If you are trying to create a scalable business, it is more imperative than ever before for you to create a recognizable, in-demand brand, that helps you move your business along more quickly. To do this, one of the things that you need to have dialed in more than ever is your client avatar.
Most people think of demographics when I ask them who is their ideal client avatar, but I am talking way beyond demographics – way beyond single, white female in her 30s who lives in the city. I want you to think about the fact that most, if not all of the other parts of your business (marketing, sales conversations, how you deliver your product) are not going to be the best that they can be if you do not know who it is you are trying to help. In this article we are going to talk about including psychographics into your client avatar, and how that can help you build your in-demand brand.
What is a Psychographic?
One of my favorite parts of building an ideal client avatar is the psychographics involved. A psychographic refers to how somebody feels and thinks, as opposed to the external statistics that define them. So instead of their gender, race, and age, a psychographic would be: are they warm and fuzzy? Do they have more of an intense personality? Do they make quick decisions? Or are they more methodical in their thought processes?
When creating your client avatar, what are the psychographics involved with the people that you want to help? For example, one of the leading psychographics – or personality traits – of my clients is that they are driven. They want to create a scalable business, and they are not someone who is just trying to do a small side-project.
Why Psychographics Are Important When Building an In-Demand Brand
The more you know about what drives your ideal client, the more you can put it in your marketing. The more you can include it in all of your pieces of your brand, and the easier your sales conversations will be.
The more you can know and answer potential objections, or address your client’s concerns in your interactions, you will help them know that you’re their solution. You will be able to reassure them that you understand them at a completely different level than the other players out there. Because of the noise in the marketplace, and because of the economy, making sure that your ideal client understands that you can solve their problem way, way, way before you get to a sales conversation is more important than ever before.
One of the things that I say a lot is actually something that a friend of mine said to me once, and I’ve just taken it from him and ran with it. He said, “The thing about you, Erin, is you don’t ignore the elephant in the room, you ride the elephant.” And that’s what I’m talking about here: ride the elephant.
When you know that your ideal client has certain expectations and you put the fact that you will meet those expectations out into the universe in your marketing, by the time you have a sales conversation, it’s actually a confirmation conversation rather than a “let me convince you” conversation.
Psychographics to Include in Your Client Avatar
So what is important with a psychographic? It is going to vary based on your specific industry and your niche within that industry. Here are some client psychographics to consider:
What are your clients’ political views?
Something that didn’t used to be important, but is more important now than ever, is to think about your ideal client’s political views. Are you aligned with their views? Political views are more important right now to a lot of people, and not just the version we see on the news. Think of it this way, there are certain businesses that function in the sustainability world, and it’s going to be important to them that the other businesses that they do business with also support sustainability, so that they’re in alignment.
What are your clients deal breakers?
What are your ideal client’s deal breakers? What are they absolutely not going to tolerate when you are delivering your solution? For example, my dad is currently looking for a cat sitter, and he is having a problem because people are not returning his calls. To him, it is just absolutely crazy that a business owner who wants to do pet sitting can’t even return the call of someone who wants to talk to them about pet sitting.
That lack of communication, when someone’s not even your client yet, would lead you to believe that once you are their client – if they ever bother to call you back – that lack of communication is going to continue. So for my dad as a prospect, bad communication is a deal breaker for him.
What does your ideal client expect of your service?
What does your ideal client expect of your service and of your service level? If you are a luxury or an expensive brand, your prospective client is going to have a different expectation of service than if you were more of a low-cost leader in your space. When you go to Walmart, you walk in expecting a different experience than when you walk into Nordstrom.
So for your brand, knowing the expectation of service that your client is looking for enables you to deliver it. Additionally, when you know these expectations and what it is that your client is looking for, you can put them in your marketing.
What else is making your ideal client crazy?
Right now, you need to know what else is making your client avatar crazy. What else is keeping them up at night? Right now, with the economy the way it is, people are making purchasing decisions differently. In my business example, they’re not choosing necessarily between three different coaches. They might be choosing whether or not they want to even hire a coach this year or not.
You need to know what you’re up against competition wise, not just within your field, but what else your client avatar has on their plate that is vying for their attention, that is vying for their money, that is vying for their energy.
What is your client avatar’s budget or income level?
The most important thing I will tell you about pricing and budget is that there is no money in the middle. While earning my MBA, we did a capstone class where we had a big competition in which we created shoe brands. And the biggest takeaway is that there’s no money in the middle.
Think of it this way: right now, Walmart’s killing it. Bloomingdales is killing it. Who’s having a problem? Macy’s, JCPenney, and the other ones that come to mind are probably out of business right now. This is because you cannot be everything to all people, because it makes it impossible to find your people.
When you try to be everything to everyone, your solution becomes a very watered down version of whatever problem you solve. And right now, people want solutions to their problems. They want to know that the thing that they invest in is going to deliver on either the problem that they need solved, or the experience that they want to have.
What does your ideal client hate about working with your type of business?
It is important to know what your client avatar hates about working with your type of business or any type of business. I once had a woman tell me that she hates modules and the online component of coaching programs she had joined in the past.
For me personally, I get very easily frustrated with technology. I have all the empathy and patience in the world for different strategies to grow my business but I’m very short tempered with my technology. So when I go to make purchasing decisions, I look for solutions that are very straightforward, and won’t require me to screw around with technology that I don’t already know how to use and that I don’t already have involved in my world.
I just recently had someone approach me to trade podcasts, where she’d be a guest on mine, I’d speak on hers. She wanted to exchange messages via Voxer to do it. I know Voxer but I don’t have it. I’m sure it’s absolutely fine, but I already have LinkedIn DM, Facebook, DM, Instagram, DM, two different emails, a phone number, a business phone number, you can text me. I am not interested in yet one more way to exchange information with somebody. And I just let it go, because if that’s the only way that they talk to people, then that’s not my person.
Your Client Avatar Should Always Be Evolving
Why is Having these things dialed in so important? First, it makes it easier to find your people when you know who you’re looking for. Second, the marketplace is so noisy, right now and there’s no barrier to entry to any social media platform. anyone with a camera phone, and some time on their hands can get out there and be very, very pervasive with their messaging.
If you’re going to cut through all that noise to attract your clients, The faster you’re able to resonate with them, The better you will be able to connect with them faster and show that you understand them.
Many business owners treat the creation of their client avatar as a one and done situation. However, this should actually be a living, breathing document that guides almost every decision you make in your business. the more you understand who it is that you serve, the better job you’ll do of solving their problem in the way that they can receive and best use that solution.
