A soulmate is Life’s way of saying “Hey, this is the person whom you will spend the rest of your life with”.
The thing about soulmates is that they are not made, they naturally exist.
We can’t build our dream soulmate in a factory like a doll (or so they say).
Similarly, in the business world, we have our own versions of ‘soulmates’…
….and instead of soulmates, we call them customer avatars.
The best thing is?
We can literally create them!
Let’s get to it!
ASK YOURSELF THIS
Who am I?
What do I want?
What am I looking for?
What do I have to offer?
These are the kind of questions we ask ourselves before searching for our business soulmate.
We must have something to offer to them, or else why would they ‘date’ us?
When it comes to creating your customer avatar, identifying your business values and objectives is the first step.
A simple way to know your values and objectives is by asking yourself…
“What am I selling?”, “Who do I want to sell it to?”, “What do I have to offer?”, “Whom does it benefit more from?”
Sometimes all it takes is a little soul searching…
And you will definitely be able to get a sense of who you want as your customer.
BE A STALKER — DO MARKET RESEARCH
We don’t like to admit it but when we see someone we like, our immediate reaction is to search for them on Facebook.
Before we know it, we have all their details…
…down to what was their last meal.
It sounds creepy but doing background research is exactly what’s needed when you’re creating your customer avatar.
Grab your laptop and jot down everything you can find on the Internet about your ideal customer.
And just like a soulmate, your ideal customer may already exist…
They could be existing customers who have purchased your products or services.
Referring to their information and doing surveys goes a long way.
However, what if your ideal customer hasn’t found their way to your company yet?
No worries — you can still do some secondary research.
Look through social media and websites for conversations regarding your products or services (or your competitors).
You’d be surprised at what a single conversation could provide.
FILL IN AN AVATAR WORKSHEET
An avatar worksheet is a series of questions that help humanise your avatar better…
The first step is giving your avatar a name… let’s call him Steve.
Now, try to think of some answers for these questions..
What does Steve do for a living? His job title? His hobbies? His likes and dislikes? His pain points?
Try coming up with a few other questions that relate more to Steve’s traits.
For example, say that Steve works in finance.
What sort of challenges does Steve come across in his daily work?
What problems does he encounter from his clients?
Being able to visualize your avatar more clearly is the key to creating great marketing messages.
TEST TEST TEST!
What do businesses do before launching a product?
They have a few people test their products.
Why? To see if their customers appeal to it or not.
In the same vein, testing your avatar worksheet will definitely help to make a clear identification of who your ideal customers are.
But how do you test them?
Since you already have an idea of who your customer avatar is…
….what you could do next is create a safe environment and fill the room with a few potential customers.
Test your offers with some ads using say Facebook.
A small amount spent here can give you a lot of good information.
TAKE AWAY
Without a customer avatar, you will probably waste a lot of time and money doing tests blindly.
And keep in mind, you can have more than one avatar.
But I’d suggest keeping it to below 3 in total.
By spending time creating your ‘soulmate’, I promise you’ll be surprised at the results that come out from it.
