64. 10 Magic Marketing Questions
The answers to these 10 questions define your marketing strategy
65. 1. WHO specifically are you trying to reach?
If the answer is ‘everyone’, start over.
66. “The aim of marketing
is to know and
understand the
customer so well the
product or service fits
him and sells itself.”
- Peter Drucker
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
67. ‣ Define ONE perfect customer avatar…
‣ helps you attract the right customers for your business.
‣ helps you repel the wrong customers. The wrong customers will be huge pain
and cause you lots of headaches and frustration.
‣ helps inform every subsequent aspect of your marketing and your
business. It will inform your website, your videos, your copy, your pricing, all of
it. You’ll create your marketing as if you’re speaking 1-on-1 to your perfect
customer avatar.
Who Are You Trying To Reach?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
68. ‣ Most importantly…
‣ Your perfect customer avatar becomes your compass, your answer key and
your Magic 8-ball, all rolled into one.
‣ It solves all of your “Should I…? questions. Whenever you come across
the “Should I…?” questions in your marketing, knowing your perfect
customer avatar will help you answer those questions quickly and
confidently.
Why Is A Perfect
Customer Avatar Important?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
69. ‣ We’re not just going to focus on the demographics, like age, gender and income
level. That’s worth thinking about but it’s the least important piece of this exercise.
Demographics are also the easiest to define, and we’re going to go deeper.
‣ We’re going to dig into psychographics, which are even more important.
‣ Demographics are facts. Psychographics are feelings.
‣ We’re going to look into your perfect customer avatar’s habits and
consumption, which is one level deeper than surface level demographics and
then we’ll go even deeper and really get into their problems, fears hopes and
dreams.
Why This Exercise Is Different
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
70. ‣ Very simply, your customer avatar is your one perfect customer.
‣ I like starting by doing an exercise I call “The Single Unit Exercise”. Imagine you only
had one unit of the product or service you’re creating.
‣ Who would be the one perfect person in the whole world to get that one unit? Who
would be the most excited to get it?
‣ Define your avatar very specifically as one, specific human being.
‣ You’ll be tempted to generalize and speak in demographic ranges (like females, ages
25-40). In a minute, we’ll look at why that’s a common mistake but for now, just stay
specific and define your avatar as one, singular clearly defined person.
What Is A Customer Avatar?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
71. ‣ What is their name?
‣ How old are they?
‣ Are they married, single, dating?
‣ Are they close to their family?
Defining Your Avatar:
The Person
‣ Where do they live?
‣ Do they own or rent?
‣ Where do they work? What’s their title?
‣ What is their income?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
72. Defining Your Avatar:
Their Habits & Consumption
‣ What books, magazines or catalogs do
they read?
‣ What are their favorite websites?
‣ Where do they go out to eat?
‣ What TV shows do they watch?
‣ Do they listen to podcasts? Webinars?
‣ What are their hobbies? What do they
do in their spare time?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
73. Defining Your Avatar:
Their Problems, Fears, Hopes + Dreams
‣ Problems: What are they struggling with? What frequently frustrates them?
‣ Fears: What do they worry about? What keeps them up at night? What would they be
afraid to tell their spouse? What would they be afraid to admit to themselves?
‣ Hopes: What are their short and medium-term hopes? What would make their
month? What would make their year? What hopes do they discuss with their family,
friends and spouse?
‣ Dreams: What are their big dreams? What do they dream about when they’re awake?
In their perfect life, who are they? What does their day look like? Who do they
become?
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
74. ‣ Your job is to be able to think like them (thoughts) and feel like them
(feelings).
‣ If you are your perfect customer avatar, that’s fine. It’s fairly common because
often people build products and services to “scratch their own itch”, but
either way, it’s important to be able to think and feel as if you were them.
‣ When possible, use the words that they use. And if you don’t know those
words, go talk to more people who are like your perfect customer. Ask them
questions. See what words they use in the context of your product.
Become Your
Perfect Customer Avatar
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
75. ‣ There is one mistake that will hold you back from creating your perfect customer
avatar. I’ve made this mistake and I’ve seen lots of others make it.
‣ The most common avatar mistake is worrying that by specifically defining your avatar,
that you’ll be too niche and alienate lots of other people.
‣ This is understandable, because by doing the hard work of defining your one perfect
customer, your brain feels like it’s leaving everyone else out. And our business school
and MBA courses teach us to address the largest possible addressable market.
‣ Unfortunately, this mistake is crippling to businesses large and small. It’s completely
the wrong strategy. Let’s look at Kittyo’s customer avatar to see why specific is best.
The Most Common Avatar Mistake
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
76. Example: Kittyo’s Customer Avatar
Jessica is a 29-year old woman who rents a 1BR apartment in the Upper West Side of
Manhattan with her boyfriend, Will. She was recently promoted to Senior Account Director
at the marketing firm she works at, which brings her annual salary to $97,000. They live with
her Persian cat, Sansa, who despite being a cat, is one of the consistent things that makes
Jessica happy everyday.
Jessica reads Monocle and Real+Simple magazines and has her apartment decorated with
Crate & Barrel and West Elm. Her favorite websites are Instagram, Twitter, Refinery29 and
BuzzFeed. She’s hooked on Game of Thrones and loves the comedy of Amy Schumer. Her
favorite podcasts are The Nerdist and Radiolab. In her spare time, she goes to drinks with her
girlfriends and co-workers and tries new restaurants with her boyfriend. They also have a
monthly date night at The Comedy Cellar.
She gets frustrated with her clients at work and wonders if she made the right choice sticking
with one firm since college or if she should have job-hopped a bit more. Her 2-year
relationship is solid but she wonders how serious her boyfriend is about a longer-term
commitment and they rarely ever talk about whether they’ll have kids. She daydreams about
making VP, traveling to Europe and Southeast Asia and then settling down, getting married
and having 2 kids.
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
77. Kittyo’s Results?
‣ Because Kittyo focused
specifically on marketing
to one specific avatar…
‣ Their marketing was
compelling and
consistent. They raised
$271,154 from 2,425
backers, many of which
were nothing like their
avatar.
Your Perfect Customer Avatar
110. 4. WHERE is the fear that prevents action?
Why might they say no? What are the fears that would prevent them from saying yes?
111. 5. WHEN do you expect people to take action?
If the answer is 'now', what keeps people from saying, 'later'?
It’s always safer for them to act later.
112. 6. WHY will they choose you?
How do you stand out in a world of infinite choice?
127. 7. WHAT will they tell their friends?
How will the story spread? Because the story has to spread. When they tell their
friends, what words will they use? How will they feel? Smarter? In-the-know?
We buy portable stories.
136. 8. HOW will they become aware of what you
have to offer?
How will they hear about you? Who do they already know, like and trust? How do
they hear about other things they buy?
Notice that this is number eight, not number one. The earlier answers greatly inform
this answer.
158. 9. HOW will you know it’s working?
What defines success? What is your Champagne Moment? Is everyone in agreement
on what success means? What specifically will you measure and how often?