Client avatar exploration

The client avatar journey

Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool that would let you know if your advertising was being effective, that all your hard work writing copy was hitting the mark, that you were on the right track when it comes to engaging with your potential customers, and more?

You are in the right place, read on to find out about the client avatar exploration process and how it can help you define your audience and reach out to the people who matter.

Selling your product or service

Perhaps you’re just starting out or find yourself in the following position.

You’ve got the best idea in the whole world and you’re working all hours to get the message out.

You have your product or service, you’ve got a website in place, you’ve got some social media posts going and things are going OK.

OK, but not great…

There are a host of things you might consider that could improve things. Improving the SEO on your website for example to reach out to more people, or perhaps running some ads on social media.

These are all great things to consider, but the most fundamental thing to consider is who are you reaching out to?

And that’s what I want to run through with you today, defining your audience using the client avatar exploration journey.

Isn’t it obvious who my audience is?

It’s a great question, we all have a gut feeling for who our audience is, that said often our assumptions can be a little off the mark.

Take as an example a client we worked with recently. They have a range of skincare products for women, so naturally assumed their target market would be women only.

We ran through the process I’m just about to outline and it turns out that their initial ideas were only partially correct. In this case, they were missing out on men who gifted, which turned out to be a profitable market segment they had entirely overlooked.

Why does defining my audience matter?

A deeper understanding your audience can have a big impact…

Branding

It’s no coincidence that bigger firms pay substantial amounts to get their branding right. Your brand and your branding are something that is very much determined by who you are, what you are selling, and of course who you are selling to.

If your branding is off people won’t understand what you stand for, so it’s important to know who your potential audience is.

Outreach

I’ve touched on this already, and it’s to do with who you are talking to when pushing your message through active advertising.

These days is it possible to be smart with your advertising by defining your audience. This is achieved in a number of ways and includes gender, age, location and interests amongst other factors. If you’re vague on who your audience is and get these wrong, it could lead to costly ad runs that reap no real rewards.

Tone and messaging

The way you write will be different according to who you are writing for. The interests and language used by a 53-year-old male will of course be very different to those of a 17-year-old girl.  

Finding your key audience

Now you’ve seen how important is it to define your audience, how do you go about doing it?

The great news is there is a process you can follow that will give you the information you need, and that process is called the client avatar exploration.

Here it is in all it’s glory,

You can see there’s a straightforward progression from box to box that will lead you through the journey.

There are also opportunities to reflect on what you’ve discovered and re-apply this knowledge by following the lighter arrows as well.

The client avatar exploration breakdown

Below I’ll dive into what each section is talking about so that you can get the most out of following though the journey.

This section will run you through each box on the diagram and give insights into what each section is talking about and why it is relevant.

So let’s get started

Product or service

The journey starts with the first step, and that is defining your product or service.

This is your jumping-off point and should bear a little consideration, making sure your definition isn’t too vague or too specific.

For example, if you’re supplying skincare products then ‘beauty products’ is probably a bit wide-ranging in scope. Getting the scope of your description right at this stage will help with the later steps.

Feelings or beliefs

Beliefs drive behaviors.

As an example, consider someone who believes in charity as opposed to someone who believes In the mighty dollar. These core beliefs will have a major influence in regard to how that person acts in the world, driving the motivations behind their behaviors.

Feelings too are influential. What will people feel regarding your product or service? These may be very different between a pet grooming product and a legal service for example.

Problems

What are the major problems that could occur due to these beliefs?

This is about potential resistance to your product or service. For example, you may offer organic meat, but have someone with a core belief that animals should all be treated with respect.

Perhaps this leads them to believe that all animals are not all treated fairly, a belief that drives their behaviour of not really eating meat.

Now you understand this, perhaps talking about the ethical conditions the animals are kept in (as is in line with organic production) would be the thing they need to hear in order for them to make the purchase.

Opportunities

Think about the opportunities that your product or service offers this person. If possible, also think about things that are fairly unique in nature that separate and differentiate you from your competition. Your USPs (Unique selling points)

Mental hurdles

In an ideal world you want there to be zero resistance when it comes to someone purchasing. Of course in the real world you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

That said you can think about and identify any potential resistance you may face in making a sale. Having the information about the resistance you’ll face gives you what’s needed to overcome them.

Price for example. “It’s too expensive” can be re-pitched to ideas surrounding quality, durability etc.

To overcome price resistance you could lead with the benefits. Something along the lines of “This product will do amazing things and last forever, that’s how you know that your money is being well spent.”

People will only see something as being expensive if their perception of value is low.

How can you think about your product or service in such a way that value is defined, and objections overcome?

Avatars

Now we get into defining what your potential customers look like.

The previous steps will have given you broader ideas about them, and helped to start focusing in.

This step takes that information and allows you to define them in terms of usable metrics, such as age and gender. This is the heart of the client avatar exploration, but there are a couple of steps to go to completely finish the journey.

Reassurance

In sales parlance this is the ‘convincer’, the thing that will take anyone with lingering doubts and help them make the final step to purchasing.

Nailing this area of the journey will again help you to fully define your message, and give you insight into your messaging.

Social proof

And lastly there’s social proof.

We are social creatures and the recommendations of people carry a lot of weight.

Do you have examples of people that were happy with your product / service?

If you don’t have anything just yet give people the opportunity to comment on your website, or invite them to post something on your Facebook page or leave a review there.

Follow-ups with existing customers are also a great way of asking for people to comment on their experience, use these to promote your message.

Summary – the client avatar exploration process

Now you’ve learnt about the client avatar exploration process it’s time to put it into practice and start to see your sales grow.

A great tool to target your message and make sure you are really engaging with your newfound audience is the customer journey. You can read all about it in our blog the customer journey map.

If you’re interested in learning more, or can see opportunities for action but could do with a little help, then why not talk to us about the support you need?

We are more than happy to talk to you about your projects and the types of support that you and your business need in order to scale, survive and thrive.