Don't Market your Personal Brand to an "Ideal Client Avatar" (Do This Instead)
Getting a Return on Human Connection
The “Ideal Client”. The “Avatar”. The “Target Audience”.
Sit in any marketing workshop, download any worksheet, or follow any social media guru, and they will start by telling you the same thing:
“You have to first identify your avatar.”
The conventional wisdom makes sense on the surface. If you know who it is you want to buy from you, then you can easily gear your offer around their general preferences.
Are there areas of marketing in which pinpointing your audience to the n’th degree is useful? Sure.
It makes sense in Advertising.
I’ve got $100 to spend, and I have this specific goal I want to occur as a result of spending that $100. Therefore, I need this post, this article, this photo….whatever….to only go to *these people*.
That’s smart.
So, what’s the problem?
The problem is that not all interactions, not all decisions, and not all metrics are quantifiable.
Let me ask you this….
What is the return on investment of greeting someone with a warm smile?
What is your conversion rate on varying degrees of enthusiasm when your customer walks in the door?
How many sales can you attribute tit-for-tat, to curiosity in your conversations?
Every single one of those actions contributes in a positive way to your business, but they’re impossible to measure.
But guess what? They’re all subtle elements of the great piece of marketing that is your personal brand.
Personal branding is, well, personal. Person to person. You are not speaking to “an avatar” – a collection of shared traits that generally make someone like a certain thing – you’re speaking to a person.
One person.
And that person, even if they share 95% of the traits and behaviors of a room full of people, you’re *still* dealing with the fact that they’re taking in the world around them through the lens of their own experiences, fears, situations and biases.
It's like this….pretend you’re at the mall with your friend. You end up in different stores at one point…she’s checking out the latest fashionable footwear in the Crocs outlet, while you’re busy sniffing perfume samples in the department store. You snap out of it, and realize you need to find your friend. (for the sake of this example let’s say one of your cell phones’ is dead, so calling each other isn’t an option).
You know her name, her age, her height, her hair color, you know what she does for a living, and about how much money she makes. You even know what brands she loves, so you are sure you can guess where she’ll show up next, and when you see her you’ll be able to spot her in a crowd.
But your equation has a flaw.
You’ve assumed she’s oblivious to the fact that you were looking for her. Turns out, she got warm and took off the bright pink cardigan you were skimming the crowd for. As a result, you pass on opposite walkways and walk right by her because she wasn’t easy to spot.
This is what happens when your marketing is so zeroed in to the ideal avatar that it disregards the nuances and situational adjustments of human behavior.
Or, you’ve assumed she would realize she needs to stay in one place, when in fact her sudden pang of desperation has hit, as she realizes you offered to hold onto her keys. Instead of behaving the way she normally would, she’s trying to chase you down while you’re busy trying to chase her, and you’re instead running circles around each other, missing one another at every pass.
This is like the brand that “sets and forgets” their avatar, ignoring shifts that come with age, change in social status, the changing urgency they experience at different stages of the decision making process, etc.
That….that, my friends….is what starting your marketing strategy off with an “ideal client”, a “target audience”, or an “avatar” is like.
Photo Credit: Heidi Fin
The perfectly crafted message which – statistically speaking – should appeal to them, can land differently simply because it reminds them of something their boss used to say to them or it brings up a limiting belief perpetuated from childhood.
On paper, you did everything right, but you still lost them.
Now, it might be tempting to think “well that’s just one person”. That’s prceisely the problem (and the opportunity). A room of 95 people does not make up a unified body….it’s simply a collection of 95 different individiaul people, with 95 possible lenses through which your content is being viewed.
Just like trying to find your friend in the mall, you’re seeking out a moving target.
Sure, occasionally you’ll hit, but while you’re constantly refining your messaging, your layout, your color scheme, your language, and your price points to fine tune toward this “avatar” you’re after, they’re busy living their lives, forming their opinions, changing their minds, and having the best of days and the worst of days all simultaneously.
So, what’s the solution?
Is it to ditch the niche and try to appeal to everyone? Definitely not.
The solution is two things:
1) focus on your own authentic voice
When your branding is built around the one thing that doesn’t change – you – you are no longer in a position of constantly trying to hone, research, and fine tune a message to chase an avatar. You instead become a beacon. You put out signal, and that signal is either picked up by others tuned in to the same channel, or it passes through them and keeps going.
You’re no longer adjusting your messaging to fit what you think they want to hear, you’re being unapologetically yourself, and in that way end up attracting those you will ultimately enjoy working with.
2) become a qualitative marketer
Instead of defining the avatar, and building a campaign around that persona alone, create a system of dynamic messaging that adjusts based on the type of person it’s reaching.
Instead of a single landing page that is built to speak generally to the lukewarm mishmash of characteristics you assume most of your ideal audience will resonate with, create instead a series of questions that lead them through alternating results based on what they say appeals to them.
Qualitative data means also interacting with your audience one on one to learn their stories, their “why”, and their motivations.
It becomes very easy to write a blog post, then, when all you need is your admiration for your client’s climb to the top. That genuine approach then ties back into the first point above, and you end up attracting others who see themselves in that transformation, and are then drawn to you as well.
The result?
You’re no longer two people walking circles around each other in a crowded mall.
Instead, you’re standing there chatting with the department store clerk about a mutual appreciation of the smell of night-blooming jasmine, when your friend, hearing your big and distinctive laugh, walks in excited to have found you, and then you carry on effortlessly.
Karrie Porter Bond is a Branding Photographer and Content Creator based in Key West, Florida. Since 2001, she has brought her experience in business, design, and promotion to her clients with the vibrant style, sage perspective, and energetic personality she’s known for. Get more info HERE