Welcome to CreativeDemand Copywriting Tips, I’m Anna, a professional copywriter. Today we’re asking the question, “What is an avatar, and how do you use it in your writing?”

When I say the word “avatar,” I am not referring to what is currently the highest grossing movie of all time. But, the avatar in that movie is a figure that represents the main character. It’s literally the shape that he takes on to interact in a different environment. 

So when I talk about an avatar, I’m talking about a figure that represents your ideal customer at a fixed moment in time. It’s a fictional portrait of your target market embodied by a single person. 

A Quick Example of a Company Avatar

Now, a company may have multiple avatars, but it’s best not to have more than five. In fact, one or two are best so that a company’s marketing message can stay extremely focused. So here’s an example:

• Let’s say that the ideal customer for a certain business is a man in his mid-forties who is making around $200,000 a year. 
• He’s likely to be certified in something or have more education than a bachelor’s degree. 
• He has a busy schedule and doesn’t get enough exercise or sleep. 
• He’s interested in innovative solutions and things that help him see results fast because he doesn’t have a lot of free time. 

This ideal customer may be a real person who has purchased from the business before. But if he’s real, he’s going to get older, and his interests and his income may change. His priorities might be completely different in five years. 

So to turn him into an avatar, we write down his characteristics at this moment in time, and we give him a fictional name: Victor. Now why is any of this important to you when you’re writing copy? Because if you have a business or you’re writing for a business that has an avatar, everything you write related to the brand should be focused on appealing to Victor. 

The Importance of Focusing Your Marketing Message

You aren’t speaking to everyone. You can’t. You use the avatar as a filter for the style of your communication, what you focus on, and the results that Victor wants. (Even Trader Joe’s, a grocery store chain, focuses their marketing toward a particular type of customer… and who doesn’t shop at the grocery store?) 

The better you know Victor, the better you can connect with him and make a case for the product you’re selling. One of the things we’ve talked about before is who’s going to be reading your copy and recognizing the context of what you’re writing within a sales funnel or within a company’s overall marketing strategy. That still applies. 

But the thing that will keep you on brand and help you organize information in a compelling way is using the company avatar as a filter for whatever you’re writing. Would Victor care about this? How do you say it in terms that he would connect with? What does he want the most from this product?

So when you’re writing copy, make sure that you’re aware of the avatar for that business. If the business you’re working for doesn’t have one, ask them about their ideal customer and their target market. From there, you should be able to formulate the portrait of a person you can write to. It’s highly effective and it helps to focus your messaging. 

Interested in Learning Copywriting?

We talk more about avatars and the significance of understanding your target market in my Transformation Copywriting™ course. If you’d like to learn more about persuasive copywriting techniques, I encourage you to check that out. Thanks for reading!