In the video above, and the text below, I’ll cover exactly how to create your ideal customer profile. Along with running through a couple of the number one mistakes that marketers and business owners make when defining their ideal customer.
Don’t use labels
What a lot of marketers will do is to start figuring out the ‘labels’ of their customer avatar. What I mean by that is that they’ll write out a profile of average/typical customer traits, for example female, between the ages of 35-45, they enjoy ‘these’ activities, they socialise with ‘these’ friends and hang out in ‘these’ places online, and that’s about it.
These are just the surface level questions which are ok for beginning the process of defining your ideal customer. But the major problem with that is it’s all label based, it’s based on logic and how that person is defining themselves based upon those labels.
The reason that this isn’t even touching the surface of what’s gonna motivate your customer to take any kind of action is because people buy on emotion and justify with logic. If your entire ideal customer profile is built on a foundation of logical labels and we’re not even bringing the emotional aspect into the equation. Our marketing messaging is going to be constructed throughout our entire business in a way that doesn’t motivate anyone to take any kind of action. We have to build from the very beginning of the customer profile on a foundation of emotion, of fear, of what actually motivates our customer.
Why do we want what we want as human beings? Why do we desire and do the things that we do? Why do we take action towards anything? It’s because of how we’re gonna feel as a result, for example if you’re building a business, are you doing it because at the end you’re gonna feel like crap and be completely demotivated? Of course not, we build a business because of how it’s gonna feel when we get there, how we’ll feel when we’re successful and we’re generating the revenue to want to enable us to do what we want with our lives.
Everything we do is based on how we feel. Why do you wanna go to that once in a lifetime holiday destination with the person you love? Do you go because when you’re there you’re gonna feel demotivated, bored, scared and upset? No, you wanna go there because you’re gonna feel amazing, relaxed and connected, it’s gonna be an incredible experience. I hope by this point you’re starting to see that everything we do as human being is based on emotion.
What do we focus on?
So when you define your customer avatar, you need to base it on those feelings. What motivates a human being the most is moving from a place of unhappiness, fear and uncertainty to a place of happiness, abundance and positive emotion. So when we look at our product, the value and solution that it provides, think about ‘what state does it allow our customer to move from, and to’ simply put, how do we make our customers life better?
We can understand that by connecting with the pains, problems and fears that our customer is experiencing right now.
Let’s get specific
Here’s where we focus when we build out customer avatar. We ask questions like ‘what is normal life like?’ ‘What are they experiencing every day’ ‘What are their frustrations?’ ‘What do they want to change about their life?’ ‘What will their life look like if their pains and problems continue?’ ‘Who else is their problem affecting in their life?’ ‘What is their biggest, most irrational fear they have about their problem?’
If we can get in this train of thought we can then use our messaging to help our ideal customer to have a major shift in how they’re perceiving their pain and problem, perhaps by bringing more awareness to that area. Or to have an epiphany about their pain or problem, a light bulb moment where they realise the impact that not changing their pain or problem will have on their life. If you can meet them exactly where they’re at, that’s when they’ll be ready to hear your solution.
Where we come in
Our avatar is speaking in the language of their pains, problems and fears because that’s where they’re at, and ultimately that’s what our product wants to solve. So that’s where you wanna connect to show that you can provide value to change their situation or circumstances.
Think about what potential solutions could they have already looked at? What could they have tried already that didn’t work? Then think about how your product is different, why will it succeed where others failed in moving the customer from their current state, to where they want to be?
What motivates your customer?
How are they gonna face the fear that they’re feeling? When we look at our avatar and their deepest irrational fear, what is it which will encourage them to face this fear and take action on your product and solve this problem in their lives? What’s the implication if they don’t? This is the kind of language that’s gonna inspire and motivate them to take action, this is where you can communicate the actual emotional value. The real value that its gonna add to them, as a human being and change the way they feel about their life.
Defining your customer avatar or customer profile is done through the language of how they feel, not through the language of logic or labels. Labels will never motivate someone to take action.
The final point
When you look at the solution of your product and you’re defining it in your avatar. How will their life look when they have moved from their current pain or problem? How will they feel? How will their life look as a result of going through that transition? When you get clear about their pain, their problem, their fear, and how your product can provide the solution.
That will form the backbone of how you frame everything else you do throughout the rest of your business and your messaging. From your front end ads, your landing pages, your sales finals, your website, your email follow up content, your sales script communication if you have a sales team who are speaking to your customers. Everything will be through this language to connect with their emotions. That’s how you communicate with a human being from a place of inspiration and showing that you are a solution to their problems.