One of the parts of your business plan that is essential is to describe your ideal customer or client. As you get to know your customers, you’ll find answers to questions such as: Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do they want? What do they need? What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night. Where do they get their information?
One practice that has become popular due to the fact that it works is to create a customer avatar from the information you collect that best describes your ideal customer. When you first begin, you’re going to create one avatar that best describes your most ideal customer. You’ll use that information to inform all the products that you create.
A customer avatar is simply one document that succinctly describes who your customer is, how they live their lives, and what they want and need in terms of your expertise.
The information you need to complete a customer avatar is as follows:
- List Places Your Customers Get Their Information – Make a list of websites, journals, magazines, blogs, newspapers, books, and so forth that comprise where your ideal customer likes to get their information. These are all excellent options for networking and advertising.
- List Your Ideal Customer’s Goals – Make a list of your customers’ goals for the solution you are trying to sell to them. The goals have to be in line with your expertise and your offers. For example, if you’re a Keto Coach, their goals will be about succeeding on a Keto way of life.
- List Your Ideal Customer’s Values and Principles – Most people make decisions based on their morals, values, and principles. It’s the way they judge if something is true or not. The more you can relate to these values and principles with your words and actions, the better.
- Describe Your Ideal Customer’s Demographics – Demographic information includes things like age, race, income, education, and so forth. Include everything relevant that will help you with targeting ads and content.
- List Your Ideal Customer’s Pain Points or Challenges – As it relates to your experience and offering, list their pain points and challenges. What wakes your customers up at night? If you’re a Keto Coach, maybe your customers have diabetes, but maybe they just want to lose weight. You may have more than one ideal customer, too, but you should differentiate them so you can laser target the information you provide.
- List Any Objections Your Customer Might Have at The Point of Purchase – Take the time to go through and make a list of each objection your customer may have based on who they are. When you list the objections, find facts and information that can overcome the objection.
You’re going to have to ask and answer numerous questions to fully gather all the information you need to create a well thought out and effective customer avatar. Once you do that, you should give your ideal customer a true persona and name. You can draw a picture of them, or you can cut out pictures from a magazine or use clips online to build your customer avatar. It’s up to you, but you want the avatar document to be as specific as possible. Once you start your business and start to collect more data information, you’ll be able to create more avatars based on their buying journey.
