Creating the Perfect Customer Avatar: Tips & Strategies

Before we get started, hope you know how to conduct ICP research.

If NO, kindly explore this piece.

Otherwise, this article wouldn’t make much sense. 

Alright, with that in mind, let’s cut to the chase. 

A lot of well-meaning marketers reluctantly rely on guesses and assumptions when building a customer avatar. We wouldn’t blame them; without a roadmap, everyone will, at some point, lose his/her way.

Thanks to Adela Revella’s 5 Rings of marketing insight in her Book ‘Buyer Persona’—you wouldn’t have to be left hanging at any stage.

First things first, hope you have conducted the relevant phone interviews? If you haven’t, you might want to do that now. You don’t have to interview every customer on your list; 10 is enough to design an effective customer avatar.

The Buying Process

Revellas’ 5 rings of marketing insight remain influential in providing customers a seat at the decision-making table. A credible marketing strategy requires in-depth knowledge of your audience—assumption and guesses would take you nowhere when making high-value considerations.

{high value considerations are decisions that attract quality consideration. Includes decisions like rebranding a product, building a house, starting a business. Does not include decisions like purchasing a soap, picking strawberry for the kids or selecting a new set of utensils—consumers don’t spend much time considering such decisions so a customer avatar wouldn’t do much good}

Adela’s marketing rings help organize all the factors that need to be considered and an approachable formula for understanding your customer’s desires. 

We ‘ve’ all made decisions that influenced a good portion of our lives—might have been determining a suitable copywriting agency for a marketing campaign, picking the right school for our children, hiring an architect, starting a business, etc.

Most times, with zero start-up information, we rely on our internal preference and a quick google search to kickstart the journey. We then explore family and friends’ opinions before looking for businesses that offer external and philosophical features in line with preferences we deem probable.  

Check out this Case Study.

Joy and her 12-year-old daughter Christabel recently moved into their new home in the eastern part of Nigeria. There are over 78 high schools within the area. Christabel is scared of heights and would like to be a doctor at 25. Familiar with Christabel’s experiences in her previous schools, Joy sets out in search of a suitable high school for her daughter.

Without having to think about external features like the ‘best educational system or top-notch teaching services, ‘ Joy is already extremely picky about her decision. She shortlisted science-based schools with buildings offering structures in line with Christabel’s standard within a 50km radius.

Note that she had gathered all this information without consulting a friend or agent. With just Christabel’s internal preference, Joy had reduced her list to 6. With the hopes of seeing Christabel archiving her dreams of becoming a doctor at 25, she vets the schools on her list, removing three with little to no track record of completing a course within its set duration.

With three to go, joy consults a friend. This is the first time Joy puts into consideration questions like ‘what’s the mission statement? How many staff do they have? What’s their fee like? For the first time, external and philosophical conditioning sets in.

A closer look, and you would be surprised as to how many hours Joy had put into making this decision. Every high-value consideration we make creates stories with priceless insights capable of pioneering sustainable marketing decisions.

Customers easily see through bluffs and pretence. To build a loyal customer base, your business must be regarded as a trendsetter in its industry. Your customers need to know and see for themselves that you are unique in every way.

You might be wondering, how do I break down such customer stories into actionable insights? Let’s get started.

5 Rings of Marketing 

Priority Initiative

Priority initiative explains the most compelling reason a buyer decides to invest in a solution similar to the one your organization offers. 

Joy had shortlisted her list due to numerous internal preferences. Yeah, you might not be able to influence marketing decisions based on her daughter’s phobia, but you can make it known that duration of the study wouldn’t exceed the estimated time.

Priority initiative helps define, defend, and execute strategies that would resonate with your buyers buying decision at the earliest stage.

Success Factors

Why does your buyer need such a product? Is the buyer looking to reduce business risk? Success factors looks like benefits, but if you conducted the interview we recommended, you would find out it is not a benefit, and it’s not made up of speculations but real data.

Joy was looking to fulfill her daughters’ dream in the most convenient way possible. She believed Christabel would get the best training experience when close to home and far from her fears.

Success factors are scenarios buyers believe will change after purchasing your product—buyers’ specific expectations based on the outcome{s} that matters most to them. Mostly comprises of ‘Why’ questions.

Perceived Barriers

Perceived barriers refers to the objections and insights from experience and issues that rouse due to the usage of such products. 

We didn’t detail the experiences Christabel had in her previous schools—it’s quite essential when carrying out an interview. Ask about hindrances that made the customer not to purchase a similar product.

It also focuses on individuals who got in the way, negative experiences, or features/capabilities that might be missing from your product or service.

Buyers Journey

What typically influenced their journey? How did they arrive at a final decision?

Joy already had a preference in mind but still contacted a friend to get detailed info {tells you why you need to build sustainable relationships with every client}.

Buyers’ journey would give you thorough insight on factors that were included or excluded—who was involved in the decision and what the buyer did to evaluate options.

Decision Criteria

Why did he or she keep certain solutions under consideration? What tipped the balance in favor of a particular option?

The decision criteria help locates the attributes, services, or solutions that most customers optimize. Joy had six options under her belt, but when she considered her daughter’s dream of graduating at 25, she quickly eliminated three based on track record.

You might find out that some buyers prefer companies that state benefits over facts, while others operate the other way round. You may also find out that numerous capabilities you deem probable have little to no impact on their decision.

Is your marketing material made up of specific features or benefits that are most important to your buyer? Does it provide adequate info about what the buyer wanted to learn while checking out your product? Do your product possess attributes of the solutions buyers believe they need to achieve their success factor?

The decision criteria will help you weigh your options.

Getting Your List Organised

You have broken your data into bits. Still bulky but easily accessible. To ease the process, map up the audio interview sections into transcripts. Highlight details on your transcript based on the five rings of marketing. Map out details on the key point and insight a buyer relied on at each stage.

Highlighting the Five Rings of marketing from Joy’s Experience.

Joy and her 12-year-old daughter Christabel recently moved into their new home in the eastern part of Nigeria. There are over 78 high schools within the area. Christabel is scared of heights{perceived barrier} and would like to be a doctor at 25.{priority initiative} Familiar with the experiences Christabel had in her previous schools. Joy sets out in search of a suitable high school for her daughter.

Without having to think about external features like the ‘best educational system or top-notch teaching services, ‘ Joy is already extremely picky about her decision. She shortlisted science-based schools {buyers journey} with buildings offering structures in line with Christabel’s standard {perceived barrier} within a 50km radius.{buyers journey}

Note that she had gathered all this information without consulting a friend or agent. With just Christabel’s internal preference,{priority initiative} Joy had reduced her list to 6. With the hopes of seeing Christabel archiving her dreams of becoming a doctor at 25, she vets the schools on her list, removing three with little to no track record of completing a course within its set duration. {success factor}

With just three to go, joy consults a friend. For the first time, Joy puts into consideration questions like ‘what’s the mission statement? How many staff do they have? What’s their fee like?{decision criteria} For the first time, external and philosophical conditioning {decision criteria} sets in.

Create an excel sheet similar to the one below. Compare and contrast with transcripts of other buyers.

To get the key points, you would have to look for similarities in the excel sheet. Look for answers to questions like ‘What does Joy, John, Felix, and Anderson have in common with reference to priority initiative? How many times did they rely on a specific success factor to determine their decisions?

With just one interview, it’s impossible to create an effective customer avatar. Comparing and contrasting the story of different buyers would enable you to determine suitable marketing messages.

Note that; You can create a before or after purchase customer avatar. It all depends on the audience you are trying to sell to.

When you have broken your similarity into key points, fill in the information into any customer avatar template of choice, and bring your avatar to life. The info an avatar provides can be relied on when creating marketing strategies for specific campaigns.

Finally

It’s no news that selling anything and everything won’t work.

You have to brand yourself. What are you providing that makes your service unique? Is customer relationship the key reason you are standing out? Like us, do you rely on insights to provide your customers with an effective mode of communication?  

In Joy’s case, how can your school help hasten Christabel’s learning curve without compromising quality?

Bear in mind: In most industries, you wouldn’t be able to influence a buyer’s decision until the customer has broken down his/her expectations to suitable once based on internal preference.

Every customer loves to be the hero of the story—marketing in your customers’ voice is key to making them the hero they long to be.