Last week, we discussed the importance of an ideal customer avatar (ICA) for your business. Understanding your ideal customer allows you to create marketing messages that speak to your target audience and translate into sales. Today, let’s dive deeper into how we can create a game-changing ICA.

Here are 3 crucial steps to create your ICA:

Step #1: Name your avatar

Assign a name to your avatar. Remember you’re creating a fictional character that resembles your ideal customer. Make it as real as possible.

Step #2: Identify your ideal customer’s traits

This includes their age, gender, income, location, marital status, family size, occupation, interests, lifestyle, where they turn to for information, which social media platforms they use, and how and where they shop. Avoid creating your ICA based on guess work or assumptions. Instead, use existing market research and information you have collected to create an ICA that truly reflects your target audience.

Use polls on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about your audience. If your target audience is working women in their 30s, conduct an online survey to better understand the experiences and behaviours of this demographic. Social media analytics is also useful to learn when your audience is most active, so your marketing messages reach the most amount of people possible.

There’s plenty of market research available online that you can turn to as well. For example, Sprout Social provides detailed information about social media demographics, so you can study which social media platforms your target demographic is most active on and channel your advertising efforts accordingly.

Step #3: Identify your ideal customer’s pain points

In this step, you need to identify the specific problems faced by your target audience. You can use online surveys and polls to better understand their pain points. Also, look at the questions that your ideal customers are asking on relevant forums and Facebook groups. These queries hint at the issues they face. Understanding their specific pain points will allow you to better understand their needs and the kind of products they require.

Take some time to create your ICA. You can even have several ICAs for different products and services you offer. Next week, we’ll talk more about how to utilize the ICAs to improve your business and marketing strategies.