Posted by Your content cannot be as compelling without knowing your audience.
Ready to know your audience?
As mentioned in our discussion about the empathy map here, you use an avatar to represent your audience. You need to develop a specific image of an actual person that you perceive to be the audience. It represents the
- ideal customer
- target audience
- a mix of good and bad prospects
- second customer
Before you dive into the empathy portion of the empathy map, this exercise of focusing first on your avatar is essential. Why? You need to develop empathy for this avatar representation.
RESEARCHING FOR THE AVATAR
There are several ways you can collect quantitative and qualitative data about your avatar.
- surveys
- one-on-one interviews
- questions from prospects
- books
- magazines
- blogs/websites
- experts
- social networks
- discussion forums
The list is not limited to what is enumerated above. If you have other ways of gathering data and information, that would be much better.
What data and information are you going to collect?
- Background information – includes necessary details like identity, role in an organization, the situation, education, hobbies
Example – Successful Joven, married with 4 children, college graduate, small business owner, loves to travel, plays tennis
- Demographics – pertain to the gender, age range, urbanicity
Example – Male, 30-50 years old, urban, earns a net profit of $100,000 annually
- Identifiers – include buzz words, mannerisms
Example – Strong work ethic, self-starter, competitive
- Goals – refer to the primary and secondary objectives
Example – Increase team capabilities and skills, scale business
- Challenges – refer to challenging undertakings
Example – Scaling business, finding talents, acquiring solid business education, updating skills as owner
- Pain points – persistent or recurring problems, obstacles, frustrations
Example – Fear of losing sales, fear of losing business, concern on falling behind technology updates
- Values – refer to principles, morals, codes of behavior
Example – Integrity, Accountability, and Commitment to customers
- Quotes- repetition of a part of what the avatar said during interviews
Example – People are the essence of an organization.
- Common objections – refer to the things the avatar opposes or dislikes
Example – Will the training and skills development add value?
You can have as many avatars. Nothing wrong with that. But I suggest you focus on your primary avatar first. Because what you need is to develop empathy for the avatar.
Now you can start writing compelling content considering the initial data and information you gathered. You may want to write about:
- Available help or assistance to help achieve his business goals.
- Inspiration stories to resonate with the values he believes in.
- How to overcome the identified challenges and pain points.
- Case studies to refute the stated objections.
These are just a few samples of content you can draft. See the possible concepts and ideas you can use when you focus on your avatar?
Next blog post for tomorrow is how you will create an empathy map for your avatar. Ciao for now.
Bing Writes Content 