A Hera Hub Business Booster Recap, with Lisane Basquiat
A lack of clarity will cost your business both time and money. When you don’t understand who you want to work with, you will inevitably spend time and energy on tasks that won’t move your business forward.
It is tempting to think, “This is what I do, and therefore the people that I’m looking for will understand what I’m trying to do.” However, it often does not work that way. Instead you need to first identify the people that you are looking for, in order to successfully describe what you do specifically for that audience.
A lot of new entrepreneurs try to target a very large definition of audience, the broadest being, “My product is for everyone.” Or this might be , “My product is for women.” This ultimately leads to the entrepreneur talking about themselves, “This is my experience, and this is my product.”
If you think about dating, you want to go beyond trying to date everyone, or even just one gender. You need to know some additional qualities you are looking for, because this will help you find the right person, faster.
However, the truth is that you will spend time, money, and energy chasing “everyone.” You can spend your time, money, and energy more more efficiently by knowing where they spend their time (which social media platform, for example). You will also become more clear in your messaging, and you’ll attract the right people much faster.
What is an ideal customer avatar (ICA)?
There are a few different ways to think about your ideal customer avatar. In my experience, there are five elements of your ideal customer avatar.
- Demographics (external information)
- Age, gender, income level, marital status
- This is standard and basic, but will only get you so far
- Psychographics (internal information)
- What they are thinking, what worries them, what they are passionate about?
- Spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical state
- Goals, challenges, and paint points
- What they want, and why don’t they have it
- Objections
- Why wouldn’t they buy from you?
- What is their role in the process? (ex: if product is for a child, a parent or other adult often purchases the item or service)
- Where does your ICA get their information and hang out
- What do they read, what social media?
- Who do they trust?
How do you create your ideal customer avatar?
Start at the highest level, and create one or two bullet points to answer each of the five qualities outlined above.
Here is an example of the ideal customer avatar that I created: Gary, the Guy Who is Going Around in Circles.
Gary is a business owner, 45 years old, and going through his second divorce. He had two children with his first wife and divorced after 15 years. His second wife also had children, and after 7 years they are divorcing. Both marriages ended because of infidelity. His father was a womanizer, and he was raised by his mom and money was a struggle. Now he is pretty financially comfortable, and is seen by the world as successful, confident, and sexy. However he is starting to realize he is creating a life that is like his father’s, and he is not comfortable with that. His second divorce is tense, and it’s shaking his world. He is close with his daughter, though not as close with his son. His soon to be ex-wife is challenging him in court. His business partners are growing impatient. His son avoids him. His daughter often seems disappointed. He wants to change the path his life is on, and he is looking for a safe space to sort through this and tap into his own inner strength.
I personally even like to find a photo that represents each of my customer avatars. In my business, I have four ideal customer avatars, and each is named and described to this level. In this way, I can imagine that I am speaking exactly to Gary, a man that I feel like I actually know, and by doing so, my customers will feel like I know them, too.
Spending time to identify and get to know your ideal customer avatar will bring you closer to business success and will make your business efforts more successful. You can return to this exercise over and over, adding more bullet points every time, refining as you learn what works for your own growing customer base, and eventually creating a true “character” that you can work to serve, which will ultimately bring greater success.
How can you target your messaging using your ideal customer avatar?
You can begin to gather from real customers you already have that match up with your ideal customer avatar, or you can imagine what your ideal customer avatar might say. Create a list of things they actually say. Imagine if Gary above is talking, he would say both, “I have my ex-wife” ( in a blaming way), but he would ALSO say, “My life is going off track and I need help.” He’s at a crossroads, and his own language will reflect that.
What I know about vision and being clear about what you’re looking for will allow you to create messaging that will really resonate with your clients.
This approach is all about betting really clear on who you are looking for. Understanding the ideal client will also help businesses communicate and plan with social media and marketing strategies.
By creating your ideal customer avatar, and getting to know this character you will ultimately build your ability to target all aspects of your business toward your ideal clients.
About the author:
Lisane Basquiat, Owner of Hera Hub Carlsbad passionate about holistically coaching and supporting entrepreneurs in shaping their path to freedom by saying yes to their dreams and leveling up personally and professionally.
