While I don’t believe you have to imagine you can possibly know what your avatar had for lunch or what color they dye their hair, I do believe having a vision of some kind in mind is important for your entire business.
Why? Because it allows you to talk to them when you write your content. It allows you to establish a great relationship.
Identifying your key reader and target audience is very important. It can set you up for an easier time blogging, too.
Often, when bloggers look at things like the ‘defining your avatar’ exercises, they treat them like a thought experiment and don’t write things down. However, much like goals, writing down the vision can be very worthwhile and freeing. Going through the exercise of defining your avatar helps you visualize them when you’re writing. It also helps you know what to focus on (or what not to spend your time and effort on). For instance, if you know you’re avatar is a certain something, and a blog post idea is a bit off from that, then let that one go and reclaim your time for something useful for your avatar. Not only will your ideal reader appreciate this, but so will the search engines and you’ll become known as an expert in your niche.
If you make the effort to define your target market, then you will be sure to create based on this. Your information will be all for them and they should be able to find value on their journey with you. Even moreso, as you monetize by offering ads, affiliate links, or even you own products, you will be able to have laser focus on what is useful to your target audience.
Here are some thoughts and questions to ask when considering your avatar:
Demographics
- Is my avatar male or female?
- Name for my avatar?
Home Life
- What does their family look like?
- How many kids do they have?
- Do they own or rent a home?
Education
- What is their education level?
- Do they have any certifications?
Work-Life
- What do they do for a living?
- What do they earn in a year?
Interests
- Where do they hang out online?
- What do they enjoy doing?
- What do they read?
- What do they watch for movies or television?
- What are their favorite networks?
- Who is their favorite famous person?
- Are they involved in any groups?
Drive
- Who is their hero?
- What is their enemy?
- What makes them scared?
- What’s their pain point having to do with your niche?
- What is their current biggest challenge?
- What is their current biggest frustration?
Goals
- What goals do they have?
- What are they trying to accomplish?
After answering these questions, envision your avatar and see if you can find a representative photograph of this person from a magazine. Post this somewhere near where you create your posts to help you write directly to them.
