How to Create Your Customer Avatar | Who is Your Perfect Customer

How do you know who to design your marketing towards? Who is your perfect customer? Marilee Maricich explains the steps to create your customer avatar.

Discover exactly how to design your customer avatar – this is the most essential step when it comes to building a business.

Whether you are building a website or creating an online marketing campaign, you need to know who you are talking to and their pain points!

In this video, I chat with Marilee Maricich as she describes precisely what a buyer avatar is.

Your customer avatar, also known as the “ideal customer,” “target audience,” “buyer persona,” is the person you need to speak to every time you create content.

What is a Customer Avatar?

Brian Gibbs
Let’s talk about really what an avatar is and kind of define that a little bit so we can build on that.

Marilee Maricich
Yeah, you know, I think the avatar, it’s been just a helpful conversation — a helpful, helpful visualization of your, your target audience, your demographic. So, I think if I define the avatar: an avatar would be the persona or embodiment of your ideal customer. So, whatever that is, and one of the conversations that I like to have when I’m talking about it and having people kind of identify that is get really specific. And, when I say specific, I mean, I’ve even done this myself. And that’s like take a sheet of paper out. When you want to attract that ideal customer, get specific – what’s their age, you know, male or female. Where do they live? Where do they hang out? What kind of foods do they eat? What kind of activities are they involved in? What is your, what is your product? What are you trying to target? And, get really clear on which customer, what that customer looks like. What what is that avatar?

Brian Gibbs
So, let’s, let’s build an avatar. Let’s build, let’s come up with one. What kind of industry do we want to play with?

Marilee Maricich
Well, you know, honestly, it could be any industry.

Brian Gibbs
Pick one. Just name an industry.

Marilee Maricich
Health and wellness.

Brian Gibbs
Perfect. Wonder where you found that one.

Marilee Maricich
Great industry.

Brian Gibbs
So, let’s talk about that, then. What would be your first steps to identifying your perfect customer to your avatar? An avatar really is just, it’s just, what’s the word I want? Just a term that means your ideal customer or client or business partner or whatever. So just run us through the steps a little bit. What would be the first thing you would do to start identifying your avatar?

Marilee Maricich
I literally start with a list. And so, I get specific and I, it’s, it’s a brainstorm session, like, you know who your audience is or get clear on your audience. If you don’t know who your audience is, who should your audience be? What, what is the product that you’re trying to sell? So, in my case, health and wellness is the conversation that I like to have. But I also am trying to attract that tribe, attract people that are maybe in my, my interest level or my age or my demographic. So, for example, I might create an avatar that gets really specific if I want to target and have conversations. So… One of the things that I like to do in the way that I will brand myself in this space, so even as my own example is, even on social media, having a conversation that my avatar is going to relate to. So, I gotta identify my avatar. So, I know that maybe a female avatar between the ages of 30 and 55, I mean, just as an example. So, I’m maybe looking for somebody that is into health and fitness already, somebody that is fitness-minded, health-minded, they’re active. So maybe they like hiking, maybe they like outdoor activities. Maybe I’m going to find that avatar in places like Groups. Social media platform is great to find people in groups that are in the health and fitness. Or maybe they’re in a vegan group or, you know, just getting specific on what the interest would be. Also always looking for, for myself, looking for that entrepreneurial-minded person. I might find them in business types of groups where they’re having that business conversation. So, but I also like to have fun. So maybe somebody that has a great sense of humor. I like to post things that are funny and just do that.

Brian Gibbs
Yes, you do. I really like your little avatar person from, from Bitmoji. I think that’s great.

Marilee Maricich
Absolutely. And I actually use my Bitmoji. And actually, as a practice, if you’re familiar with the Bitmoji, you can actually create this little image, your, your own caricature. And in the practice of, I literally have tried this before, like get so clear on your avatar, what do they look like? So that if I’m looking for the avatar in that age group, that demographic between 30 and 55, female. What’s she going to look like? Is she’s into fitness? And I’m picturing her at the gym, where are you seeing this? Is she going to be in that “hashtag healthy-living” type of a group, you know? Where am I going to find that person? And so I get specific. And when I’m posting things or when I’m targeting that audience, I’m going to be relevant in my conversation to that person, and I think that’s where the connection happens.

Do you know your avatar?

Want help designing your client avatar? We created a handy worksheet that will guide you through the process. You can get it here – https://focusedidea.dotcompal.co/Avatar-Download