Successful marketing is all about getting the right message, in front of the right person, at the right time. And the first step when planning out a marketing strategy needs to be deciding on who you will be marketing too. It might sound obvious to some, but unless you clearly define who your target customer is from the outset, the majority of your marketing efforts will undoubtedly fail.

What Is A Customer Avatar?

You may already have an idea who your general target market is. It’s important! (You can read more about that here). But in order to communicate with your potential customers in a real, authentic and persuasive way, you need to go deeper than that. Specifically, you need to know what their individual pain points are and how you can help to fix them. The only way to get this information is by making a Customer Avatar. Once you know who you are talking to and how to find them, your marketing will be so much more effective.

Your customer needs to be the centre of your world. A customer avatar will allow you to define who they are and identify what they really want, so you can cut through the noise and speak directly to them.

Meet Steve

Steve is 48. He runs his own small arborist business with an above moderate turnover. He’s happily married with two teenage kids, but he wishes he had more time to spend with them. He enjoys fishing trips, playing local footy and water sports but can never find the time these days.

Steve is determined, hardworking, loyal and passionate.

He values his family, his employees and his reputation. He loves making a difference in his customers lives by providing service, attention to quality and detail. He has invested in some adult education as he sees the value in being ahead of his competition and new technology excites him. He is striving to be better and looking for that competitive edge.

At work, he has key man issues. Everyone demands his attention and he ends up spending all his time on the wrong tasks when he should be focused on the business. His job is physically demanding and this is causing him health issues. He wants to build the business to give him freedom to do what he loves, but he has trouble finding new, younger staff. His cash flow is stable, but he needs to increase his margins and secure a new stream of reliable customers. He needs his business to do better and knows that it’s possible, but just doesn’t quite know how or what he should be doing.

He is stressed and frustrated.

And Here Is How We Created This Customer Avatar

Let’s think about your ideal customer. And be specific!

1. Who are they?
Age, gender, socio-economic status, spending habits and personality. Give your Customer Avatar a name and a face (with a photo pulled from the internet) so that they are now actually a person and from here on out, make sure you treat them as one!

2. Where do they hang out?
Where do they get their information? Do they read the newspaper? What website’s do they regularly visit? Where do they hang out in person? Where do they eat? So they go to the gym? Are they members of any associations?

3. What are their main issues or pains or problems?
Now we get to the good stuff! What are their main frustrations and pain points (both in life and in business)? Do they carry any emotional weight? All of these things greatly impact on their purchase ability.

4. What opportunities do they have to fix their problems?
Or specifically, how can YOU help!

Creating a customer avatar can be challenging, but it’s well worth the effort. And remember, you don’t really create an avatar, you discover it.

Do You Need Help Discovering Your Customer Avatars?

For your marketing strategy to work, it needs to focus on your customer. This is why we do a customer avatar session with every new client as part of our initial strategy and discovery process.  The discovery process is an in-depth discovery of you and your business where we break down every aspect of your operation with the overall aim being to help you scale and grow. At the end, we are able to present to you a solid marketing plan and strategy that you can move forward with.

Sound interesting?

I’m passionate about helping small businesses grow and it’s for that reason that I offer free 20 minute one-on-one strategy calls. If you’d like to see whether Oracle Tree would be a good fit for your small business, head to the link below to book in a time now!

Apply For A Strategy Session