Let's Create Your Perfect Client (Step-By-Step Guide)

Creating a clear picture of your Perfect Client is essential in running a successful online business (and business in general).

Having a customer avatar is what allows us to market to the right people and speak the language THEY can relate to.

Problem is…

A lot of people feel they “should” create a customer avatar but hate doing exercises that make them come up with something like, “I help middle-aged dads with 2 kids who drive minivans and do accounting”.

They feel it takes a lot of time and that it frankly is a waste of it too.

The truth is that understanding and coming up with a picture of who your perfect client is is one of the most important steps you can take as a business owner and get it out of your head rather than just simply “knowing” it.

This doesn’t need to take long. You can literally do this in under an hour.

Today, I’m walking you through (step-by-step) how to create your perfect client with the exact process I use to create my own.

Devote an hour to this and you can be done with it so you can just get out there and start helping your perfect clients.

Let’s dive in!

Why Create a Customer Avatar

A customer avatar allows us to understand who we ultimately want to work with most so we can market and sell products to the right people.

We don’t want just ANYONE to buy and use our products because, frankly, one product shouldn’t be for everyone.

It’s good to be selective and specific about who you serve best, especially when it comes to marketing and sales.

Think about it this way…

The way you talk with someone who is just starting out on their journey is completely different from someone who has been in the game for a long time.

For example, someone who is a total couch potato just trying to get their body moving is going to relate to different words and phrases than someone who is an Olympic athlete wanting to podium next year.

You have to meet people where they’re at and a great tool for doing effectively that is creating a customer avatar.

Start With Demographics

Demographics are what your perfect client looks like from an outsider's perspective.

These are the things anybody could spot just by looking at the person and briefly getting to know them.

You’ll want to create a Google Doc or Word document and answer these questions:

• What’s their name?
• How old is your prospect?
• Male, Female, etc (what they identify as)?
• How much income does this person earn per month/year?
• What’s their education level? (high school, college, university, etc?)
• Are they married, divorced, widowed, or single?
• Do they have kids? If so, how old and how many?
• Do they have pets? If so, what kind and how many?
• Are they fit and healthy or overweight and a couch-potato?
• What do they do for a living?

This may seem like a boring exercise but here’s an example of something you could come up with…

“My perfect client is a 30-year-old single woman named Susie. She has a great job working for a tech company and earns over $100,000/year (plus bonuses). She has a college degree, is very active and healthy, has no kids yet, and has a cat named Cleo.”

See how we’re already painting a picture of this person?

You could probably think of a Susie that you’ve met or could even spot them now that you have a good picture of them right?

This is the power of creating an avatar client.

10 “Magic” Questions

By now, you should have a good picture of your perfect client from an outside perspective. 

Now we get into the juicy details.

This is the stuff that our fictional character, Susie, doesn’t talk about - what’s under the surface.

You see, Susie seems like a very put-together person from the outside, and she is. But Susie also has some problems in her life that don’t match what she wants the world to see.

To find these “unspoken challenges” we’re going to ask 10 “Magic” questions.

Now, these 10 “Magic” questions are very powerful and I didn’t come up with them. These are straight from the guys over at TeachCopywriting.com, Barry & Clive. I've done many avatar client exercises and asking these questions have been the most effective for me. They have taught me a ton about copywriting and deserve some praise for these questions.

That being said, here are the questions….

1. What keeps this person up at night, staring at the ceiling?
2. What is this person afraid of most?
3. What/who is this person angry with (related to your topic)?
4. What are their 3 biggest frustrations?
5. What changes are happening in their life? (i.e. marriage, job transition, health problems, divorce, having kids, etc.)
6. What do they SECRETLY desire more than anything? (i.e. better sex, being their own boss, finding love, losing weight, getting married, building a business, etc.)
7.  Do they have any built-in bias or “rules” when making decisions? (i.e. talking with their spouse beforehand)
8. What are their values? (What type of person are they? I.e. open-minded, reliable, trustworthy, a go-getter, lazy, funny, etc.)
9. Who do they want to please most?
10. Who are their heroes they look up to most?

Once you answer these questions, you will have a far clearer idea of what this “perfect client” is actually going through in their life.

This will humanize your avatar and, honestly, will probably be a real person.

Let’s think about Susie…

“Susie is a 30-year-old single woman who has a great job working for a tech company and earns over $100,000/year (plus bonuses). She has a college degree, is very active and healthy, has no kids yet, and has a cat named Cleo.

What keeps Susie up at night is the fact that she’s in her 30s and still hasn’t found a quality man in her life. She wants to have kids, but her window is closing. 

Her 3 biggest frustrations are that she can’t find a quality guy because they’re all either "gay or taken", every time she feels she has the right guy she gets ghosted, and she doesn’t want to talk about her dating/love life with friends, especially the ones that have the kind of life she wants.

Her #1 hero she looks up to is her auntie, Carla. Carla is the sweetest woman, she’s fit and healthy, has a great career, lives in an awesome house, but most importantly, has a beautiful daughter and a loving husband, just like Susie wants.”

Can you see the power in just answering a few of these questions?

Take your Perfect Client profile through these questions and see what you can come up with. I guarantee you will have a new level of connection and empathy for this type of person.

And when you write copy for an opt-in, sales page, headline, or create a piece of content or build a product, do it for your "Susie".

Conclusion

I hope by now you can see the power of going through this process. What’s awesome is that it doesn’t take as long as you think when you know what questions to ask.

And once you’ve created your Perfect Client, you’re done. You can always come back and refine this profile or even create multiple Avatars. If you do, keep it under 3 and run each person through this process.

Reserve an hour to run through these questions and see what you can come up with.