Identifying Your Client Avatar in 3 Easy Steps
If you’ve researched marketing tactics at all, you’ve likely come across the term “ideal client avatar.” This is a fairly common term, and while everyone will tell you that you need one, few people actually define it. I would like to demystify the concept and give you some easy steps to help you not only define your client avatar, but put it into action!
In the simplest terms, your ideal client avatar is the person you would most like to work with. Putting it another way, your avatar is the blueprint for your “perfect” client. Sometimes you first start by creating categories of people you want to work with (personas), but ultimately your ideal client avatar is an image of the exact person you want to work with.
In a perfect world, our ideal clients would be able to instantly find us, but we obviously don’t live in a perfect world. This is why defining your avatar makes such a difference: when you know who you want to attract, it’s a lot easier to tailor your messaging and branding to catch their attention!
Step 1: Understanding Your Avatar’s Demographics
I’ve read a lot about creating ideal client avatars and personas over the years; often, the explanation consists of “dig into your avatar’s demographics.” This is good advice, and it’s something I walk my clients through, but this is where it starts – it’s not the entire picture.
Your ideal client’s demographics are essential to determine, though. Without them, you won’t know who you’re speaking to (which makes crafting your messaging rather difficult)!
The demographics you will want to dig into include:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Marital status
- Number and age of children
- Income level
- Occupation
- Education
This might seem like a lot, but think about it: your messaging and branding will be crafted to attract a specific type of client. The same marketing that would attract a 24-year-old newlywed with a college education probably won’t attract a 68-year-old retiree.
Your messaging matters – and knowing who you’re talking to will provide a strong foundation!
By the way, if you would like to dig deeper into this, our Design Your Ideal Messaging course has some amazing training and resources to help you define your ideal client avatar!
Step 2: Digging Into Your Ideal Client’s Psychographics
“Psychographics” might seem like an intimidating term, but it really just means “why your ideal client makes the purchasing decisions they do.” It’s literally the “why” behind their choice to work with you.
This is the step that requires you to drill down a bit deeper, going beyond the demographics. You may know that your ideal client avatar is married with 2 elementary-age kids, living in a suburban area and holding a professional degree. But have you taken the time to figure out what makes them “tick?”
In other words, your psychographics give you insights into the psychology of buying. Now that you know who your ideal client is, why would they buy from you?
You only have a few seconds to catch their attention when they’re scrolling through Google, their email, or their social media feed. What you tell them should impact them in a way that lets them know you’re the one they’ll want to work with!
For this section, think through the “why” behind their purchase decisions. What are their goals? Their values? Their concerns or pain points?
You can gain some of this research through digging into your social media and Google Analytics insights, but it’s also a good idea to talk with your Sales Team. What are they hearing that could help you better understand your prospective clients? Or talk to your Client Happiness Coordinator who regularly checks in with your clients and hears valuable feedback.
Step 3: Know Where to Find Your Ideal Client!
In the Demographics phase, you thought through where your avatar lives; in this phase, you’ll need to do some research to find out where they like to hang out online, or what they like to read or do.
This serves two purposes: first, it allows you to show up on the platforms they already like connecting on (which makes your Marketing Team’s job a lot easier) – and second, it allows you to focus your marketing efforts and spend in an effective way.
If your ideal client prefers to connect through LinkedIn, it really doesn’t make sense to put all your efforts into YouTube; in the same way, if they spend time every day scrolling and engaging organically on Instagram, it doesn’t make sense to put the majority of your spend into Facebook ads.
It may take a bit of trial and error to figure out where your ideal client is most easily found, but it’s something that can be determined fairly easily by tracking your social media metrics. Where are you growing, and which platforms are remaining stagnant?
This also holds true for email and text messaging. Discovering which options your ideal client prefers can help you connect much more easily!
Defining your ideal client does take some time and intentional effort, but the results it brings are worth it. If you are ready to get started on defining your avatar, click here to download our free worksheet!