Small Business Marketing Exercise

Take Time This Week For Reflection

Starting off the year ahead refocused and recommitted requires a few moments in reflection. Sit down at your desk or in front of a crackling fire video on your TV (like my own pictured above) and start the process of reflection on your year-ahead business goals.

Below is a little exercise to get you started.

***Note: this is for business owners and their admin teams. It works well with local retailers and groups, non-profits, and education programs. A word of caution for schools and school programs: your customer is NOT the child. The child is one type of customer (avatar), but the decision-maker(s) are who you serve for enrollment & for the experience.

Year-End (2021) - New-Year (2022) Exercise 

As an individual business or as a group of them working together, defining your avatar is critically important because in the course of your day/week/month you'll come up to so many forks in the road. Some decisions can be delayed but most require action at the moment you encounter them. This exercise will make those decisions easier.

You see, all the questions you will ask yourself about marketing, events, and the different directions to go, will be (and should be) answered by your avatar. 

 Note: An avatar definition is below

Why is defining your avatar so important? 

Defining your avatar is an easy step to overlook in planning for marketing--especially if you have been in business for a while. But defining your avatar every year is critical because THEY are the ones you serve. Your customers (avatars) are the ones you have created your business/product/services for--or, hopefully, that is what you did. This exercise should remind you and your team of that critical fact!

So grab a pencil....

Exercise

1. Set a timer for at least 15 minutes, and not less than 10.
2. Grab an empty notebook and that pencil.
3. Sit down and write out a description of just ONE person who could have an amazing, life-changing experience because they came to YOUR program/event or used YOUR product/service.

Throughout this week before the New Year rings in, take time to really reflect on that person's experience. Add thoughts, notes, and ideas.

And then, stay tuned for step two.

Your Avatar Definition

By Forbes Magazine: “In marketing, an avatar is a little fiction that helps us understand who our ideal customers are so we can more easily find them.... The avatar focuses on one person and outlines everything about them. It goes into much greater depth than a regular marketing persona, providing marketers with many more targeting tools.”

Have fun!

#avatar #smallbusiness #newyeargoals #digitalmarketing

Maria Bereket, Design Bear Marketing, works with small business owners and non-profits to embrace digital marketing and master their critical and necessary tools.