Really understanding your target market is one of the most important things for any entrepreneur when it comes to successfully marketing your business.
But if you don’t know where to start, or are frozen by the overwhelming realisation that you have no idea who you want to talk to or what you want to say, then panic not! you are not the first and certainly won’t be the last person to feel this way.
You are in the right place!
Marketing yourself in business is one of the hardest things to do. Many entrepreneurs have no idea where to start, so let me simplify it for you!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMMA'S
FREE Customer Avatar workbook
Now with every blog post from Emma Johnson and Co, I like to make sure that you are getting the most value possible so each edition contains a FREE resource that you can download and implement right away and create results quickly in your business.
This week, since we’re talking about defining your ideal customer avatar, I’m giving you FREE access to my printable Define Your Customer Avatar Workbook.
Regardless of which industry sector you are in, this will give you some examples and the space for you to answer all the questions you need to bring your ideal customer/business partner to life.
So let’s break this down into three steps and get stuck in!
Off the bat, it is important to recognize some of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
So many people scramble social media sites, begging friends and family for likes and shares and desperately bombard the same few people trying to make money.
They get stuck with their marketing because they don’t know where to start. Now if you don’t know who you are talking to then how are you going to know what to say? It is so much easier if you can imagine having a conversation with someone.
When starting out, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of using a “shotgun” approach; they believe that the wider and broader their marketing, the more people they will reach and the more potential customers the will attract.
Marketing your business, isn’t about trying to convince everyone that you are the right choice for them, it is about knowing that you are the right choice for a certain type of person and then marketing specifically to them.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
The “spray and pray” strategy only increases the amount of competition you will have to fight through in order to stand out. You will wind up killing your business!
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to focus your marketing and content towards a laser-targeted, super-specific and highly-responsive audience.
By creating your avatar, you can begin to really understand your potential customers and therefore focus your marketing effort and budget where it will be most effective.
So what is a customer avatar?
Sometimes referred to as “ideal customer” or “perfect audience”, your customer avatar is an “imaginary” representation of an individual, who epitomizes all the key characteristics of your best customer or prospect.
He or she will have all of the qualities of the people most likely to buy from you. When complete, it will give you a clear insight into the beliefs, fears and desires that influence that person’s decisions.
Truly understanding who you would like to reach, sell to or help will mean that your marketing is relevant. The more detail that you can reveal about your avatar, the better you will understand the person you are trying to help.
This exercise is to focus you as a entrepreneur and remind you that you are speaking to one individual when you are writing any form of copy, post, blog, email etc. If you ever struggle to write, you can always go back to your customer avatar workbook and reconnect with your audience.
Ultimately, your ability to relate to your market will determine your success.
1. Think about your avatar’s pains and frustrations
Potential customers are looking for more than just someone they can relate to, they are looking for a solution to their problems. So whilst you might want to inspire people with your story and have people relate to your struggles and successes, you ultimately need to appeal to the pains and frustrations of your specific audience.
Ask yourself …
- Does your avatar have financial problems?
- Is he/she looking for a way to make some extra money?
- Does he/she have children?
- Is he/she a high-school dropout or a graduate?
- Is your avatar frustrated that they can’t spend enough time with the family because they are out at work all the time?
Make this relevant to your niche industry and be as specific as possible!
Always remember … even the happiest person has pains and frustrations! Once you have identified them is it time to
2. Get down to the details
Remember that you avatar is an imaginary representation of an individual, so you need to be extremely specific when if comes to bringing him/her “to life.” The more specific you get, the easier it will be for you to picture you avatar as an actual person.
To paint a clearer picture for yourself, ask the following:
- Is your avatar male or female?
- What is his/her name?
- What does he/she look like?
- Is he/she slightly overweight?
- What type of clothes does he/she wear?
- What does he/she do for a living? Is he/she a student, employee, self-employed, unemployed?
- What kind of movies does he/she watch? What music does he/she listen to? Does heshe enjoy reading?
- How much time does he/she spend on Facebook? ( Believe me, this is more important than you might imagine!)
- Android or iPhone?
- PC or Mac user?
- Does he/she hang out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIN etc.?
- How/where does he/she look for solutions to his/her problems?
- etc.
And beyond the physical appearance and personality of your ideal customer you need to also hone in on their problems and desires.
- Is he/she in debt?
- Is he/she overwhelmed by where to start with achieving their goals (define what these may be relevant to your niche)
- Does he/she feel unappreciated at work?
- Does he/she want to gain more control over their time?
- Does he/she have an unfinished novel gathering “digital dust” on a hard drive somewhere?
- Does he/she dream of travelling the world?
- etc.
It is in these details that you can work out …
3.How to help your avatar
Now that you have defined the problems, you can address the solutions. You can appeal to his/her interests. Would he/she like …
- a structured plan to get out of debt?
- to learn the basics of entrepreneurship and who to start a business?
- a course on time-management so he/she can finally get organised to do the things they want to do?
- a daily writing challenge to overcome writer’s block
- etc.
Now that you have got a better idea of whom you are addressing with each piece of content, you also have a better idea of what will actually get their attention.
Address your avatar as an individual
The whole point of building an avatar is to be able to imagine that you are speaking to one person at a time, even if you want your content to be read by hundreds if not thousands. Just remember to always be yourself. Address every piece of content to that single imaginary person sitting opposite you in the coffee shop.
Finally, remember that nobody likes to be pitched to when they are simply trying to enjoy a nice, hot coffee!
Now you are all set to detail your perfect customer avatar. You might actually be surprised with how specific you are able to get!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EMMA'S
FREE Define you Customer Avatar Workbook
Cheers to your success!
And if you found this content helpful, I would love it if you shared this with any other networkers whom you think can benefit from a little leverage!
Sincerely,
Emma Johnson
Online Business Marketing Coach and Super Mompreneur!
Resources Mentioned & More That Will Help Catapult Your Business To The Next Level
Attraction Marketing EBook – Learn More
If you want to PERMANENTLY END REJECTION… and discover a simple system for attracting qualified prospects to you … PLUS get paid whether they join your business or NOT… then this comprehensive eBook sets out step by step what you can do to start (or turn around) your business quickly and easily without bugging friends and family.
LinkedIn Recruiting Scripts (Free) – Learn More
LinkedIn is a fabulous resource for connecting with serious business men and women yet many people have no idea how to utilise this correctly to grow their network marketing business. Unlike Facebook or Instagram a motivational quote or a selfie is just not going to cut it on LinkedIn and connections on LinkedIn will certainly not stand for any form of spamming. Gloria’s fabulous LinkedIn training and scripts are my go to for making this most of this relatively untapped resource.
Social Media Recruiter by Julie Burke – Learn More
Julie has successfully harnessed the power of social media to explode her network marketing business and she share all of her expert knowledge in this in-depth training. If you are serious about building your team quickly then I can highly recommend this resource.
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