I bet every course you’ve taken, every coach you’ve worked with, and a good bunch of the 3000 free PDF downloads you have go on and on about your ideal client avatar. How important it is to know exactly who they are, what their age is, whether they have kids, whether they love tea or coffee and what they last ate 🙄
What you’re not thinking about is the human being. What makes them laugh, what keeps them up at night and what evokes an emotional response – this is what matters, not the fact they have 2 kids, a pet hamster and that their favourite colour is pink.
By focusing more on their sense of humour, their fears and self-doubts, you’re thinking more about the actual human being. Your messaging and offers are going to speak to them on a much deeper level, which will lead to more community, more clicks and more conversions.
Values are another area to focus on and what are most important to your human. For example, I know that freedom is a big value for my human. It’s usually the main driver of their online business.
Now, I bet you’re wondering how you get to know these kinds of things?
How to Find the Information You Need
It depends a little on your business, but for some of you it will be pretty easy.
A lot of the time, our businesses help people with things we used to struggle with. And so you can think back to what your thoughts were back then and how you struggled and position your content and your offers to speak to the old you.
Or, even if they don’t share the same problems you had, they may still share the same mindset, sense of humour and values as you. So it’s worth exploring your own deeper thoughts, feelings and values as they may well be mirrored in your human.
If this doesn’t suit your business, then you may need to spend a bit of time researching your human. A bit of light social media stalking can never go wrong 😉. Spending some time looking at what your people post and share, what communities they’re in and where they hang out online will give you the insight you need to speak to your human on an emotional level.
You can always take the direct approach as well. Ask them. Post polls in your stories or ask them questions in your common Facebook groups.
Find out what they are searching for on Google. However, don;t just look at the words, consider the emotions behind them.
A little bit of empathy can go a long way. Most of the time it can be easy to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and try to see things from their position.
What to do with the information?
Now that you have all that information, what should you do with it?
Let’s be honest here. We are bombarded everyday with posts on social media. How many of them do you actually remember? I’d hazard a guess that you remember the ones that caused a strong emotional response. You either loved it, hated it or it made you laugh.
Use the information you gathered to do exactly this. This means that everything you put out there should be focused on creating a strong emotional response. Because that increases the likelihood of engagement.
This just isn’t about content either. It includes your brand and where you are posting. Your business needs to speak to your audience at every available opportunity.
If you need some help on when and how to post, check out our post here.
What Next?
Just like you and me, your avatars fears and doubts can change too. It is important to keep checking in with them to make sure you are still on their wavelength. If you find they have new worries then change your content.
It is also a great idea to hang out where your avatars are. If you haven’t already done so then I suggest finding a way to be part of their community and don’t just lurk in the background either. Speak out and give value.
Not only will this allow you to keep tabs on your avatar, but it is another great way to connect with them.
Remember that content that evokes strong emotions is memorable. Every time you post think about how it could make your avatar feel. If it only gets a half smile, then go back to the drawing board and try again.
