What is a ‘Customer Avatar’ and why is it important?

 

You could have the greatest product on the earth. But if you are trying to sell it to the wrong person then you are not able to hit your sales number.

So,

Do you really know who is your “TARGET CUSTOMER”?

Customer Avatar (AKA buyer persona) is the bridge to that answer. That’s why an understanding of customer avatar is so important.

In the world of marketing, this term, customer avatar or buyers persona is tossed around countless times, especially in terms of digital marketing. But up until now, you may have been confused about what it actually is. 

You’re not alone. In fact, a lot of business owners and marketers struggle with this piece of the marketing puzzle.  

Business owners or markets are so much focused on what they are selling that they forget about who they are selling to.

This is the kiss of death for a marketing campaign and an even entire business.

So, let’s clear up a few things and prevent your marketing campaigns from falling on deaf ears.

Now let’s start with the definition of a customer avatar.

 

What is a Customer Avatar?

Customer Avatar is a detailed description of your target customer which includes information like, who they are, what challenges they are facing, their interests, demographics, goals and aspiration, income, age-range and how they make a decision.

In simple words, a Customer Avatar is a sample person that represents your target customer. A person or an ideal customer will buy your product or service.

It can be a fictional person or a real person. if it is a real person it will help a lot in understanding your customer.

A customer avatar is sometimes referred to as a buyers persona, marketing persona and customer profile. whichever name you use the purpose is the same, to help businesses empathize with their customers so that they can do a better job of acquiring and serving them.

 

Why is a customer avatar important?

Our friends and family almost always be able to offer a more persuasive endorsement than any other marketer. We are easily convinced to buy that extra pair of sneaker or whatever it is.

So why do feel that this happens?

We TRUST them right??

We feel that trust because it has a personalised touch in that. The words and phrases they choose will naturally be tailored to what they know of our own preferences. We feel that connection because they know us deeply.

Just like that when choosing a product or service, people naturally gravitate towards businesses they know they trust.

And the best way to build trust is to show genuine understanding and concern for the other person, in this case, your customer.

Understand your customer so deep just like you would know your close friend. Understand their dreams, challenges, fear, etc

In general your website, your logo, your brand message is the same for all but when you write emails, sales pages or normal communication mails, it should have a personalised touch, so that customers feel that you are talking to them directly.

Even if you are talking to a lot of people at the same time, each person should feel like that you are talking to them directly. and that feeling will only come when you know them very well, just like your close friend.

In many cases, you are not addressing people in front of them instead they are sitting at homes or office reading your communication message. 

so they should feel that you are talking to them directly and they will feel this connection only when you have a deep understanding of your customer. Their pain points, challenges, dreams, fear, etc. 

Gaining trust as a business requires a subtle, but important, shift, in the way in which you present yourself.

First, show your potential customers that you get them by addressing their pain points or needs, only then they will be open to exploring what you have to offer.

And that is the reason it is very important to have a clear understanding of your customer or better to say your ideal customer avatar.

Creating customer avatar and using them to guide your business, can help you being customer centred.

 

Customer Avatar sets the foundation of Marketing Campaign

Before you can sell anything effectively, you first need to understand:

1. Who is your target customer?
2. What do they want?

Understanding your target customer starts with creating a customer avatar or a sample person that will buy from you.

Customer avatar helps you give gain customer insights and cross-departmental alignment. This will ensure that marketing, sales, and product development all have the same view of your ideal customer.

You can use this information to align your work in the right direction. 

Let’s take an example of a digital marketing strategy and the role of customer avatar in it:

Paid advertisements: having an understanding of customer avatar helps you understanding where your target audience hangs out so that it can help you target them effectively. 

Content marketing: helps in writing a blog post, sales pages, sales emails, videos, podcast, lead magnets, etc to attract more customers.

Product development: having a clear understanding of customer avatar will help you create a product that fits customer needs and has a market fit.

Copywriting: having a clear understanding of customer avatar will help in writing a very persuasive copy that can compel them to buy.

Sales: having a clear understanding of customer avatar will help in sales as you already have an idea about the pain points of the customer. So you show a lot of empathy and close deals.

Email marketing: knowing your customer avatar helps you get more email open rates and better conversion rates.

Having a deep understanding of your customer avatar or buyers persona improves every form of communication. Blogs, ad copies, sales pages, sales calls, webinars etc everything improves

Marketing is about communication and communication is between people. They might be on different platform or channels, online or offline, but still, at the end of the day, it is still people.

And digital marketing is more about marketing than being digital. It’s not only about digital tools in your kitty. Many people stress a lot about SEO, google ads, Facebook ads, social media and they forget about people.

So if it’s all about the people and how to communicate with them.

Any part of the marketing process that touches the customer ( which is pretty much EVERYTHING) will improve when you get clear on your customer avatar.

And this is how understanding customer avatar sets the foundation of any marketing campaign.

So are you ready to take advantage of customer avatar and start driving more sales through your marketing campaigns?

Let’s jump into the creation of the hero of this article “ CUSTOMER AVATAR”

 

How to create a customer avatar for your business?

 The creation of a customer avatar incorporates both internal and external research and not guesswork. It requires a lot of time and efforts. But everything is worth doing.

Your business can have more than one segment of target customers. But you don’t have to target all at once. 

It’s okay to start small and only focus on only one segment. It is not a one time work that you do rather it is a continuous process of refining. Your customer avatar evolves over time.

Choose one target customer and build a customer avatar based on what you already know. start with assumptions and create a plan to enhance it with more research.

Now let’s break down the whole process so that it is less overwhelming for you.

Step 1: Do your research

First thing first, you need to conduct market research to get a clear understanding of your ideal customer.

You can start with your existing customer base who have already purchased your product or service. Talk with them, send them survey forms like Typeform or google forms asking detailed questions for further insights, running polls within your community, conducting interviews. 

But what if you are starting out or want to tap into an untapped market and drive customers from there?

Don’t worry I’ll answer that too

Use Q&A sites like quora where customers are asking questions about their problems, reviewing social media conversations, niche-specific groups

Everything is to put your guesswork aside and get inside the minds of your ideal customers, it’s not about you, it’s about them.

Step 2: Fill out a customer avatar worksheet.

Start by giving your ideal customer avatar a name, which adds another layer to this character and gives a sense of a real person or your customer. You can also upload a stock photo to take it a step further.

On the basis of research you have done start writing answers to the questions:

Demographics 

• How old are they?
• What’s their gender?
• What’s their marital status?
• How many children do they have? How old are their children?
• Where are they located?
• What’s their occupation?
• What’s their job title?
• What is their incomer?
• What is the level of education?
• What’s a quote they would say? What’s a statement that reflects the way they speak?

This can help you massively in your Facebook ads targeting.

Challenges and Pain Points

• What challenges do they need to overcome?
• What pain points are they experiencing? 
• What problem(s) are they trying to solve right now?

Knowing your customer’s pain points, challenges, and fear helps you grip their nerves. you can persuade them to take a specific action you want.

Secondly, this information is also very crucial as it gives an idea of a new product or service that can help your customers.

Goals and Values

• What are their goals? What are they trying to accomplish?
• What are their values? 

If you have a clear understanding of the current situation and desired situation of your customer then you can create an offer that helps them. Your product or service becomes the bridge to their goals or derided situation.

If you can help them get what they want they will help you get what they want.

Sources of Information

It determines the “where “ of your customer’s avatars.

• Where do they hang out ( online and offline)? 
• What books do they read?
• What magazines do they read?
• Which websites do they visit to seek information?
• What blogs do they read?
• Which influencers and gurus do they trust?
• What conferences do they attend?

This information can help you get an idea about where to advertise them online when running Facebook ads.

Objections & Role in the Purchasing Process

• Why might they object to purchasing your offering?
• What’s their role in the purchasing process? Are they the direct buyer, or do they need approval from someone else?

Having a clear understanding of their objections will help you a lot in your sales calls and sales pages. You can try to answer their objections in your marketing campaigns for better conversion. 

Step 3: Repeat the Process as Needed. 

Your customer avatar is not static but dynamic. It evolves with time as learning more about your customer. So be patient with the process and keep refining it for better targeting and keep integrating new insights along the way.

Keep learning about your customers and get deep insights about them and start creating multiple avengers for a separate target audience.

The deeper you go the better it is. That’s the beauty of it.

Conclusion:

Your customer avatar is the key to experiencing marketing and sales success. It is the foundation of higher ROI and better-targeted marketing. It’s what allows you to truly understand your ideal customer so you can attract more people who fit this profile. That’s why it should be viewed as an essential part of all marketing strategies.

Knowing…

• Who your ideal customer is
• What they want
• Where they hang out?
• How your offering can become a solution for their pain point

…makes all the difference in the world when it comes to focusing your marketing efforts—and working toward growing your business.

Share your thoughts about this article in the comments and feel free to share it with your marketing friends.

cheers,

Abhijeet SIngh