4 keys to nail your copywriting customer avatar

High-converting copy is always laser targeted.

It’s written to one specific person.

And the better you know how this person thinks, feels, and sees the world, the more persuasive your writing will be.

But most people skip over creating a customer avatar…

Then wonder why their copy didn’t convert well.

So today, I’m going to break down 4 keys to nail your copywriting customer avatar.

Let’s dive in.

Read time: 2 minutes and 41 seconds

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Where to do avatar research

There are a million different places to research your customer avatar:

• Niche forums & subreddits

• Comments on social media

• Amazon reviews

• Trustpilot

• Books

• AnswerThePublic

• ChatGPT

The list goes on and on.

But I’m not going to dig into the specifics of how to acquire the raw information.

That’s beyond the scope of this newsletter.

What I am going to do is break down how to frame it and organize it in a way you can actually use to write better copy.

STEP 1: Pains

Pains are how the customer’s problems show up in their day-to-day life.

When creating a customer avatar…

I frame these as “struggling to ____.”

It can be micro or macro, directly related or indirectly related.

For example…

Someone who’s struggling to attract clients for their ghostwriting business might be:

• Struggling to come up with content ideas

• Struggling to write & publish content consistently

• Struggling to craft compelling calls-to-action (CTAs)

• Struggling to generate leads for their service-based business

Those are directly related.

But as a result, they might also be struggling to pay down debt, attract a partner, save up to buy a house, or plan their dream vacation. These are indirectly related.

List out as many as you can.

Pains usually belong in the lead or intro of your sales copy.

This helps establish an emotional connection and prove you understand what the customer is going through.

STEP 2: Fears

Next are fears. Fears are future-based manifestations of their problems.

I like to frame these as “afraid they’ll never _____.”

Sticking with the example above, this person might be:

• Afraid they’ll never be able to hit 6-figures in revenue

• Afraid they’ll be seen as a failure by friends & family

• Afraid they’ll have to close down their business and get a real job

As you write these down, your mental image of the person will begin to crystallize.

You’ll be able to picture them more clearly in your mind’s eye.

Fears often work best to agitate (the second step in the Problem-Agitate-Solution framework), or in the close to illustrate the cost of inaction.

STEP 3: False beliefs

False beliefs are misconceptions the customer has about themselves or about the opportunity.

In our case, some of the customer’s false beliefs might be:

• “The more followers I have, the more money I’ll make”

• “I need a beautiful website to land better clients”

• “Nobody watches webinars anymore”

Deconstructing these false beliefs before and after you present your opportunity and what makes it unique is key to writing copy that converts.

It’s important to get these ones right, because customers won’t always admit to them…

But they cast a long shadow over the decision to buy or not.

STEP 4: Trigger moments

Customers aren’t actively thinking about their problems all the time.

In fact, they spend most of their time ignoring them.

It’s not until a trigger moment takes place that their problems become top of mind again.

Such as:

• Stepping on the scale

• Checking their bank account

• Getting no matches on Tinder

• Writing a piece of content that bombs

• Taking 5 sales calls in a row without closing a single client

Trigger moments put people in a “problem state of mind.”

This is why they make for great hooks, leads, headlines, and subject lines…

Because they immediately “trigger” the problem in the person’s mind.

Which is a great way to grab attention.

Putting It All Together

If you want to write winning copy, map out these 4 dimensions of your customer avatar before you write a single word:

• Pains

• Fears

• False beliefs

• Trigger moments

Then, make sure to deploy each one in the right place for maximum impact.

That’s it.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week.

Jim Hamilton