Watch Our Video
Whenever you’re marketing a product or service, you need to understand who you’re aiming all the content at.

Ask yourself:

• Who is your absolute dream customer?
• What do they do?
• What are they like?

These are just a few, but there are countless questions that go into figuring out your target market and creating a customer avatar.

Some of you may have heard of this term before, while others may refer to customer avatars as buyer or customer personas.

But, it all means the same thing; you’re creating a blueprint for the perfect customer.

By doing this, it allows you to figure out so many things revolving around your product/service and marketing strategy.

If you identify your ideal customer avatar, then you’ll soon understand the best ways to reach them, what marketing techniques work best, how you should construct your content, and so on.

So, here comes the million dollar question;

How do you create a perfect customer avatar?

In this guide, we’ll provide as many tips as possible to help you understand everything there is to know about your target customer.

Video summary here:

Demographics: Who are they?

Begin by figuring out who your customer avatar is.

This is where demographic research and analysis comes into play.

Mainly, you’re looking at these seven key things:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Language
• Income
• Marital Status
• Occupation

By conducting your research, you’ll soon be able to paint a nice picture of who your ideal customer avatar is.

For now, we’re dealing with the basics – it’s marketing 101 – know your demographic.

But, if you stop your research here and assume that’s all it takes to identify buyer personas, you’re doing it wrong.

Finding your demographic data is probably the easiest part of building these profiles – mainly because you have easy access to a lot.

You can look at your existing customers and spot common themes in their personal information to help build your avatar.

Pro Tip: There are industry reports from Google and Facebook that help you out, along with census and analytics data.

That’s probably the best way to get as much info as possible; via web analytics.

Use tools on your site to see the people that are visiting your pages and making purchases.

Soon, you will slowly have concrete answers for all seven of the key demographic questions.

There are many more things to consider, but this is an excellent place to start as it builds their profile.

Plus, from this info, you will already have a decent idea of what might work for this customer.

Psychographics: Why are they making a purchase?

“If someone buys something, there’s a reason behind it.”

You never make a purchase on a whim, with no prior thought at all.

This is essentially what the psychographic information tells you; why is your customer behaving in this specific way?

As the name suggests, we’re moving into the psychology behind your customer’s behavior here.

This is such an important aspect of identifying your ideal customer avatar, yet so many businesses neglect it.

They think it’s all about the demographics, leaving the psychographic to sit alone in the corner doing nothing.

Now, buckle up, as there are loads of psychographic concerns to go through.

You really have to get inside the head of your dream customers, and it begins with their goals and values.

Goals & Values

Some people refer to goals as aspirations, but we’re talking about the same thing; what do they want to achieve?

Everyone has a goal, and you’re hoping that they’ll need your product/service to achieve this.

As a basic example, imagine you have a small business owner who’s looking to grow their online presence.

Their goal is to increase social media followers and drive more traffic to their website.

This is critical information for a digital marketing agency as they see these goals and can market their services to align with them.

“Our services will help you achieve YOUR goals, so pick us.”

Similarly, think about the values the person might possess.

What type of customer are you really catering to?

Do they care about doing things by the book?

Or, are they open to trying more risqué things to get results?

Their values really help drive your content marketing strategy as you create content that speaks to their values and hits them deep within their core.

Concerns

Next, you have the concerns of the buyer.

What’s worrying them about your product/service?

Or, more accurately; what might concern them?

Think about what could put people off, and this helps you address it before it becomes too much of a concern.

A typical example of this is the price.

Consumers will always have price point concerns, but your job is to ensure they don’t worry about it.

So, an excellent way to address something like the price is by providing reasons its great value for money, and so on.

Mostly, their concerns tell you why someone might not buy your product and will buy someone else’s instead.

Pinpoint the key concerns of your ideal customer, and you can work on fixing them.

Lifestyle – Interests/Hobbies

From here, do research into their lifestyle.

What makes your target market tick?

What things do they enjoy doing – are there any hobbies or interests that commonly pop up?

When really getting to know the psychology behind a buyer, gain an insight into their life.

If you know what people are interested in, then it’s much easier to develop a content marketing strategy that appeals to these interests.

As a result, you increase your engagement and have a better chance of making sales or generating leads.

Challenges & Pain-Points

The last piece of psychographic information is the challenges your customers might face.

What are they having particular trouble with?

Also, what are their primary pain points; what’s worrying them the most?

This links in with their goals and aspirations; if someone’s goal is to grow their online presence, then a key challenge is achieving this growth while not going over budget.

Similarly, they’re worried about losing customers to other businesses with a larger presence.

If you figure out what’s challenging someone, it lets you work on how to best advertise and market your services to address their challenges.

It’s vital you get your hands on all of this psychographic data.

You will probably find this isn’t as straightforward as finding demographic data as you dig into Facebook Insights and Google Analytics.

Pro Tip: Check Affinity Categories and In-Market Segments under Interests in Google Analytics.

There are three main ideas to consider:

• Use web analytics: this gives you a very basic insight as you can see what your web traffic is clicking on, which provides a sign of their goals and aims.
• Discuss things with your sales team: your sales team has a close relationship with customers, which means they should know them on a deeper level. Here, they can inform you of any concerns, challenges, or lifestyle points.
• Conduct interviews: for a more detailed look at things, interview via focus groups or surveys to understand your customers. Here, you have the advantage of customizing your questions, so you get answers that provide the info you’re after.

Information sources: Where are your customers?

Looking at the demographics tells you who your customers are, the psychographics tells you why they make purchases, and information sources show you where they are.

Basically, you need to conduct research to figure out the key information sources that your customers depend on.

This is often achieved using detailed web analytics software to track their online path.

But, there’s nothing wrong with using a questionnaire or survey to find this out.

By understanding what people use to gain their information, it presents you with a perfect idea for what platforms you should market on.

For example, if your research shows that your target market gets all of their information via websites and blogs, then you now know where to place advertisements, and can create blog content they’ll engage with.

Final Thoughts

All the information above will help you identify your ideal customer avatar.

Start with the demographics and figure out all the basic personal information.

Instantly, you breathe life into your avatar and give them a more personal feel.

Then, dig deeper and think about the psychology behind these people.

Consider their goals/values, concerns, challenges, and lifestyle.

This will give you a detailed look at why your customers behave the way they do.

Lastly, figure out where your customers are likely to spend most of their time gaining information.

Do they read newspapers, blogs, social media?

By combining everything, you will create a customer persona that gives you so much information.

Now, you’ll know exactly how to market and advertise your products/services to appeal directly to this specific target customer.

It’s vital you take the time to identify your ideal customer avatar as it helps you save money during marketing.

Pay for things and use ideas that will work, rather than wasting it on concepts that don’t appeal to your target audience.