Creating Effective Target Markets and Avatars in Copywriting

Jul 15, 2024

Creating Effective Target Markets and Avatars in Copywriting

Understanding People and Preparing as a Copywriter

Key Steps:

  1. Determine Who You're Reaching Out To: Identify who you are helping and targeting.
  2. Target Markets and Avatars: Understand and use these concepts to connect deeply with your audience.

Important Principle:

  • Impact the Reader Deeply: The more you can connect and persuade an individual at a deep level, the more successful you'll be.

Specificity Gives Power

  • Trying to help everyone leads to helping no one.
  • Focused efforts on a defined group allows for significant impact.

Identifying Your Target Market

  • Target Market: Defined group of people who will get the most out of your product or service.
  • Steps to Identify:
    1. Who is the ideal target market for the product?
    2. What are their specific problems, dreams, and roadblocks?

Creating an Avatar

  • Avatar: A single person that embodies the characteristics of your target market; the person you picture in your mind as you write.
  • Example of Avatar Creation:
    • Target Market: 19-25-year-old men wanting wealth and freedom.
    • Avatar: Steve, 20-year-old in Dallas, TX, about to return to college, lives with parents, watches specific videos.
    • Use a literal picture to visualize the avatar.

Benefits of Using an Avatar

  • Personal Edge: Easier to communicate naturally and deeply with this person.
  • Specificity: Resonates well specifically with the avatar and the larger target market.

Essential Details for Creating an Avatar

  1. Name, Age, and Face: Basic details to imagine them as a real person.
  2. Background and Mini Life History: Understand general context and significant past experiences.
  3. Day in the Life: Visualize their typical daily activities and experiences.
  4. Values: Identify what they believe in, what they despise, and their value system.
  5. Outside Forces: Recognize external influences on their life (e.g., parents, religion, society).

Research for Avatar Creation

  • Sources: Client's website, social media, product pages give context about the target market.
  • Specificity Over Accuracy: It's more crucial to be detailed and specific than to be perfectly accurate.

Working with Established Clients

  • High-Paying Customers: Identify and clone most loyal customers to create an avatar.
  • Specific Focus: Write to a version of the client before they used the product/service.

Summary

  • Defining the target market and creating a single, specific avatar are crucial steps in effective copywriting.
  • This process provides clarity and power, enabling deeper impact and higher success in the marketplace.

Conclusion: Understanding and leveraging target markets and avatars distinguishes good copywriters from exceptional ones. It's a key skill for impacting and influencing an audience effectively.