In my previous post, I described what we learned in class 1 – where we came up with ideas of niches, realizing that “the riches are in the niches.”
In our second class, we learned the importance of creating a “Customer Avatar.”
So, what is a Customer Avatar? Why do we need one? What are the benefits of having a clear Customer Avatar? How to create a Customer Avatar? And how to use the Customer Avatar?
Read on to know…
What is a Customer Avatar?
A Customer avatar is the persona of a single person who represents the bulk of your target audience.
It includes demographics of the person such as age, sex, location, and so on.
It also includes psychographics of the person and includes their interests, likes, dislikes and fears of the person.
Why Do We Need a Customer Avatar?
Marketing is about good conversations. Digital marketing is about good conversations through digital mediums.
To have a good conversation, you need to be able to converse as if you were talking one on one with your audience. The audience should feel that you are talking to them directly in a one on one conversation. For this you need to understand them well.
Though you have a big audience, each person in that audience is in fact alone with their device. We need to be able to connect with them and talk to them one on one.
To be able to talk like you were talking one on one, you need to have the image of the person you are talking with, you need to understand their persona. To do this, instead of trying to start new conversations in their minds, we should be able to join mental conversations that they already have in their minds. Again to do this, we need to know them well, we need to know what is going on in their minds well.
People are tired of fake people online with social personas. Everyone is attracted to someone real.
That is where the customer avatar comes in.
If you want to be real, if you want to be able to talk to one single customer at a time through a mass media digital medium such as a blog post, a Facebook ad, a YouTube video, and your website, and at the same time you want each audience member to feel as if you are talking to just them individually, then you need to understand your customer avatar, and talk just to that person in your communications.
Benefits of Having a Clear Customer Avatar
One of the biggest benefits of having a clear customer avatar… is that because you understand your customer so well, and you understand their fears and dislikes, and their needs and desires, the product that you create will be in demand automatically.
If you create a product in isolation and then try to sell it, it is not likely to sell much. On the other hand, if you create a product based on understanding your target audience, your Customer Avatar, it is likely to sell much, much more.
We can learn from Deepak Kanakaraju’s example.
By understanding his customer avatar well, he realized that people in India are willing to buy courses. And based on this he launched many successful programs including 100 Day Blogging Step By Step, Digital Marketing Internship, and many more.
How to Create a Customer Avatar?
One of the best ways to create a customer avatar is to create a survey and have people from your target audience fill them.
You get better quality inputs when you have personal interactions with people. Ask them questions such as “why did you sign up”, “what challenges do you face”, and so on, to understand them better.
If you can’t meet them face to face, getting on calls with them is the next best option.
How to Use the Customer Avatar?
You don’t have to wait to get it perfect. Once you have the initial draft of your customer avatar, you can start using it and benefiting from it.
Email messaging is one of the most powerful media to influence people, create a brand and generate sales. The purpose of the subject line in an email is for the recipient to open the email. The purpose of the first sentence in the email is to get the reader to read the second line. The purpose of the second line is to get the reader to read the third line. And so on… Using the customer avatar, you can craft powerful email much more effectively.
You can target them in advertising better, address people by their first name if you capture their name as part of their contact details, write to them like to write to a friend, join the conversation that is already in their mind, and create products and services that will already be in demand by the time you create them.
My Customer Avatar
My niche is “Digital marketing for small business.” I created a survey and based on the survey inputs, here is my customer avatar…
Prakash (fictitious name) is in the age group of 18-34 years.
He has an income between 6-15 lakh rupees / year.
He is married.
He is an entrepreneur / free lancer, feels overwhelmed by digital marketing options, he wants to succeed in digital marketing, and be financially free.
Conclusion
To summarize, if you want to be a great marketer, you need to understand your customer so very well that you can create products and services they will love and pay for, and so that you can interact with them as if you were talking one on one with a friend and build trust with your audience.
The first step for all this is to create a Customer Avatar!
Wish you the best in your digital marketing journey.