Client Avatar Development for Design Agency
PROJECT: CLIENT AVATAR DEVELOPMENT
OVERVIEW:
When Kelly and I started chatting about her client avatar it wasn’t because she was looking for new clients. In fact, she already has a full roster on long-term clients but she wanted to hone in on her messaging so she can make improvements to her marketing so if/when any clients drop off, she can easily keep her roster full.
Before she can get to the messaging part, she had to fully understand her target market and develop a client avatar. That way she can speak directly to that client avatar in her marketing and that’s exactly what we focused on.
Inclusions:
Client avatar including their brand archetype
Avatar’s current state and desired outcome
The problem
Their needs
Their pain points and objections
What they value most
Buyer’s Journey
Key messaging with words/phrases to use with her target market
Keywords to infuse throughout her website
Here’s a look at some of the project:
WHO ARE WE TARGETING: Adventurous, go-getter brands*
Key takeaways: They are scrappy and will do whatever needs to be done to reach their goals. Because of this, a lot of them have DIYed their own branding and/or have pieced together different elements of their branding so things aren’t quite as cohesive and consistent as they should be.
Target Market Brand Archetype: 70% The Explorer + 30% The Hero
*We developed a much more detailed description but I wanted to provide context for the sake of the case study.
HERE’S A LOOK AT SOME OF THE CONCLUSIONS FROM THE CLIENT AVATAR DEVELOPMENT:
Desired outcome: We identified that her client avatar simply wants a recognizable brand that simultaneously draws their target market in but also helps them stand out in a saturated market. They want to look more professional and like they are “bigger” in the market to get themselves on the map and make their mark on the world.
However, the underlying desire here is that they want to feel confident in their branding.
Because of this, I advised Kelly to sell confidence in their brand and that design is just the vessel to get them there. They won’t use the word “confident” though so we had to come up with some creative ideas to illustrate what this may look like for her client avatar.
Pain points: We identified the indicators that the client avatar will notice that highlight they need some sort of assistance whether they consciously realize it or not. Here’s what we came up with for Kelly:
Not feeling confident or happy with their branding but unsure of how to fix that
Not seeing the sales/results they want and/or having trouble securing wholesale orders
Know their brand elements aren’t cohesive and it’s hurting them
Lack of clarity
Objections: These are the factors that prevent Kelly’s client avatar, specifically, from moving forward with hiring a designer.
Trust
Clarity
Money
Resources
We identified that these hesitations are likely a combination of several or all because they are often intertwined and that keeps them in a loop of inaction. Because of these, we talked about how she can address each individually and together to illustrate Kelly’s expertise to squash these objections and make her client avatar feel really comfortable and confident in hiring her.
Developed the UVP a little more: Kelly already unofficially calls herself the Swiss Army Knife of Design (which I’m obsessed with!) so I wanted to develop that a little more to help speak to her strengths and what her target market is looking for. So we identifies that the three arms of the knife would be:
Bringing a new perspective from her vast experience
Being a unifying force and making sure all branding is consistent from logo to packaging
Providing clarity to give clients those “ah ha” moments
Buyer’s Journey conclusions: After mapping out Kelly’s Buyer’s Journey, we identified that the primary goal would be to get in front of her target market before they’re even considering hiring. That way she could nurture that connection (educate and squash objections, etc.) but the secondary goal is to boost SEO on her site and Instagram to show up when her target market is searching for her services.
While there was a lot more that went into the client avatar development, these were some of the key components that I think are going to make the biggest impact for Kelly moving forward.
“Really grateful for Mallory spearheading my target market research and strategy so I could spend time focusing on my growing business! I definitely feel like I have a new perspective around my ideal client and how to communicate with them in the most effective way. Would highly recommend Mallory for all your marketing needs!”