Build Your Marketing Avatar

Everything you do in your business should be built around what “Joe” or “Jane” would like, which in some cases will not be what you like, unless you happen to be your own ideal client. I wrote that years ago and I still say it to clients every week, because most owners are still designing their business for themselves.

Talking about a “target market” confuses people. It sounds like a spreadsheet. So we do something simpler at RedKnight: we create a fictitious person and do all the detailed work about that one person. Now you ask “what does Mary like?” instead of “what does my target market want?” And that question has an answer.

What an avatar is and what it is for

An avatar is a made-up person who represents your ideal client. We use it as the baseline for all branding and marketing, because you always want to tailor those things around your ideal customer rather than around everyone. Some businesses will end up with more than one avatar, and that is fine, but build the first one completely before you start a second.

The avatar does two jobs. First, it makes sure your branding, your messaging and your advertisements are designed around the people you actually want. Second, and this surprises owners, building it often exposes why you have struggled to reach those people in the past. You may discover your sign, your prices and your ads have been talking to someone else entirely.

Here is the distinction that makes the avatar work: exact, not range. Do not write “35 to 50, middle income.” Write an age, a job title, a street, a car. Ranges let you keep hedging. A specific person forces a decision, and decisions are what you need.

Start with your best and your worst client

If you have been in business for a while, this is easier than you think. Start with the ideal client you have actually worked with, the one you wish you could clone. What were they like? What did they drive, where did they live, how did they find you, how did they pay, what did they say when the job was done?

Then think about the nightmare client. The one who argued every line, called at all hours, wanted it cheaper and faster and never referred anyone. Write down their characteristics too. The nightmare tells you what your avatar is not, and that is just as useful. Often the two share a demographic and differ entirely in values, and that tells you the avatar is more about mindset than zip code.

If you are a startup and have no clients yet, borrow from people you know who fit the picture, and be honest that you are guessing. The avatar will get corrected by real customers soon enough.

The basic question list

Here is the full list we use for every avatar. Answer every one with a specific fact, not a range.

• Name
• Gender
• Income level
• Geo location (an actual address, which tells you the housing type)
• Marital status
• Education level
• Job title and description
• Children, if any, and their ages
• Spouse’s age
• Spouse’s education level
• Spouse’s job title and description
• Spouse’s income level
• Combined household income
• Types of cars driven (this one matters more than most)
• Restaurants frequented
• Stores shopped at
• Television channels and shows watched
• Social media preference
• Hobbies

And the additional information we recommend you add:

• Music preference
• Type of media consumed other than TV and music
• Reading preferences
• Clubs they belong to
• Charitable giving
• Travel preferences
• Type of phone carried
• Religion
• Political views
• Values (these are harder to identify, and the most important)

Then add how they make decisions: what is their shopping pattern, what do they prioritize, where do they look for information, and how do they look for it.

Write it as a person, not a form

Once the list is filled in, write it as a short biography, the way you would describe a neighbor. In our guide the example is Mary, 43, in the accounting department of a local bank, married to a plumber with one employee, two kids in high school, a Toyota hybrid SUV in the driveway next to his F-150. She shops at Wegmans and Target, listens to health podcasts and country at her desk, cannot quite delete Facebook because of the family overseas, and asks her friends on social media before hiring a contractor. She wants a contractor she can leave alone in her house, and she will pay a little extra for something that lasts. She looks for value, not a bargain.

Now look at how many marketing decisions are already made. You know where Mary looks for you. You know what she is afraid of. You know what not to say. That is what the avatar is for.

This week, block a few hours and build one avatar all the way through: the full question list, then the biography, then a picture from a stock site that looks like them. Before you start, write down your ideal client and your nightmare client from memory. Use the first as the skeleton and the second as the list of what to leave out.

Expect three to five hours the first time. It is free. If you have existing customers, spend part of that time calling two or three of the good ones and asking how they found you and why they chose you. Their answers are worth more than anything you can guess.