How well do you really know your ideal customer?
My wife and I have been binge watching Blue Bloods (great cop show), and last week we finally finished the last episode and got the dreaded “What to watch next” recommendation.
“Great, now what am I going to watch now?” I thought.
But my wife said: “Hey, I found this new show I want us to watch next, I think you’ll really like it.”
“I doubt it”, I said in disappointment, wanting another episode of Blue Bloods. I’m a creature of habit.
5 minutes into the new show, I reluctantly said “Okay… this is pretty good.”
”I knew you’d like it!” she said with excitement.
My point is that we all have people in our life that we know well.
We know their likes and dislikes. We come across shows, social media posts, funny videos, and we know which of our close friends would love it and which ones would hate it!
That’s how well you should know your customer avatar!
Your friend, The avatar
If you were to come and work with my marketing team for a day, throughout the day you’d hear outbursts of:
”Oh man, John would LOVE this!”
John is our customer avatar (named after my grandfather).
John is like another person in our office and someone that all of us know so well, we think of him as a close mutual friend.
We’ve created a customer avatar that everyone in our company is required to get to know as they would a close friend.
Here’s the template we use. Feel free to use it yourself!
The Customer Avatar Template
Our customer avatar template is made up of 4 main parts:
- The Avatar Source
- The Avatar Core Desires
- Away From Pain → Toward Pleasure
- Who do they listen to?
Let's get into each.
1) The Avatar source:
We need reliable information to base our avatar on. In many cases, we were our avatars in the past, so our avatar is based on a past version of us. Other times, our avatar will be based on our existing customers. And in a few cases, it's neither.
So first we ask these questions:
- Is our customer avatar based on a past version of ourselves?
- Is our customer avatar based on a composite of our best existing customers?
If the avatar is based on a past version of ourselves, then we will need to reflect on our past self, and what things we did and said when we were trying to solve the problems for ourself that we are now solving for our customers.
If the avatar is based on existing customers, then you need to make a list of your best customers, the ones that pay the most, on time, love the services you offer, and you wish you had a million more of.
2) Core Desires
In the book, Expert Secrets, Russel Brunson talks about the 3 core markets, which he later refined to call the 3 core desires (which is way more accurate). His point is that everyone has 3 core desires they’re moving toward.
You probably know them as:
- Health
- Wealth
- Relationships
Identifying the core desires of your avatar is very important.
To do that, we ask these 3 questions:
- Which of the core desires is my customer hoping to receive or get closer to when they buy my products or services?
- How do they believe this core desire will make their life better?
- Why is achieving this core desire important to them?
Answering these helps us to know what angle we should use to present our marketing content to get the attention of our ideal customer.
3) Away From Pain → Toward Pleasure
Everybody makes decisions based on wanting to move away from pain and toward pleasure.
First, we identify what pains they are trying to move away from.
We write down 10 things your ideal customer is saying or thinking to themselves as they move away from pain they may be experiencing as a result of their current situation.
Here are a few examples:
- “No matter what I do I just can't seem to get enough leads in my business!”
- “I can't get out of this looming debt, I just want to get my head above water!”
- “I’m so sick and tired of how expensive everything is getting!”
Next, we identify what desires or pleasures they are moving toward.
To do this, we write down 10 things our ideal customer is saying or thinking to themselves as they move toward their desired situation.
Here are a few examples:
- “If I could just figure out how to build my audience, I’d be able to get more customers!”
- “I need to figure out how to make ads work so I can get more leads and clients!”
- “If I could get my business to 6-figures my wife could quit her job!”
Understanding the pains your ideal customer has in their current situation and the pleasures they want in their desired situation helps us to write messages, copy, and offers that will be highly desirable and will get the attention of our target customer.
Action Items:
- Write down 10 things they are saying or thinking as they move away from pain.
- Write down 10 things they are saying or thinking as they move toward pleasure.
4) Who do they listen to?
To find your ideal customers you need to know where they are spending time so you can put your message in front of them.
The best way to do this is to find out who they are listening to now, and taking advice from.
To find this out, we ask these questions and make a list for each question.
- Who does our customer follow online (make a list for each platform)?
A) YouTube:
B) Twitter:
C) LinkedIn:
D) Other: - What books (around my topic) does my ideal customer read? Make a list:
- What podcasts does my ideal customer listen to? Make a list:
- What conferences do they attend? Make a list:
- What other services would they buy before and/or after buying yours? Make a list:
These questions are all designed to help us get an idea of where we can find our ideal customer.
Conclusion
In the game of marketing, the company that knows their ideal customer best, wins!
So…
Do you know your customer as well as you do a close friend or family member?
Get to know your customer better by:
- Basing your avatar on reliable information.
- Finding our their core desires.
- Understanding what pains they’re moving away from.
- Knowing what desires they’re moving toward.
- Finding them based on where they’re congregating and who they’re taking advice from.
Know your customer better than they know themselves.
Provide the solutions they need with your services.
Win!