Frankenstein’s Customer: What is a Customer Avatar?

Who is Frankenstein’s customer? What is a customer avatar? We aren’t talking about the blue giants in the movie.

In fact, a customer avatar is more like something that would be made in Frankenstein’s lab than anything James Cameron would come up with. A customer avatar is a perfect customer that you have pieced together through data and research, which is why we call them Frankenstein’s customers.

In this week’s #whatiswednesday, we will go over how to find your customer avatar and what a good customer avatar looks like.

Why is a customer avatar important?

Marketing without an avatar is sort of like going to the middle of Disney World to scream about your new household cleaning product. Not only are 5-year-old screaming kids not likely to be interested in brooms and cleaning supplies, but no one is going to pay attention. You will be drowned out by all the noise and bested by people selling those fans that spray out water.

Why?

Because those vendors have found their customer avatar. Hot, tired amusement park goers. And you have to find yours.

How do I find my customer avatar?

Glad you asked. Here are some steps to figuring out who is your customer avatar or “perfect customer.”

  1. Ask yourself, who NEEDS my product or services?
  2. Get out there! Go to events, networking meet-ups and other places where you think your customer avatar would be and talk to them! Find out who they are. Humanize your customer avatar.
  3. Narrow it down: Think of any excluding aspects of your product. For example, if your product is expensive, maybe people with a higher income would be more likely to purchase it.
  4. Split-testing: Run a few ads and split test age, sex, marital status, income and see which groups your product seems to resonate with more.
  5. Look over your shoulder: Not literally, but see what your competitors are doing! Who are they targeting? You will probably have some similar customer avatars.
  6. User surveys: If you have a set of customers who have already purchased your product or who are on your list-serv, don’t hesitate to ask them to fill out a questionnaire about who they are.
  7. Identify pain points that would cause someone to want your product. For example, if you are selling a phone service, a pain point of the client would be frequent dropped calls, blackout areas, etc.
  8. Test, test and re-test: In the end, testing and analyzing the data that you receive is the best way to pinpoint your customer avatar.

 

An extra tip that Digital Marketer suggests is to come up with a quote that describes your customer, as it is a great way to get inside their head.

Take a look at their example of a fleshed out customer avatar:

Age: 40

Gender: Male

Marital Staus: Married

#/Age of Children: 2 (Age 8 & 10)

Location: Orlando, Florida

Quote: “I surround myself with people smarter than me.”

Occupation: Digital Marketing

Job Title: CEO/ Founder

Annual Income: $150,000

Level of Education: College-Graduate

Other: Spends time on LinkedIn looking for talent

Or this example from EOFire:

“My avatar is 32. Her name is Melissa, and she is a writer. She’s been wanting to start a blog for months now, but she doesn’t know where to start. She’s a good writer, but she could really use some help on how to structure and format a blog post – plus, she’s not really sure what exactly she wants to write about most of the time.

She is working part-time and earning her graduate degree online, so she’s usually studying up on how she can start her blog on the weekends. Melissa lives with her boyfriend and they both want to travel more, hate their jobs and don’t make enough money.”

What do both of these examples have in common? They include almost every aspect of the customer avatar’s life and status.

When it comes to customer avatars, the more information you create about your target client, the better. So, be thorough and don’t be afraid to test different audiences to find your perfect customer avatar.

 

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