One of the biggest pain points that you face as a marketer is reaching your target audience effectively. In fact, the main goal of digital marketing is to convey the right message to the right people. And to do that right, you need to learn how to define your target customer effectively.

Why is it important to define your dream buyer avatar?

Knowing your target buyer and having a specific persona of them changes everything. If you

know exactly who your set of customers are and what characteristics they share, you will know which channel to advertise on, how the tone of your copy should be, what value proposition you can offer, and the right pricing and marketing strategy.

Even though you are trying to attract a larger portion of the market, your sales copy cannot be addressed to everyone's problems and cater to everyone's needs. To really get to your

customers, you have to zero in on your dream buyer. Specificity is key.

9 questions to define your dream buyer/ target customer:

1. Where does your dream buyer hang out?

Name both online and offline places where your target customers congregate. Be as

specific as you can. For example, ‘reads blogs’ is too general. But ‘Reads Rocking Mama and Reddit’ is defined and revealing.

2. Where does your dream buyer get their information?

Which medium of information does your dream buyer rely on?

It could be YouTube, Google, a particular blog or even a magazine. Write down your

findings in a simple descriptive sentence like, “When Sally is curious about a topic, the

first thing she does is Google search on her iPhone.’

3. What are their biggest frustrations and challenges?

To address the specific pain points of your customer, you have to walk in their shoes and

understand their frustrations and challenges. These frustrations and challenges will determine the emotion that your copy speaks. These pain points could sound something like: ‘I wish I could lose ten kilos before my wedding.’ ‘I wish I could have someone run my Facebook ads for me.’

4. What are their hopes, dreams and desires?

Understanding your customers’ hopes, dreams and desires will help you paint a picture

of how you could sell your product to them. It will be much easier to write your sales copy

when you know what desired outcomes are expected by your dream buyer.

For example, if your customer wants to lose 10 kgs before their wedding, your sales copy

could sound something like, ‘Our exercise program is specifically designed to help you

get shredded FAST and drop 10kgs-15kgs in 60 days!’

5. What are their biggest fears?

Understanding your customers' fears is equally important as learning their dreams and

desires. People are more motivated by pain than there are by pleasure. Therefore, it is

essential to address their fears in your sales copy and your ads. Address their fears and

tell them how you can help solve them.

6. What is their preferred form of communication?

The preferred form of communication will help you understand where your audience is

likely to communicate with you. Is their preferred form of communication email, text, or

social media? The key is to communicate where your audience feels most comfortable.

Do not try to move them out of their comfort zones.

7. What phrases, language, and vernacular do they use?

A proverb by Robert Collier says, ‘Enter the conversation already taking place in the

customer’s mind.’ There is already a specific language and vernacular used by your customers to describe their hopes, dreams, desires and fears. Your job is to listen and write it down. Use the same terminologies to connect with your customers on a personal level.

8. What does a day in your dream buyer’s life look like?

From all the information you have gathered by now, write down a specific routine in the

day of your dream buyer.

For example, ‘At 7:05 am, Mike wakes up to the sound of marimbas on his iPhone’s

alarm clock.’ And so on.

9. What makes them happy?

People are likely to buy from companies that make them feel good about themselves.

Your buyers are emotional beings, hence your relationship with your customer should be

more than an exchange of money and goods. Wherever you can, inculcate happiness

into your customer's journey. Do the unexpected, be remarkable and bring a smile to

their face. It could be something as simple as a personalized 'thank you' note sent on

their birthday.

Conclusion:

From all the information you will have gathered by now, make a paragraph summarizing all your findings. The result will be much more intimate and personal. By the end of your findings, you will have a specific persona of your dream buyer. This step is one of the hardest parts of starting a business, but the compounding result will cause a massive breakthrough for your business.