It's an interesting journey to go on with a client, learning about the power of a customer avatar before we embark on building a website.  There are a number of really important things to understand to really get some traction with this. 

Making sure your marketing is not 'Vanilla'

Now I love vanilla... ice cream, milkshake - if you can eat it, I love it!  However, we are talking marketing principles here and not delicious foodstuffs, so knowing your avatar stops you from creating a piece of marketing that kinda appeals to everyone, but by the same token, kinda appeals to no-one at the same time.

If a message says:

• Our team has built easy to use app that can be used across all your business needs.

Or:

• It will only take 20 minutes to learn our online booking app - all your sales team will hit the ground running.

Which one has the most impact?

The second one is specifying the target market (companies with sales reps), and talked about the BENEFIT to them (little downtime for training). 

You get to understand your customers problems

When you know your avatar, you know what car they drive, where they live, how old they are, what they like to do on their weekends and the name of their pet goldfish (Fido of course).

You know them so well as you have created exactly what they look like in our head, and in doing this, you get the gold - you know their needs.  And when you are designing a website you can talk to this need or problem and tickle the emotion of the customer and have them thinking 'these people understand me', and they become much more likely to purchase your service or product. 

It's time to talk about your avatar and not about you

When you say how good you are, people just don't really believe you.  But if you say that you will make things easier for them, then you get their attention.

  OPTION 1 :

  I am the best plumber in town, I have excellent references, and I have a 5 star guarantee.

This is OK, you might have some social proof, and you have some sort of guarantee, but this is what everyone says, and it all becomes white noise.

  OPTION 2:

  Did you know a dripping tap could cost you $500 per year in water bills? Get us over to check out your taps.

You are now talking to the your customers needs - to save money, and offered a solution, fix the taps. 

New Zealanders want to do business with real people, and want to know and trust you.  Marketing is all about building that trust, and by showing that you take an interest in them, its' a great start!