How to Create Customer Avatars
Your ideal customer is out there, and they are looking for a business with exactly your product or service. BUT if you’re busy trying to appeal to everyone, the chances are they’re going to connect with your brand. It’s the old saying ‘aim to please everyone and you’ll please no one’, and it’s true. As a business owner, the more you think of your customer and speak just to them, the more success you’re going to have.
One of the first things I do with all my branding clients is to create customer avatars - that is a detailed profile of your ideal customer. We usually create 2-3 and you can download the template I use here (with a handy tutorial on how to fill them out).
How to create brand avatars in 3 easy steps
1. First, do some research and find out who tends to buy the product or service you are producing, for example the group who buys most fashion trainers is men aged 18-24 (nicknamed ‘Sneakerheads’) whereas the group who buys most artisan jewellery is women aged 55+.
Remember too that if you run a home-made candle business and your candles are £12 each, your audience will be different from that of Jo Malone, who’s candles retail at between £55 and £350 and therefore have an older and wealthier target customer.
2. Second, think of a previous customer or client that you had that you felt most excited about working with/who fit your products perfectly and write down what you know about them.
3. Thirdly, ask some questions to see any patterns - find out if there is anything in common between your ideal customers, and get a sense of their lifestyle so you can see how your brand fits into it.
I’ve provided some questions below, but you can obviously tailor these - the point is to get you dig much deeper than the basics (e.g. female, 25-40) and see them as a real person you can relate to and imagine, (so perhaps she’s a mum who works part time, loves cooking, does CrossFit at weekends and adores interior design, for example).
Some useful prompts to get you started:
You can either ask your previous customer these, or you can answer them yourself if you know enough about them.
What is their job? What kind of industry, what level of seniority?
Where do they live? Do they live with others? If so, who? Do they own or rent?
What do they do at the weekend?
Where do they shop for groceries?
How and when do they use social media?
Where do they shop for clothes? What about basics like underwear?
Where would they go to look for a gift for a loved one?
How does your business' product or service help this person? How might they find out about you?
Want a little more help?
Download my Ideal Audience kit and let me guide you step-by-step through how to identify your audience & create 3 clear customer avatars, featuring my editable avatar templates and plenty of helpful resources.