FIND YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER: HOW TO CREATE A KICK-ARSE CUSTOMER PROFILE
20 essential questions to develop your customer avatar
Before you even think about marketing your business, it’s crucial you know who you’re marketing to. To find your ideal customer, you need to create a customer profile that fills in all the blanks.
I understand, you’re excited and motivated. You have something brilliant to sell and you need to let people know. You need to get client bookings or how else will you pay the bills?
Marketing is an essential part of any business. Without marketing, it’s hard to thrive in any competitive industry.
But how can you reach your ideal customer if you don’t know who they are?
Vague guesses won’t cut it. Without a crystal-clear picture of your target customer, you’ll waste time and money and your marketing efforts will just be a shot in the dark.
In this article, I’ll explain:
What a customer avatar is
Why you need a customer avatar
How to create one that works
What is a customer avatar?
A customer avatar is a detailed profile of your ideal customer. Your ideal customer is the epitome of who you want to sell your product or service to.
Not only do they buy from you. They’re a repeat customer. They value your expertise and they recommend you to others. They’re a real-life golden, glittery unicorn.
Do you have many of these clients right now?
Maybe not.
Maybe you’re lucky enough to have one or two. If you do, then you know how wonderful they are and how great it would be to have a whole meadow-full of these glimmering beasts.
Want to know a secret?
They won’t just come to you. You need to find them, talk to them in their unique unicorn-language, and make them want to follow you home.
To attract your ideal customer, you need to target your marketing directly to them.
To attract your ideal customer (the one who’s going to buy again and again, and love you for it, and tell others how great you are) you need to target your marketing directly to them.
You can see your ideal customer may not be your average customer right now.
Many businesses start out marketing with a broad brush. I certainly did. I had left a secure long-term job and I wanted to prove to myself I’d made the right decision.
What did I need? Clients!
So, when I first opened my copywriting business in 2014, I offered an impressive list of services.
Well, it was impressive in length. But it didn’t reflect the kind of work I truly wanted to do and who I wanted to do it for.
What did I want to do? Copywriting.
But because I thought about all the things I could do, rather than what I really wanted to do, I offered:
copywriting
copy editing
public relations
freelance journalism
proofreading
resume writing
social media management
social media training
basic graphic design (this one was particularly ridiculous!)
Eventually, my business was made up of 90% social media management and training, and 10% copywriting. I was grateful for the work and I had a thriving, profitable business.
But I didn’t find the work challenging or creatively rewarding. I desperately missed writing, which was what I set out to do in the first place.
It’s clear now where I went wrong.
I didn’t have an ideal customer and I marketed (poorly) to anyone and everyone.
It was a rookie error, but one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt in business and marketing.
As Copyblogger’s Brian Clark points out, “you don’t just accept who you find, you choose who you attract.”
Why do I need a customer profile?
If you were trying to sell post-natal exercise classes to new mums, would your market that the same way you would sell a villa in a retirement community?
What about wireless Bluetooth headphones and expensive perfume?
A two-bedroom cottage in a regional town and a Sydney penthouse?
Depending on who you’re speaking to, you’ll use different types of language and a different style of writing. You’ll use a different tone of voice.
But you can’t know which is the right tone of voice, if you don’t know who you’re talking to.
Discovering your ideal customer will help you develop the right tone of voice to speak to them through your marketing.
Creating a clear customer profile is about asking the right questions
There are oodles of articles online about how to build a customer profile. Most of them suggest the 4 questions you need to ask, or the 8 questions you need to ask.
But I say the more you know, the better. I recently read one of the best customer avatars I have ever seen. It was written by a new client of mine and she absolutely nailed it.
Her customer avatar had a name, she had hopes and dreams and a personality. I knew her jeans were a little too tight and how often she visits the hairdresser each year. By the time I finished reading that profile, I felt like I knew her and in knowing her, I knew best how to market a product to her that will add value to her life. Impressive stuff.
Just like my clever (super savvy) client, you need to drill down past the surface and get to know who you’re marketing to and how your product can help make their life better. In doing so, you can tailor your marketing messages and stop trying to sell to people who won’t buy from you.
Here’s my list of 20 essential things you need to know to create your customer avatar:
1. What gender do they identify as (if any)?
2. How old are they?
3. What is their education level?
4. What do they do for a living? Or are they a student?
5. What is their income?
6. What type of car do they drive?
7. Where do they live – specific city or suburb?
8. Describe their home
9. Do they have children?
10. How many children do they, how old are their children?
11. What are their goals and aspirations?
12. What are their values?
13. What three words best describe their personality? E.g. They may be adventurous, outgoing and extroverted, or shy, risk-averse and pragmatic.
14. What problems do they have that your product or service could solve?
15. What method of communication do they prefer?
16. Where do they go to get information before making a purchase?
17. What are their most common objections to your product or service? (Price, quality, unrecognised brand?)
18. What social networks do they belong to and use?
19. What purchases do they value most, where do they spend their discretional income?
20. Why would they choose your product or service over a competitor?
Are you clear on your ideal customer? Do you have other questions you’d add to the list?
The best thing about your customer avatar is it can evolve as your product or service does. Keep updating your avatar and asking new questions as your business grows.
This will keep you on the right track and you’ll have a better chance of reaching more of the customers you want to attract.
Dayarne Smith is a freelance copywriter who helps businesses build brand awareness and win new customers. Dayarne knows boring copy doesn’t sell, so she crafts quality content with a fun, creative edge.
Dayarne Smith
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