems, dreams, needs and goals
- Do they talk about moving towards a goal or dream, or away from problems?
- Read testimonials and reviews to get their exact language
A really useful customer avatar is able to be built into a buyer persona
Once you have all this information, you can built it into a buyer persona. Give your dream client a name. Write their story. Make them real.
You may find that you end up with several personas. In my experience try and keep to no more than 3-4 buyer personas. And ALWAYS find the common problem, dream or experience that unites them.
Along with their story, include all this really useful information you’ve collected. I keep mine in a file, and update it after major events (like COVID-19), or when I update my services and products.
What to do you with your customer avatar to make it really useful?
- Use it as a filter to double check any products or services you want to update or introduce
- Use it to create an endless supply of content topics – blogs, social media content and podcasts or videos
- Use this information to write your website, emails and sales pages
Get started building a clear brand message that shouts out loud to your dream clients. Download my free brand message toolkit.
Take action on this blog and be guided through the process to create your own personal customer avatar in the Catch Your Dream Client online course that I wrote with The Helpful Academy.
All my website, landing page and email sequences come with a FREE brand message report. Check out my services here.
Enjoyed this blog?
Read about how to find your business niche which is the first step in creating your customer avatar and buyer personas.