9 questions to define your dream buyer

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1. Where do they hang out?‍

Writing down both online and offline places where your dream buyers hang out. The more detailed and specific, the better.‘

- Hangs out on Facebook’ is too general. ‘Hangs out in the Mothers of Melbourne Facebook group’ is more precise and actionable.

‘Likes the outdoors’ is too general to mean anything insightful and actionable. ‘Likes going to the park every Saturday morning with her two kids’ shows habits and values and is specific. ‘Reads blogs’ isn’t targeted enough. ‘Obsessively reads Reddit’ is a lot better. Knowing exactly where your dream buyers are hanging out influences a lot of things including where you should advertise, what you should advertise, the tone of your copy, and vernacular to use.

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2. Where does your dream buyer get their information?

When your dream buyer is in research mode, where do they go to find the answers they seek? Is it Google? A particular blog? Books? Magazines? YouTube? Write your findings as a simple sentence: ‘When Sally is curious about a topic, the first place she goes is Google search on her iPhone’.

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3. What are their biggest frustrations and challenges?

Truly understanding and empathising with their biggest frustrations and challenges are the most important keys to defining your dream buyer avatar. By knowing what it’s like walking in your customer’s shoes, you’ll be able to create better products and services  that address their specific pain points and problems. Knowing their biggest frustration and challenges also will determine the emotions you speak to in your copy and advertising. There are a number of emotions behind the challenges and frustrations your dream buyer is experiencing – they could be sadness, anger, fear, remorse, hope, a desire for something better. By speaking to exactly what your dream buyer is feeling, you’ll be able to connect with them emotionally on more than just a rational level. It will also reflect the types of stories you tell. The logic here is simple. When your dream buyer sees a testimonial from a customer who solved their biggest frustrations and challenges with your product or service, then they are more likely to buy from you. They can see this positive transformation take place in someone else.

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4. What are their hopes, dreams, and desires?

Knowing your dream buyer’s hopes, dreams and desires helps you paint a vivid picture of what life could be like after using your products and services. Think of it as selling the dream and painting a picture of the Promised Land.When your products or services help your dream buyer attain their hopes, dreams, and desires, it becomes much easier to write copy for your landing pages, website, ads, and other assets you leverage to sell more goods and services.

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5. What are their biggest fears?

What are your dream buyer’s deepest fears? What keeps them up at night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep? What do they worry about in their mind but never tell anyone? Fully understanding your market’s deepest and most primal fears is an often overlooked component to crafting a customer avatar. However, in my opinion, it’s equally as important, if not more, than understanding their hopes, dreams, and desires. Why? People are motivated more by pain than they are by pleasure.

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6. What is their preferred form of communication?

Email? Text? Chat? Facebook Live? Or do they prefer physical mail? This is a matter of where your audience wants you to communicate with them. The fundamental lesson here is to communicate with your customers where they already are. Don’t try and move them onto something that is more convenient for you rather than where they already are.

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7. What phrases and exact language do they use?

‘Enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind’.You see, there is already language and niche-specific terms being used in your customer’s mind for their hopes, dreams, pain, fears, and desires. Your job is to listen and write them down. What industry terminology are they using, what specific vernacular and niche-specific terms?

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

The customer journey is more than the exchange of money for goods and services. Your clients are emotional beings, and people want to interact with companies and brands that make them feel good about themselves.

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9. Where are the touch points in your dream buyer’s journey where you can insert surprises, do the unexpected, be remarkable, and bring a smile to their face?

Maybe it’s a handwritten thank-you note after signing up for your service, a personalised email sent on their birthday, or a free box full of company swag and cookies (who doesn’t love cookies?).

Inserting happiness into the buyer’s journey can create a deeper level of emotional connection that cultivates loyal and raving fans for the long term. The end result is a much deeper, more intimate understanding of where and how to reach your dream buyers, and how to speak to them.

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Defining your target market is one of the hardest parts of starting a business. The good news is that once you do it, everything else will quickly start falling into place.