If you’re selling bananas, you want to talk to a room full of monkeys. If you’re talking to a room full of tigers, it doesn’t matter how fresh or delicious your bananas are, you’re not going to sell any of them. (And hopefully you don’t become a snack yourself!)
That’s why fully understanding your target audience is so important for your online marketing success. You have to make sure you’re talking to the right people, otherwise you’re putting a lot of time and effort into a sales process that will never get off the ground! Successful businesses reach their target audience because they understand exactly who their ideal client is. They know it through and through, and speak to them appropriately at every stage of the buying cycle.
When it comes to understanding your Customer Avatar, the first step is to determine the demographics and psychographics of your ideal client, so you can zero in on where to find them online, and speak to them in a way that connects. When you do that, your digital marketing initiatives return at a higher rate because you are focusing your time and money in places where you know you will find your target audience, and creating value for them by understanding their point of view.
Further to that, you also need to know exactly what triggers your ideal clients to buy, because that dictates the kind of conversation you will have with them in person or online. For example, there are many reasons someone might want a new website – opening a brand new business, their current website is out of date, or their current website isn’t generating leads they want. Each of these requires very different approaches and information to convert them to a sale.
When you know who you want to talk to, where they are, what makes them tick, and what makes your business the one to solve their problem, it’s going to be easy to close your sales.
So you can see why we’re pretty passionate about understanding your target audience.
We have a handy little worksheet that helps you create your Customer Avatar. Just click here to get it.
If you have more than one division of your business, or more than one Customer Avatar, you will need to do this for each one. You may even want to create avatars for each of your products or services, if they have different target audiences.
Before you start your Customer Avatar Worksheet, think about a client you have right now that you absolutely love working with. Consider all the characteristics and personality traits that make them the ideal client for you. Everything from their sense of humour to the fact that they pay their bills on time is an important part of outlining the clients that are ideal for you in your business.
Have fun with it, and add any extra information that you feel is important when it comes to fully outlining your specific Customer Avatar. The more fully you create the picture of the personality you want to deal with, the easier it will be to know them when you meet them.
