Introduction
If you’re like most business owners, your current marketing avatar may not be as effective as it could be. Perhaps you had to create your avatar in the beginning and it doesn’t seem to hold true any longer, or perhaps you’ve never created one at all! In either case, creating an updated marketing avatar can help you better understand who your target audience really is and how best to reach them.
It’s easy to get stuck in the same routine, especially when it comes to marketing. But what if your current marketing avatar could be more relatable and more useful than ever before? What if your marketing persona could not only represent who you are today, but also what you’re about to become? By taking some time to assess your business goals and make some changes, you can upgrade your marketing avatar to reflect these changes and set the foundation for success. Here’s how you can update your marketing avatar with a few simple steps.
What is Marketing Avatar?
If you’re looking to build your business, marketing your product or service is key to success—but who exactly are you trying to market to? Your marketing avatar can help you figure out the answer. A marketing avatar (or persona) is an imaginary person who represents the typical consumer of your product or service—your ideal customer, if you will. If you know this person, or as much as possible about him or her, it makes crafting your marketing plan and executing promotional strategies much easier.
3 Questions every business should ask themselves
To create your avatar, start by asking yourself three questions:
I.Who am I trying to market my product or service to?
II.What is their pain point?
III.and What are their behaviors?
A good rule of thumb is that marketing avatar should answer all three questions succinctly, without exceeding 100 words or so.
What you must do before creating your new avatar?
I. Define your current avatar’s characteristics.
II. Research your target market.
III. Find out what has changed about your target market since you last updated your avatar.
IV. Determine what has changed about your business since you last updated your avatar.
V. Brainstorm some new characteristics for your refreshed marketing persona.
VI. Identify which of the old or new traits are most important and interesting to you and focus on those aspects when creating your next marketing avatar.
VII. Make sure that all parts of your business, from the company logo to the tone of voice in emails, align with this new refreshed character so that he or she is recognizable throughout every aspect of your brand!
Step 1 in creating your new marketing avatar – building the foundation
In order to create an updated marketing persona, you need to start with the basics.
What is your avatar’s name?
What does he or she look like?
What are their demographics?
Once you have these key foundation pieces in place, you can move on to step two.
Step 2 in creating your new avatar – getting to know your ideal customer
Now that you have the foundation laid, it’s time to give your marketing avatar a voice. What does he or she sound like? Take some time to think about:
-who your ideal customer is?
-What are their demographics?
-What are their interests?
-What needs do they have that your product or service can help with?
Once you have a good understanding of who your ideal customer is, you can start creating content that appeals to them.
For example, if you’re selling kitchenware, write articles about the benefits of cooking at home and meal planning tips. That way when people come across one of your blog posts, they’ll be reminded that cooking and meal planning could solve their problems and click through to purchase from your site.
Step 3 in creating your new avatar – developing unique traits, qualities, and interests
When you’re creating your new marketing persona, it’s important to consider what unique traits, qualities, and interests they have. These can be things that set them apart from your competition or that make them particularly well-suited to your target market.
For example, if you’re targeting stay-at-home moms, your marketing avatar might be someone who is extremely organized and efficient.Think about:
what makes your target market tick and what kinds of qualities would appeal to them.
What are the hobbies and personal interests of people in your target demographic?
What are their fears?
What are their values?
What types of activities do they enjoy?
By identifying these traits, you’ll know how to craft messages that speak directly to the needs and desires of this audience.
Step 4 in creating your new marketing avatar – building strengths and weaknesses
As you create your new marketing persona, it’s important to consider what they’re good at and what they struggle with. This will help you understand how to appeal to them and what kinds of messaging will resonate.
For example, if your target is someone who is very analytical, you’ll want to make sure your messaging is clear and concise. On the other hand, if they’re more creative, you’ll want to use language that is emotive and inspires them.
Once you have a clearer picture of your avatar’s strengths and weaknesses, think about what life events or habits are most likely to happen in their lives. These are things like children starting school or getting married. Once you know these events, create content around them!
Final steps for refining your updated marketing persona
After you’ve collected all of your data, it’s time to sit down and start sifting through it all. You want to look for patterns and commonalities among your target audience members. Use these findings to start piecing together a new marketing persona that reflects the updated version of your target customer.
Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process – as your business changes and grows, so too should your marketing persona.
Keep on top of trends within your industry, read about what other businesses are doing, listen to what customers are saying about their experiences with your company and do some research into what others are doing right.
Wrapping Up:
Whether you’re starting from scratch or just giving your marketing avatar a much-needed refresh, taking the time to create (or update) a marketing persona for your business can give you a major advantage when it comes to planning and executing your marketing strategy.
By understanding your target customer’s needs, wants, and pain points, you can create messaging and content that resonates. So take a moment now to complete this exercise by writing down everything you know about your marketing avatar. When you’re done, review what you’ve written and then ask yourself these questions:
What are their fears?
What are their joys?
What are their goals?
How does my product help them overcome their fears and reach their goals?
