Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast, I'm Esther.
And I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking "how to create a client avatar". Where do we start and how detailed does it need to be?
This is a big one. And this is what we get asked a lot, actually, certainly individually and sometimes together as well. So what is a client's avatar, customer avatar, customer persona, customer profile? There's lots and lots of different names for the same thing. And it's basically starting how to describe who your ideal audience is. So how many avatars do you think you would have for your business, Esther?
Oh, well, here at IPA Group, we do lots of things from web design, graphic design, social media management. So there's automatically three right there, plus everything else that we offer. So I would say you could you could go as far as 10, 20. I mean, you could really, really niche it down and just go for one main audience if you wanted to, but you wouldn't be hitting exactly what they are looking for every single time. So if we're promoting more about the web design aspect of it, then we would build those avatars out and go, OK. So is it an e-commerce site? Is it a static site? Is it a brochure site? Is it so depending on what? They are going to need it's going to be a completely different audience.
But you don't have to be as niche as that because I mean, there may be people listening who've got product websites.
Oh, yeah.
And you don't need to do one avatar for people to buy pearl earrings and another Avatar for people to buy gold earrings.
No,
it could be just earrings is the avatar that you're creating. I mean, I'm a service business like yourself, but I wouldn't have as many products because I don't primarily have the team that you have. So I would niche maybe into four or five avatars personally. And the types of avatars I would have would range from like my my main niche audience and you probably share the same one because we're both in the same space to a degree is thirty five to forty five year old women who run their own business, maybe have solopreneurs or have a couple of staff who've been to training for social media before and you know, maybe a group session and they either didn't get the time, wouldn't feel confident enough to put their hand up and ask specific questions. And they've come away from either a day or a few weeks training and still didn't get really the refined answers they're looking for and that's why they come to me for one to one to get the answers they're looking for. Now, that's very generalised, but that gives you an idea of where I start with the ideal audience there and then the next ideal audience. Because what we've what we haven't mentioned so far is most of your audience doesn't necessarily have to be B2C business to consumer. They could also be other businesses. And I know for a fact that Esther also works with other businesses as well, and so do I. Mine would be like the local enterprise office or Enterprise Island or those types of things. And you'd be surprised how many of you have a customer in business as well. So niching down on a personal level, isn't always needed. Sometimes you can niche down on other companies as well.
Yeah. And even going back to your example of the earrings, you may even be wanting to sell to a company who wants to gift their employees with earrings, you know, it's so this is where a lot of people get stuck and they sort of go, OK, so can I just say everyone is my ideal customer. Everyone would want to buy from me. Were, you know, for those people, what do they need to start with? Is it the name? Is it an age? Is it a demographic location? What would be the real starting point?
Well, as you say that the first starting point would be actually the demographics. So the gender, the age and the location. But also that doesn't matter as much as it used to now because most people have got their business online.
Yeah.
Or going to put their business online.
Yeah. Unless it's, you know, if you're posting something.
Yeah.
It may be just that you still only want to pay for customs reasons, for postage cost reasons. You may just want to keep with your local area or click and collect delivery and collect.
Yes of course. But you know, so you got the basic demographics but then. Well I think people sometimes neglect is what else is is bothering or going on in the lives of your ideal audience. You know what other things matter to them now? Because my audience, my first audience is 35 to 45 year old women, some of them or quite a lot of them, I suppose, would be parents. So I take into account that, you know, they've probably got primary age children, maybe early secondary school age children and so I talk about other related factors to do with that. Like when the schools opened, I mentioned that because I knew it was on the mind of my audience. And, you know, like lots and lots of people last year, we were both impacted by the first lockdown, weren't we? And, you know, my greatest competitor back then was the local enterprise office. He was giving away social media training for free, so I couldn't compete with that. So instead of shutting up shop and not saying anything or saying a boo to a goose for a couple of months, I decided to talk about what I was doing with my kids at home to keep them entertained. And because I knew my audience would care about the kids, their parents. So I started putting up posters and blogs and a couple of videos of activities. I was doing the kids as ways of keeping them entertained. And, you know, my audience ate that up.
Yeah. And like you say, having your customer avatar, buyer persona, whatever it is that you want to call it, having it that you know what it is and not just knowing it, but putting it into practise night. We'll talk in a minute about how to write it out or do it right. But it helped you to write your posts and it can also help people who are writing their ads.
Yes.
Because when you're doing your ads, you can refine down your audience to people who are parents of primary school aged kids, parents of secondary school age kids. And it you know, that might be something really important. If you're doing a family tree, then you might want to advertise to people who are interested in family history, who are separated from their family by distance, by not talking over generations. All these things can be used for both posts and ads. And it's a way of literally, have you ever just read something gone "they're talking to me" or "I have so been there and done that, that it's not funny" you know. So using the information that you gleaned that you take the time on it is it is time consuming. It's not one of these things that you just go, oh, well, I'm going to call her. You know, she's going to be called Jane Doe and she might be anywhere between 20 and 50. And, you know, that's it. That's all the information I have on her. You know, what hobbies does she have or he have? What other things could we could we talk about there?
Well, it could be what income do they have coming in? Are they married? So there's a dual income coming in or are they with somebody didn't have to be married? And what that helps you ascertain what kind of disposable income they have. So let's say maybe your primary audience is students in accommodations. They will have limited budget. OK, are you targeting the students in the accommodations or are you targeting the bank of mum and dad in it? Or are you targeting married couples, you know, for certain things as well. But they've got other issues because they've most likely got children and, you know, pressures for holidays and that sort of stuff when we're allowed to go on them, of course. And, you know, they'll have time constraints because you know that once the kids are old enough to go to school, then it's basically becoming a taxi service after school has finished. So there's lots and lots of things to take into account when you're building a buyer a person or a customer avatar. Now, some of them can be really, really, really involved. And that may be the way you want to go, which is absolutely fine. You could include types of vehicles, the vacations that they're going to, political spiritual views, depending on what you're working on. And you could even try and picture what a typical day in the life of this customer persona, is going to be. And what kind of websites are they visiting or local shops. And that really helps you build a real rounded picture of what is mattering in their lives. And you can then, you know, deliver content that will make them go, "oh, this person really gets me". The only other question that I do get from people is that "we have made these four or five twenty avatars. What about the people that fall in between? What would you say to people about that question, Esther?
Well, if they fall in between them, they're going to be falling into some of those categories anyway. So they will see some of the stuff that you're putting out or the ads that you have. Because if they're parents of teenagers who are not married, but you're targeting parents of teenagers who are married, then they will see those anyway.
Yeah,
you know, that part, just because they don't fit 100 percent doesn't mean that they're not going to see your stuff and doesn't mean that they're not your ideal audience. Also, remember, you know, if especially if you're a service based business, you will have to work with this person. So you will have to more than likely be emailing and calling and talking. And so is this avatar that you're building, someone you can get along with because you may say, yes, I want them. You know, they have to work at a Fortune 500 company. But could you tolerate the rest that comes with that? You know, could you tolerate like if you don't niche down to a certain demographic of geographically, could you be up at three o'clock in the morning talking to someone in another country? All these things have to be taken into consideration. If you don't niche down in geography, do you speak other languages?.
That's a good point, actually. It's a very good point.
You know, and it's not just the language. It's the it's different dialects. I mean, you hear it from us all the time, and we live in the same island.
But, you know, there's other things to take into account. OK, maybe your audience is viewing this particular post isn't the perfect person for that post or that video or whatever you're sharing. But I tell you what, they'll know somebody who connects with that person to say excellent, my best friend or my mom or my relative or somebody I met at a networking event was looking and asking about this.
Yeah.
And it will make them come to top of mind. So even if it doesn't suit the person, you're actually seeing your content one way or another, they'll think of somebody that it will suit.
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, don't give up on the first attempt. It'll take a long time. You may need to go back to your persona, to your avatar and modify it as you grow as a business, as you grow as a person, your audience will change and that's OK as well. So, you know, you might be really like. Just note it down on a piece of paper and doodle a little stickman, and, you know, that's your avatar, or you could go all out and do a big poster and stick it on your wall in your office and say, this is the person that I'm talking to. And look at it every time that you're writing a post or an ad so that you keep remembering who it is that you're talking to, because at the end of the day, social media is a two-way conversation.
So what's meant to be
it's meant to be anyway. Yeah, just like this. So who is it that you're talking to? If you need that visual image of that person, print out a picture of somebody.
Yeah, give him a name.
Give them a name. Give them, you know,
ABC and L. OK, but because I'm not creative. OK, so I've got Alice, Barbara, Carol and Leo. And Leo is the local enterprise office.
So Leo's your B2B.
Yes. And most of my audience would be female. But I don't exclude sending posts or content to males.
Yeah.
But, you know, that would be my primary audience would be would be women.
Yeah. And I mean, there's nothing to say that you can't you know, even though you're mainly talking to women or you're mainly sending out content to women doesn't mean that men won't see it as well. I mean, absolutely.
I don't sort of say ladies in my posts. You know, I normally say parents, if I'm talking to parents, you know, you know, what's it like, you know, managing the kids at home. And that could be the men or women.
So, yeah, no, it is it is such a big topic. And, you know, Melanie and I talked just before coming on this and and there are so many things that you may not know about your audience, things that you think should be like how you think, whether it, as Melanie said, political, economic, you know, all those different things, or maybe that the complete opposites, just because you're a Democrat and they're Republican doesn't mean that you can't sell to them. You know.
Exactly.
We are all people at the end of the day and we all have needs to buy and needs to sell.
Yes.
So that's it for today, guys. Slightly longer than we normally go when it's just Melanie and I but I was
It's Wayne's fault, I'm blaming Wayne
you got us into a bad habit. But we'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. And in the meantime, have fun designing your customer avatars.
Bye for Now.