What is an Ideal Client Avatar?

Avatar. I’m not referring to the blue creature from the animated Disney® movie. I’m talking about your Target Market. Your Marketing Persona. Your Target Audience.

The person/people you want to be your client/customer!

Join us for a 4-part series reviewing how to identify your ideal client avatar. You’ll learn how to:

• perform an avatar study
• identify your ideal client avatars pain points
• determine where your ideal client avatar is spending time online
• create messaging that your ideal client avatar will respond to and engage with
• monitor trends in your ideal client avatars changing behaviors, pain points, and needs, and more

Sorry, but EVERYBODY is not your Ideal Client.

Several years ago I was speaking with a local business owner we’ll call Steve. Steve owned a PC repair business. He was excited to grow his business and we were discussing methods and strategies he could use. One of the first questions I asked was, “Who’s your client?” Steve quickly answered, “Everybody. Everybody has a computer.” 

You could have heard a pin drop when he said that.

EVERYBODY is NOT your ideal client, and not my ideal client.

Let’s take a deeper look at Steve’s situation. First of all, not everybody has a computer. And of those who do, not everyone owns a PC. I live in a household of proud Apple product owners. Secondly, Steve can’t possibly serve everyone who does have a PC. He’s a one-man show! Taking the EVERYBODY approach serves neither our customers nor us. 

Let’s go further into investigating an Ideal Client Avatar.

There are several schools of thought when it comes to a niche or ICA. Niche-ing down too far can paint yourself into a corner, but using broad strokes can water down your message. Finding the middle ground is the secret ingredient. We need to know our ICA’s pain points, understand their budget constraints, and speak their language, among other things.

After some brainstorming, we decided that Steve’s Ideal Client Avatar looks more like this: an established local business with 15+ employees on staff who rely on their computers to operate their day to day business. Steve could also have an ICA that is a little different: perhaps a website designer or graphic design artist who’s entire livelihood depends on a reliable computer. And Steve can sell a variety of products to these clients, such as emergency after hours support packages, or monthly maintenance packages, or even become an affiliate for malware or antivirus software. 

See you next week when we get started on the Avatar Study!