One of the most fundamental steps to successfully owning your own business is to define your customer, yet most businesses get it dead wrong.
Most business owners can tell you their target market, and will describe demographics such as location, income level, age level and the like.
That's not good enough! One of the most powerful tools of attracting customers is to define the characters in that target market.
Whether you are starting or well along the way with owning your own business, you will get more customers and retain them longer if you can build the ideal customer avatar for your business.
What is a customer avatar? Consider building a customer avatar the same way a writer would create a fictional character.
You want to build a person that embodies all the characteristics of the customer you want to attract to your business.
Think of the ideal qualities you want in that customer and also about those qualities you want to repel.
Make it personal.
You want to create a picture of this person and put it where you can see it.
Use one of the free online avatar face maker tools or an image editor if that helps.
How do I build a customer avatar? Get yourself in his head and build a persona.
Answer these questions: Is he male or female? How old is he? Does he have a family? Where does he work? How much money does he make? How does he spend his leisure time? What are his fears? His hobbies? His dreams? How physically fit is he? If you already own your own business, you hopefully have an existing customer base to draw from.
Talk to your most loyal customers and learn about them.
If owning your own business is still a dream for the future, then you will need to create your customer persona by studying your target market.
Find out where they hang out and talk to them, whether it is online in the forums or offline in the neighborhood bar.
Why will having a customer avatar help my business? Everything you write, every letter, sales ad, or blog posting, should be written directly to this person.
Make it a conversation to him, even if it is only in your head.
You should be crafting all of your marketing to communicate that you understand him and that you have the solution to his problem.
This will help you find your voice and you will be surprised how quickly you will become emotionally attached to this fictitious character.
The bottom line is that the more you understand and can connect with your ideal prospect, the more likely you will attract loyal customers.
After all, isn't the point of owning your own business to profit from helping others solve their problems with your solutions?