Do You Know Your Ideal Customer?
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Do you know your customer avatar?
Age?
Gender?
Marital status?
Location?
#/age of children?
Occupation?
Annual income?
Education?
Challenges?
Pain Points?
Goals?
Values?
Where do they hang Out?
Objections to sale?7 Figure Marketer Reveals...
The Exact Blueprint He Used To Go From $0 Online To Millionaire Marketer In Just A Few Months! Get My FREE Guide.2 users thanked author for this post.
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Great questions, Malik. I’m not sure how many people actually consider their customers’ Avatars when setting up their products.
Truth be told, I’m guilty of not doing that completely myself. A little bit of research here can pay off big time. Obviously, you need to know to whom you’re marketing.
It’s good food for thought. I have a couple products in the fold that I want to promote (and a couple to create), and I’ll definitely use your questions as launch fodder.
Thanks for this.
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I consider my ideal customer to be the person whose needs most closely match what I can offer.
And when you look at it like that, then things like their demographics seem irrelevant.
It could be that they will share some things in common, such as they all understand English, but this won’t necessarily be true all the time.
Let’s choose an extreme example.
Suppose your target market consisted of millionaires. There are kids who have achieved that and adults of a variety of ages.
If you narrowed your ideal customer to things like aged between 30-50, then you’d miss out on a large number of possible customers.
Focus on finding the people who have a problem that you can solve.
The rest will take are of itself.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy2 users thanked author for this post.
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I find that if I don’t create my avatar, I don’t hit my markets sweet spot.
If I am selling weight loss products for example, I create an avatar based on characteristics that I can rank for (I am still a seo guy) and groups that are hungry. While the weight loss niche is huge (and some of the people will be motivated to take action a vast majority will not be ready) and I could go broad and target millions of people (also tons of competition), I prefer to target brides to be, who want to lose weight in 6 months or so for their wedding (they are definitely motivated).
If I did my avatar right I know my customers pain points, their likes, if they prefer to learn via ebooks/videos/services. If my niche spends money or if they are freebie seekers.
7 Figure Marketer Reveals...
The Exact Blueprint He Used To Go From $0 Online To Millionaire Marketer In Just A Few Months! Get My FREE Guide.2 users thanked author for this post.
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Question for you, Malik.
Did you create your avatar when you first started, or did you use feedback and things like split-testing to gain an understanding of your ideal customer, and then create your avatar on the basis of that?
I ask the question because I don’t think that these things can be done in a vacuum.
I’ve long felt that your customers define your niche. And so as people buy your products, you then begin to understand better the sort of thing they need. The more that that happens, the easier it is to figure out what your ideal customer looks like.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy -
Malik, I’m glad to know your target market. A couple of ideas: Friend Liz Cortes on FB and see if she is still training brides-to-be. She might be a good collaborator, and even if she isn’t still doing it, she will have some ideas for collaboration, I’m sure. Also, there is a group planning a fitness summit in mid-January. It’s not bride-specific, but you might get some ideas or contacts. Find Georgia Lee London on FB and I’m sure you’ll see something on it. If not, let me know.
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Hi Malik,
I should like to condense your list of 14 factors to just 4, to my mind, absolutely essential ones.
The are, in no particular order, using your own words, and with brief commentaries:
“Pain Points” (If the pain is not severe or urgent enough they are NOT (yet) your customers)
“Values” (You must reflect and emulate the values they hold. And you must genuinely hold those values yourself. They will then trust you enough to become paying customers).
“Objections to Sale” (I would deal with all of these that you can possibly discover. But putting all of that aside it should be your ultimate aim to make them an offer they can’t refuse. This makes dealing with objections enormously simpler)
“Where do they hang Out”: All down to hard headed, dedicated research. But once you find them, you can, gather them up, via a squeeze page. Deliver superb value… through a free lead magnet. And, after guiding and nourishing them further (via email sequence), administer the killer blow… A uniquely positioned, refreshingly different solution to their urgent and soul crushing problem.
Hope that helps!
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How Sean Does It
Sean uses this radical process to find answers, he asks questions.
He will tell you that you must have a list and enough people for it to count.
He asks those people questions and some respond with answers. The ones that are active and respond are most likely to be active and buy.
He builds a profile around real people.
In my case, as I suspect with many people here, I used to be my prospect. I got here by having problems and seeking the solution. Now I have the solution and I can offer it to people that still have my old problems. Years ago I was that person and lived that life 24/7. If anything I may be too deep into that lifestyle and problem, since I about froze to death while starving.
More people in my market and especially those that can and will buy are more likely to be concerned about their credit card debt, they don’t have money for retirement or the children’s education, can’t figure out how to pay for Christmas and know the car is getting old and that noise it makes isn’t a good thing, than not having the money for a pack of hot dogs for supper or worry about how to pay for their dying spouse’s heart medicine.
I have two advantages in knowing my prospect that most people don’t, but you might look at them and figure out something that would apply in your case.
1. I taught what I do now in fast food joints, diners and coffee shops across the state for free at one time. I know who comes to the meetings and figured out how to make the training work.
2. I still have an office practice. I am not very active in it now, but it used to be all I did. I know who comes in, what they complain about and figured out that in almost every case the problem they say they have is not the problem they need to fix. The problem they complain about is usually a manifestation of the problem that is at the bottom of their trouble. This makes things a bit tricky, since you may have to advertise for one thing to get people you help with another thing and keep them happy in the process.
Take a war veteran for example. They might come in wanting to quit drinking or doing drugs and say I am an addict. The real problem may be they have PTSD and are self medicating. They don’t do alcohol or drugs to get high, they do them to numb the pain.
To really know your prospect, you have to see beyond the story they present. In many cases if they really understood their problem they would have fixed it, but you still have to work with them with what they present or they won’t think you can help them.
hope in someway this gives people some ideas,
Scott Hogue CChH
Follow me in the "Use What You Learn Challenge" as I create a website using what I learn from Sean that is a Platform for my niche:
http://www.threestepstowealth.comThe thread on this group that explains it:
http://preneurpal.com/forums/topic/own-the-game-and-win-it/#post-17473 users thanked author for this post.
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Thanks Scott,
Lots of food for thought there.
You get to the heart of the matter and that is: What is the real problem lurking behind the surface level problems that are presented?
While you lived, and survived, your particular trauma, and so could more easily spot the signs and emotions that you, too, would have presented with, I still believe you can get pretty close to your ideal client/customer if you are willing to drill deep down in the research stage.
And yes… as Sean recommends ask questions… again and gain and again, until you genuinely get a deep feel for what the real problem/s are.
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I must be contrary 🙂
I don’t use an avatar or ideal customer.
Instead, I focus exclusively on certain problems or needs and simply state the problem that is.
If someone has that problem – whether they are old or young, male or female, 8 children or none – I expect they should want to receive the solution to said problem.
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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Sean,
I know you ask your list for their problems and when you can do that you can be more direct than imagining a mythical target person.So, I don’t think you are being contrary, just targeted.
thanks,
Scott Hogue CChH
Follow me in the "Use What You Learn Challenge" as I create a website using what I learn from Sean that is a Platform for my niche:
http://www.threestepstowealth.comThe thread on this group that explains it:
http://preneurpal.com/forums/topic/own-the-game-and-win-it/#post-17471 user thanked author for this post.
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Hi Sean,
I would broadly agree with your approach. I am not overly committed to finding an “avatar” figure. I would much rather go deep into the actual nature of the problem itself, and discover the real pain points and their psychological triggers. Questioning prospects is certainly one solid way of getting to those points of pain, which could, of course, be suffered by people across a whole spectrum of demographics.
But I would also say that some problems will mainly be suffered by persons within a similar, more generalised, demographic, so let’s not entirely throw out the baby with the bathwater.
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Les, that;’s right, it’s not a totally wasted proposition, I hope I didn’t sound that way.
Just sharing what works for me!
You are so right . . .when you focus on the problems of certain folks, they do tend to have a demographic. . . but I personally find that working with the similarities of problems works better than working on demographics!
Sean
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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