Building Your Customer Avatar: Who is your Ideal Customer?

(Last updated May 3, 2022)

Every business should have a solid understanding of its ideal customer so that before you begin a marketing campaign, you know to whom you are marketing. Otherwise, it's just a shot in the dark (and a lot of wasted resources).

When you know your customer’s goals, challenges, and preferences, you can better serve existing customers and more effectively target prospective customers.

Characteristics of Your Ideal Customer

Answer the following questions to uncover your buyer’s journey and help you expand your exploration into their common traits, values, and stories:

• What problem does your product/service solve?
• What challenge does your product/service eliminate?

Building the Buyer Persona B2C + B2B

Here are the top customer categorizations for B2C and B2B to help you build the persona of your ideal customer.

If your business sells to consumers (B2C), buyer information may include:

• Age
• Gender
• Marital status
• Income
• Occupation
• Geographic location
• Psychographics (attitudes, hobbies, beliefs, interests)
• Media and technology preferences
• Goals/challenges
• Pain points

If your business sells to other businesses (B2B), customer characteristics may include:

• Industry
• Location
• Sales/revenues
• Years in business
• Number of employees
• Budget
• Goals/challenges
• Pain points

Depending on the nature of your company, you might have more than one ideal customer, and not all personas will have data for each of the categories listed above. 

However, if you gather all of this data in one document and analyze the buyer behavior of each persona, you can more effectively identify, target, and align your marketing and sales efforts to speak clearly to your ideal customer(s).

Rather than broadcasting your marketing messages to the entire world – an expensive proposition even in today’s digital landscape – you can concentrate your resources to attract the right people.

That's the Growth + HubSpot formula for helping a business grow: put the right message, in front of the right person, at the right time. 

When you discover your initial ideal customer, it changes your basic business model and overall business strategy.

Imagine creating a Facebook or Google Ad for your perfect customer. Ask yourself:

• How would you describe this person, specifically?
• Who is most likely to immediately buy your product or service?
• What is the most effective way to appeal to this person?

All great business models are customer-focused.

So, to help you grow your business and serve the people it was designed to serve, consider how identifying your ideal customers will help you shift your marketing, business offerings, distribution channels, and even your pricing so that your business can meet their needs. 

Ready to take your inbound strategy to the next level?  Set up a time to talk with our Growth experts.