| Have you learned the first step in creating a successful marketing plan?
Your favorite marketing gurus will tell you to start with building an avatar of your ideal customer. The purpose is to create a picture of the person you’re trying to reach to better understand their pain points so you can better find them and market to them.
Pretty practical advice. Because how can you market if you don’t know who you’re selling to right?
But often, these marketing avatars are rendered useless.
It’s not entirely your fault. Most likely, you’ve downloaded a template form to fill out about your “ideal target audience.” And you fill out all the details. You decide on a target age, a target educational background, maybe even a target location.
You even add a photo and give it a name.
But here’s the thing. Either the information is too specific (ex target age 29 to 32) or too vague (ex. target age 29 to 32).
Do you see what I did there? The same information on a template form can be both too much or too little, depending on who you’re trying to reach. Like I said, pretty useless.
Why?
The avatar form doesn’t always cover the things you actually need to build a marketing strategy to attract and convert your ideal customers.
But don’t throw out the templates you’ve downloaded or even the avatars you’ve created just yet!
While these profiles are not perfect, they give you an idea of who you want to reach. In addition, you can tweak the forms to add the essential details you do need to build a strategic marketing plan.
They also keep you from venturing into the dangerous “everyone is my target audience” mentality.
Because if everyone is your target, then your target is no one.
It’s tough to create a plan or even write copy when trying to reach the 34-year-old entrepreneur and the 65-year old retiree simultaneously.
So while looking at your avatar can sometimes leave you scratching your head wondering “does my target audience really exist?” use that frustration instead to improve upon the avatars.
Soon you’ll find that you’re speaking their language, meeting them where they are, and presenting your product or service to meet their needs.
And that is the sweet spot that will make you a great marketer!
To Your Success, Paul Hanson
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