You won’t have a business without sales and you won’t get sales without customers. But getting customers is hard. One way to make it easier is to create an avatar.

An avatar is a representation of your perfect customer. Having an avatar feels like cheating because it makes writing ads feel effortless. It's the difference between trying to sell to the masses vs. having a conversation with a friend. An avatar is created from your imagination, but based on real world data.

Some of the basic things to reference:

* Age

* Sex

* Job

* Height

* Marital status

* Location

* Interests

But you can, and should, go beyond these basics.

You want your avatar to be so real, you know them personally. Give them a name. Note what time they wake up the morning. Understand them so wall, you can recite what they’re doing at any given moment.

Keep in mind your avatar is ONE person. This is because great advertising is personal. You want the receiver of your ad to see it and think:

“YES — this was made specifically for me.”

Avatars are very useful for selling, but you can create them for anyone you’re trying to attract. Looking for a spouse? Create an avatar of your ideal partner. Need a business partner? Conjure an avatar that represents the qualities you seek. You won't find who you want unless you identify who they are, first.

Your first sale, to your avatar, will be fake. You won’t earn any money and you can't brag about your sale.

But the confidence you'll gain — that'll help you sell to the masses, write ads with ease, and, overall, make you understand your entire market better than your competition — will be priceless.

Raymond Duke