Most customer avatar exercises suck. This is what to do instead.
OMG, can we please just stop with the customer avatar exercises already???
Despite everything you've heard, I'm about to tell you that most customer avatar exercises are complete horse hooey. (Plus, what you should do instead.)
If you’re like most people getting into the online business world you’ve signed up for one course or another, and the first exercise is almost always creating your ideal client or customer avatar.
Listen, I get it. You 100% need to know who you’re speaking to and where they’re coming from. But I can also say with about 100% confidence that the exercises you’ve been forced to do are lame-o and have left you feeling frustrated and confused (been there, done that) because you’re no closer to having insights that will get you REAL results. (ie, real human beings that want to buy your offerings and services.)
The method outlined here will empower you to get the ball rolling and create programs and offerings your audience ACTUALLY wants, leading to more sales, clients, and authority.
But if customer avatars aren’t important, why does every online course and marketing “guru” say you should have one?
Listen, I’m not saying customer avatars are bad. THEY’RE NOT. In fact, when they’re done well, there is just about nothing that can compete with the insights and edge they provide. Here’s the issue with most avatar exercises though:
When you're trying to launch a new business, product or service, you probably haven't worked with enough people yet to know the answers to most of the questions, so inevitably you just make a bunch of crap up.
The point of these exercises is to help you communicate with your customers in a way that makes them feel like you understand their struggles and pain points even better than they do themselves. There’s nothing wrong with knowing she's brunette, lives in Wisconsin, has 2 kids, drinks cold brew macchiatos, drives a Prius, and vacations in Florida every year, but does any of this help you understand how to solve a problem for her? Do you even know what her problems are at this point?
Let's face it, you don't need to know what kind of pets somebody has in order to sell them a coaching package.
So what should you do instead?
Start with how you solved problems for YOURSELF, or imagine a real person in your life who you’ve helped solve the same or similar problems for in the past.
Many coaches and online “infopreneurs” I know started because they learned how to solve for themselves the issue they're now helping clients with. If that's the case for you, put yourself back in the shoes of that past version of you.
A lot of times, we forget just how much pain and frustration we were in, and speak to our audience from the place we’re in now- the one where we’ve had the revelations, done the work, and gotten the results. What did you feel like BEFORE all of this? What do you wish someone would have said to you?
You can also do this exercise while thinking about a person in your life you’ve helped. It doesn’t even have to be a client or somebody who paid you. Is there a relative or close friend in your life that you helped out or encouraged to make a change?
Up next is what to do once you have this person or past version of yourself visualized.
Skip the drawn out avatar exercises and go straight to these simple questions instead:
Ok- this is going to seem really simple, but the answers to these questions will give you more insight than 5 pages of questions about what magazines she reads or the grocery store she shops at- promise.
What frustrates her the most? (as it pertains to what you're offering/ the solutions you provide)
What does she WISH her life looked like in the future? How could her life transform 3, 6, or 12 months from now?
What fears or false beliefs does she have about the solution you're offering?
There you have it! My go-to way of getting to the heart of what your audience REALLY wants to learn about and needs help with. Now you have a simple formula to help you create content, and marketing that is aligned with what your audience wants which in turn will help you book more clients, and grow your authority and audience. Drop a heck yes in the comments if you're ready to burn those avatar worksheets with me!
