How to Speak Customer: building a rock-solid avatar for your solo biz

I fricking love Jane.

It's taken me a year to really get to know her properly. Jane is not a real person- she is my Avatar or Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

She is the person I keep in mind at all times when I am creating content, writing a copy asset like a website, or building out my services.

In fact,?Jane has helped me build my business. She told me what services she needs; she told me how she likes to be spoken to; she told me what her problems are. It's really thanks to Jane that I am out of that random stage of business and ready to take a bite out of my own corner of the internet.

But it took me some time to really get to know her.

The mistake I made when I first began thinking about an avatar is the mistake many of us make.?(and its ok)

• I was not specific enough
• I focused on the wrong information
• I didn't understand her real problem

An Avatar can be a powerful thing when done right. Today I want to share with you my Avatar story and how it helps me create content that converts.

My Avatar: Jane the badass

Jane is a new(ish) executive coach.

She is in her mid-forties with two kids and a couple of successful career trajectories behind her.

She is a corporate badass.

By most measures, she is successful.

Except lately, Jane has been waking up from a long slumber.

??Waking up to the fact that she’s not getting any younger

??Waking up to the fact that despite the success, she feels unfulfilled

??Waking up to the fact that she could be making more $ than she has been

??Waking up to the fact that she has a powerful voice and keeping it in is just making her ill

??Waking up to the fact that no one is going to give her the life she wants

She is driven, ambitious, disciplined, and amazing at what she does.

One day, Jane finally has enough and decides to start the business she has been dreaming of.

She is determined to figure this solopreneurship thing out.?#inittowinit

Everything is going great for Jane in the first year. She is able to leverage her great network and find clients almost right away.

She is busy setting herself up, figuring out the business admin, serving clients, and doing all the things.

About a year into her business, Jane realizes she has a big problem.

She realizes that her word-of-mouth pipeline of clients is starting to dry up. She has been so busy serving clients that she has neglected her own marketing.

She knows she needs to get online and has heard LinkedIn is the best place for her to attract new clients and build an audience.

She tried taking a couple of courses and following some advice to get her started with promoting her business on social.

She recently hired someone to set up her profile but hasn't written a word since their last call.

But wait, there's more...

Whenever Jane sits down to write for her business, she feels paralyzed. She feels like she is writing for the sake of writing and posting for the sake of posting. She is not sure who exactly she is writing to and why.

Writing is not one of Jane's core skills.

Jane wants to establish herself as a thought leader but is unsure how to go about it. She doesn’t have time to figure out how to write a sales page, a website, a nurture sequence…and all the other words that her business needs ALL OF THE TIME.

She has no shortage of ideas, but she wants to bring intentionality to her writing. She wants her words to DO something, to make people take action.

Her business depends on it. She knows that the best time to start building was yesterday, and the second best is today. She understands that she needs to stick to her zone of genius and get help. She needs someone to co-create with. Someone to help her craft a strategy, someone to help her add impact to her writing, someone to hold a safe space for her while she finds her LIONESS voice.

She needs accountability, motivation, and a structured approach to her content.

Month in.

Month out.

(Drumroll me and my monthly retainer)

I help Jane get a handle on the marketing in her business. We sit together and go through everything. We figure out who Jane is targeting. We figure out what Jane wants to be known for. We figure out a simple funnel. We put in place a content strategy and schedule for Jane. We measure monthly. We build. Together.

Jane's marketing now feels under control. She is building an audience, and leads are starting to come in.

How to build out a rock-solid avatar

Who is this person?

Give them a face and a name. Mine is based on a composite of 3 women that I worked with last year that I could work with forever. You must like this person. Otherwise, you will not be generous with your content.

What is the context?

What is situational analysis? What is going on in their life other than the thing you want to talk about? Remember, we are all busy and fully immersed in all the shit we have to deal with. I'm talking neck-deep.

What's the problem?

I am talking about the capital P problem here. I made this boo-boo in the past, where the problem I was latching onto was really just an inconvenience. People will not buy those alas...

Why is it a problem?

Really dig into it. Who cares that this issue is happening? Is it really that big a deal?

What are possible solutions?

You're not the only thing possible for your client. This is esp. true in service-based businesses. In a saturated marketplace, you gotta know who else and what else they are looking at.

What happens if they don't do anything about it?

You gotta rub a little salt on the wound. A little. Your avatar needs to know what inaction leads to. There has to be a consequence.

What does their problem feel like?

What is your person going through emotionally? You would be surprised why people buy what they buy. It's all about feelings. In my case, Jane is terrified that her business will not grow and she may have to go back to employment and deal with that disappointment. Yikes. I don't want that for Jane.

What is the problem underneath the problem?

Why are they REALLY having this problem? Let's think of Jane as a handy example. The real problem may be that she is just not a marketer, and her brain doesn't work this way. Or that she is an introvert and showing up online scares her. Or that she has been working with random clients and has no niche. I can keep going.

In my experience, you will solve different REAL problems for different people. What you want to do is market to the symptoms, because half the time, they don't know what their real problem is.

What are the symptoms?

Jane's symptoms: lack of leads, no audience, no list, no brand, no presence. Yours?

Handy dandy avatar worksheet

How to pull content out of the Avatar

Once you have an avatar document in place, you can use it to create content that is tailored to your Avatar.

When you do this, people will feel like you are inside their heads. Before I start writing any content, I do something called priming.

I read over the avatar doc and really try to get myself in the emotional state of the person I am writing to. I try to feel it.

Then I ask myself these:

• what does she need to know
• what can I help her with today
• how can I encourage her
• what might she have missed
• can I simplify something for her
• can I clarify something for her
• can I empower her to consider something from a different lens
• how can I connect with her on a more personal level
• how can I help her make the decision to hire me (or not)
• can I make her smile or bring some levity to all this shit
• if she was sitting across from me, what would we chat about

Ideas should be coming up. If they are not your avatar needs work.

*Notice I am not giving you a framework with canned ideas for posts. This will look different for each person, because we are dealing with different avatars, niches, founders, tones etc... What turns one person on completely turns off another.

*Also notice that none of these prompts have anything to do with me. The first mistake in this marketing business is people talking about themselves.?

The Hero's journey

My avatar story follows a specific structure: the hero's journey.

A hero, is on an adventure, and faces a problem. They then meet a guide who helps them solve that problem and emerge victorious.

Donald Miller made this brilliant observation in his book The Story Brand Framework, and I love how simple it is. All good marketing messaging comes down to this simple statement.

You are not the hero.

Your customer is.

Iterating on your Avatar and message mining

I keep an ear out for Avatar signals all of the time. Sometimes it's a turn of phrase in a conversation. Sometimes it's a comment online. I want to make sure that I am keeping this avatar fresh. I often sign up to lists she would be on so I can get some more intel.

Your avatar is a working document, and you should be constantly getting clearer and clearer with who you serve.

This is not easy, but it's worth it

Avatar work can take some time, especially if you are in the early stages of your biz or you are pivoting. A solid avatar is a huge asset. I have seen people buy off of ugly google docs because the service provider knew precisely who they were talking to.

Your need for fancy marketing assets diminished the more attuned you get to the person you are serving.

You can use your avatar to write:

• your website
• your emails
• your sales pages
• your social

Forget brand voice, forget copywriting hacks. If you know WHO you are speaking to marketing gets a heck of a lot easier.

Hope this was helpful.

Questions? Fire away.

D

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Choose your own adventure

1. Quick and dirty:?One-hour messaging/ strategy audit with yours truly. If you are OK with the writing part but can't see the forest from the trees-?book it.?
2. Monthly:?We work together to deploy strategic, consistent, and purposeful?content?marketing for your solo biz while honing in your voice and messaging?(copy coaching + strategy)
3. Project:?I craft conversion-focused copy for your landing pages/websites/ email sequences/ sales pages/ LinkedIn profiles.?Book a chat.