When it comes to your business, it’s important to know who you’re selling to. Narrowing your focus and understanding your niche is the key to success. And once you know who you’re targeting, creating an avatar can help make sure all of your marketing efforts are hitting their mark. So, what is a niche and how do you find it? And what the heck is an Avatar?

A niche is a group of people that have similar likes. Many times we connect with people based on a mutual interest. That interest is your niche. Understanding your niche can help you build better relationships with the people in it. Taking the time to understand your niche can pay off in a big way.

1. Think about your interests and passions. This sounds so basic, but it really makes all the difference. Don’t just choose a niche because you’re “kind of interested” in it; it needs to be sustainable, it should ideally be something you can see yourself being passionate about for at least 5 years*.

2. Does it solve problems for your audience? Having a passion for a particular niche isn’t enough (I wish it were!). You also want to make sure there’s a need for it; otherwise, your work will stay a hobby, never growing into a lucrative business.

3. Assess your niche. Keyword research is important because you want to see for yourself what the competition is like for your niche. With a little research, you will see if this niche is really as popular as you thought.

4. Find your unique selling point. By focusing on a small audience, your business will be able to stretch its resources further and bring in customers who are closely aligned with your product or service. For example. A bakery that only bakes cupcakes. A hair salon that offers blowouts, no cuts or color. A clothing store that sells men’s accessories.

5. Test your idea. Create a simple website or landing page for your business so customers can find you. Offer a trial period of the product or give out free samples to your target customers. Run a beta group. This initial test period should not cost a large amount of money. You’re testing for data purposes. If the test is not as successful as you hoped it would be, don’t scrap your idea entirely. Go back to the drawing board to find key areas where you can make improvements.

Let’s switch gears and talk about your avatar. Creating your Avatar is a great way to get clear on who you are as an entrepreneur, and what you want your business to achieve. So how do you go about creating your very own avatar? Here are three questions to get you started!

You’re a mompreneur, an aspiring influencer, and a freelancer with your own company. You’ve got this!

You need to know who is in need of your services, products, or who you want to work with. If you try to speak to everybody you’ll end up speaking to nobody. These questions, when answered, will make a difference in your business. I know when you take action, you’ll get results. This is the same process I followed when I started learning marketing. It will make your message clear and reach the audience you want to work with!!

We spend a lot of time, energy, and effort creating content. If we do all that we want to make sure it’s something our audience wants to consume. It’s often been said if you’re talking to everyone then you are talking to no one. When your message is specifically talking to one person other people listening in can then relate to what you are saying. I know that sounds strange, but if you’re talking to someone who is struggling to grow their business and they’re a mom with young children.

You will also reach other people who are struggling and they may or may not have children. You will also reach moms with children who may or may not have a business, but they can relate to your message and may see how a small business could benefit them. This is how a direct and specific message can reach many people that a vague, broad message will miss.

#1 What Is A Customer Avatar?

A customer avatar is not a real specific person; it is a composite of characteristics of many real people. You are describing your target market, the people that you want most as your customers and will most likely buy from you again and again. A common mistake many people make is to create a customer avatar that is too broad and general. Your avatar needs to speak to your ideal customer in a way that when they do come to your website or fan page, it’s almost like you’ve read their mind. You’ve identified their pain points, fears, frustrations, desires, and dreams.

You need to really take the time to get into their heads. The first thing you need to do is list all the common traits of your ideal customers. If you want to create a well-defined customer Avatar, you must give it specific attributes. For example, your customer avatar is an individual with a specific… Name, Age, Family situation, Occupation, Number of children (if they have children), Family Interests, Demographics, and Characteristics that make them who they are

Then, roll all those characteristics into ONE specific person. So be as specific as possible. Don’t be too broad and general. When customers feel YOU understand them better than they understand themselves, you’ve established a deep level of trust. Defining your avatar is one of the first steps you should take once you decide you’d like to start your own business. Also, you might use certain aspects of your own situation to round out your Avatar’s profile. Specifically, some marketers use certain aspects of their former self to help create their Avatar. Meaning, what was life like for you BEFORE you started using your product and/or got involved with your business venture–where you were at a year ago.

#2 Who is your Avatar?

Let’s look at a comparison so you have an idea of what defining your own avatar might look and sound like through three examples

  • What an Avatar is NOT: “My Avatar is anyone who likes the topic X and wants to learn more about it.”
  • What a good start to defining your Avatar sounds like: “My Avatar is 25-35 years of age, works a full-time 9-5 job, has a family with 2 kids and finds themselves frustrated and feeling alone every day because they don’t know where to find the knowledge that I’m going to provide them about X.”
  • A really good Avatar: “My Avatar is 32. Her name is Martha, and she is a writer. She’s been wanting to start a blog for months now, but she doesn’t know where to start. She’s a good writer, but she could really use some help on how to structure and format a blog post – plus, she’s not really sure what exactly she wants to write about most of the time. She is working part-time and earning her graduate degree online, so she’s usually studying up on how she can start her blog on the weekends. Martha lives with her husband and they both want to travel more, hate their jobs, and don’t make enough money.”

See how I went from really, really broad in my “What an Avatar is not” example, to very, very specific in my “A really good Avatar” example? I not only know a bit about Martha (her demographics), but I also have a good idea about what her biggest obstacles are and her pain points – and as important as what her pain points are, I also know what she wants MOST (her dreams and aspirations).

Remember, in defining your Avatar you are defining a single person who is looking for the information and resources that you’ll be providing through your business. Your business will exist to help solve the pain points and fill the informational void your avatar is currently experiencing, and the resources and strategies you share will get them from where they are now, to where they want to be.

3. How Do I Define My Customer Avatar?

If you want to hone in on your target audience and make them feel like you’re speaking directly to them, you must define your Customer Avatar’s characteristics with a lot of detail and precision. Your Customer Avatar allows you to hone your marketing message so it appeals to a “specific someone rather than a “generic everyone”. A well-defined Avatar allows you to connect on an emotional level with your target audience. So in order to connect on an emotional level with your audience, you’ll need to get to the bottom of their irrational fears and deepest desires. And in order to do that, you’ll need to ask yourself the following questions.

  • Where does my avatar hang out?

  • What websites do they go to?

  • What do they read?

  • What do they watch on tv?

  • What do they do in their free time?

  • What are their goals?

  • Who are their heroes?

  • Who are their enemies?

  • Who do they want to please?

  • Who are they responsible for?

  • Who might they let down or fail?

  • What keeps them up at night?

But here’s the deal… don’t stop with just thinking about these questions. Actually, write out the answers and keep them handy. Your Avatar is who you’re writing to.

So whether you’re writing a broadcast email to send to your email list or you’re creating a piece of content to post on your blog or Facebook Fan page, all of your content needs to be written with your Avatar in mind! If you try to speak to everybody, you’ll end up speaking to nobody. Write as if you’re talking specifically to your Avatar rather than a large target market. What you should be thinking about is…

“What is the motivation of my Avatar?”

As you’re creating content, you need to have more focused content centered around your customer Avatar’s needs, desires, and motivation. Then from time to time you should take a mental audit and ask yourself…

  • Is my customer avatar defined well enough?

  • Is my content specific enough based on the pains of my Avatar?

Remember, the Avatar dictates the messaging. If you try to attract everyone you’ll end up attracting nobody. Look internally and uncover what motivates you and then look externally to find your niche. Once you know these things, it will be much easier to craft your marketing messages.

So, what’s the next step? If you want more training where we go into detail about how to do all of this and more, consider applying to EPIK Mastermind designed to help you take your businesses to the next level. If you’re looking for a supportive group of entrepreneurs that can help to move your business forward, this mastermind is the perfect opportunity. Click on “Join Epik Mastermind Now” to apply and join this amazing group of women entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, and aspiring influencers! Ready to get started? Apply today! Join EPIK Mastermind NOW!