Supercharge your marketing with our step-by-step guide on creating a customer avatar with the best free resources
One of the most important aspects of marketing is reaching the right people and that’s where the customer avatar comes in. It’s a fictionalised version of your ideal customer and once you’ve created it, you keep them in mind when you design any marketing.
Content marketing from copy, images, ads, video, etc should all be targeted at your customer avatar who should represent the person you’d most like to appeal to and not your current average customer. You can have more than one of them, for example, if you had a shop that sold male and female clothing, you’d want to have male and female avatars in mind.
Why create a customer avatar?
It’s common for brands to rush ahead and concentrate on building an online presence before considering their ideal customer and this is never a wise move. It’s not good if all your marketing efforts are speaking to a guy called Tom from East London who likes football, when your product is best suited to Joan, who lives in Shropshire, shops at Waitrose and spends her weekends at the garden centre.
When your marketing efforts are tailored towards your ideal client/customer in places where they are likely to be found, you’re going to be seen and heard by the right people, i.e. those who are highly likely to be interested in what you’re offering.
Without customers, you don’t have a business, so it makes sense to start your marketing with them in mind and when you create your avatar, you’ll have a clearer idea of what makes he/she/they tick.
Market to everyone and your efforts could very well fall on deaf ears, aim everything at an avatar and it will make your messaging far more effective.
According to Salesforce, 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its product or service. Global Innovation Evangelist Brian Solis gave this advice for businesses, 'In times of change, make customers' needs and expectations your corporate North Star. Keeping customers at the centre will inspire loyalty and deepen trust'.
How to start creating your customer persona
One of the best ways to start is with some good old-fashioned market research. If you already have customers who represent your avatar, speak to them and ask for information.
Find out which social media platforms they frequent and what media they consume. How old are they and what are the challenges they face that could be solved by what you offer? You can either speak to them over the phone or use surveys.
You might also consider adding Facebook’s Custom Audience Pixel to your website so that you can track those who have visited and find out more about them.
Your customer reviews will also hold some useful clues about your customer persona. What aspects of your products and services do they like? And what if any, are their complaints?
The six things you must find out about your customer avatar
When creating your customer avatar, make sure that you find out the following in order to define them accurately:
- Demographics - list as many of your avatar’s demographic details including age, sex, income, marital status, education, religion, family size and occupation. These traits shouldn’t be too difficult to define.
- Psychology - dig a little deeper into the mindset of your customer persona. What are their values, attitudes, and interests? Who do they vote for and what do they enjoy doing outside of work?
- Name - the idea of giving your customer avatar a name might seem strange, but it really helps if they feel human to you. Is it a Liam, Reginald, Suzanne or Libby?
- Picture them - try and picture exactly what they look like. You might like to leaf through some stock photos to see if you can find any that truly represent your customer avatar
- Vision board - put together a vision board or dossier on your customer avatar that includes their name, picture, story, likes and dislikes.
- Backstory - it’s time to get creative. Give your customer avatar a backstory. You don’t have to be Shakespeare to do this. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they were feeling when they happened upon your product or service. What were they looking for? Why did they react in a certain way to your offer? What is the problem they are looking to solve and how will they react when they have invested in your product or service? Also, consider any possible reasons why they might not purchase your offer.
Common mistakes when creating a customer avatar
Avoid these three common pitfalls when creating your customer persona.
- Avoid being vague - don’t use broad brush strokes. If you find out that your ideal client spends a lot of time on social media, find out which platforms they prefer and the types of accounts that stop them mid-scroll.
- Don’t ignore your data - you will already possess plenty of gems about your ideal customer in the form of data. Scrutinise your surveys, customer reviews and your CRM database for clues.
- Collaborate - creating a customer avatar is best done when it’s a team effort. It’s a creative process and a diverse team will mean you avoid any blind spots.
Think about where you’ll find your customer avatar
Once you have a clear picture of your ideal customer, you need to work out the best ways to reach them. Where do they hang out? Are they Instagram users or are you likely to find them on LinkedIn? Or perhaps they’re not into social media at all.
You also need to discover the way in which they get information. Do they get alerts from the BBC news app every day or do they buy The Guardian? Perhaps they read certain online publications or follow a series of bloggers.
Do they go to conferences and networking events? And are there any business gurus or others that they look up to - for example, are they Tim Ferriss fans, do they prefer Rich Roll or are you more likely to find them hanging onto Karren Brady’s every word?
Once you know where they get their information and from whom, you’ll know the best places to advertise.
Create your customer avatar with these FREE tools
There are lots of free customer avatar tools available online and a good start is ChatGPT which you can do once you’ve pinpointed the six most important aspects of your customer avatar in the above list.
With your avatar in mind, write a series of questions as if you were speaking to them and key them into ChatGPT (you’ll need to sign up for a free account). AI will give you answers. For a full guide, follow Mark Herbert’s YouTube training.
You can also try the following customer avatar generators -
- PlatformAlt5 - visit and download our free customer avatar template
- Digital Marketer - download the free customer avatar worksheet
- HubSpot - make use of the free buyer persona template and create as many avatars as you need
Using your customer avatar findings in your marketing
When you have a detailed picture of your customer avatar, you can use it in all aspects of your marketing.
Content - with your customer persona in mind, you can craft your blog posts, videos, podcasts, lead magnets and sales funnels in a way that will appeal to them.
Paid advertising - being familiar with your customer avatar will help you to decide where to advertise and what messaging to use.
Products - knowing your customer persona intimately will guide you towards creating products and services they really want
Copy - by creating a customer avatar, you’ll be writing everything with that person in mind. You’ll be able to address their pain points and provide solutions they’ll want to invest in.
Email marketing - with subject lines that appeal to your customer avatar and e-mail content that addresses them directly, you’ll benefit from higher open rates and increased engagement.
Once you have a detailed definition of the person you are selling to, your marketing efforts will be more likely to spur the recipients into taking action.
Questions to help you define your customer avatar
Some experts believe you should be able to write down at least 100 unique details about your customer avatar, but if that feels excessive, try the prompts below.
My customer avatar……
- Says this is their favourite ever book —--
- Subscribes to the following newspapers and magazines —----
- Goes to the following networking events and conferences—----
- Would buy my offering because their number one problem is—-----
- Buys their food from—-------
- Eats out at the following places—----------
- Always has enough money for—--------
- Would name the following as their top three apps—-----------
- Is passionate about saving/supporting the following—---------
- Earns between £X and £X
- Is aged—----------
- Is male/female/other
- Is likely to buy from these competitors—---------
- Is mostly like to do —-------- during their leisure time
- Goes on holiday to —-------------------
- Says the following three things are most important in life—--------
- Drives a —----------- or cycles/walks everywhere
- Has this level of education—--------------
- Lives in —--------------------
- Has children Y/N
- Has pets Y/N
If you can think of more questions, keep going until you reach 100 and have such a clear picture of your customer avatar, it feels as if they actually exist! The more genuine they feel, the better.
Demographics, likes, and dislikes, etc are particularly useful when investing in paid advertising on platforms like Facebook which give you targeting options.
Customer avatar example
Take a look at WiziShop for an in-depth overview of a customer persona that digs deep into their goals, challenges and motivations, and you can see what a customer avatar actually looks like in real world marketing.
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