0.2Know your audience (customer avatar)
The essentials in 30 seconds
- One person, not everyone: a precise avatar (problems, desires, words) hits harder than a general message.
- Pains and desires first: fears, frustrations and deep desires sell — not age and job alone.
- Speak their words: reusing the audience’s real language (reviews, forums) creates the “that’s exactly it!” effect.
Running mini-case — Mehdi and the customer with “no time”
Mehdi writes for an online shop run by Lina, an overwhelmed e-merchant in Algiers: he targeted “active women”. His copy falls flat. Reading ten customer reviews, he finds the real pain: the fear of ordering the wrong size and struggling with the exchange. He rebuilds his avatar around that fear and rewrites everything with the customers’ exact words.
Sequel to case 0.1 — Mehdi moves from generic copy to a precise audience.
1. You write for one person, not for everyone
The beginner’s first mistake: writing for “everyone.” A text that speaks to everyone touches no one. Copywriting starts with a customer avatar (persona): a precise, embodied portrait of the ideal reader — their problems, desires, fears, objections, context.
A useful paradox: the more you narrow the audience, the wider your message lands. “For moms getting back into sport after a pregnancy” hits harder than “for anyone wanting to get in shape.” Mehdi proved it: “active women” spoke to no one, the fear of sizes spoke to all.
2. Fears, desires and pain points
A good avatar isn’t just age and job. What sells are the pain points: the concrete problems, frustrations and fears your offer solves. And the deep desires: what the person really wants to become or feel.
Key notion: the level of awareness. Does your audience know they have a problem? Do they know the solutions? Yours? It changes the whole angle: you don’t speak the same way to someone unaware of their problem and someone already comparing offers.
3. Speaking in the audience’s words
The most valuable resource: the voice of customer — the real words and phrases the audience uses to describe their problem. Found in reviews, forums, comments, support messages, conversations.
Reusing these words creates a “that’s exactly it!” effect: the reader feels understood. Writing in company jargon, on the contrary, pushes them away. The rule: stick to the reader’s vocabulary, not yours.
🔎 Concrete example — From vague profile to portrait that sells
You sell invoicing software. Two ways to describe your audience.
Vague: "Freelancers."
Avatar: "Sarah, an overwhelmed freelance designer who loses 2h a month on Excel invoices, fears VAT mistakes, and dreams of spending that time on real projects."Result: the avatar gives concrete angles — lost time, fear of error, desire to create.
Reflex: each pain or desire becomes a potential argument.
Section vocabulary
- Customer avatar / persona
- A precise, embodied portrait of the ideal reader: problems, desires, fears, objections, vocabulary, context.
Simple example: Lina, overwhelmed e-merchant in Algiers, fears returns and dreams of a shop that reassures on its own.
What it is not: “25-45 year-olds” with no fear, desire or real words.
Reflex: give each avatar a first name and a concrete situation.
- Audience
- The specific public the text addresses; you write for one person, not for “everyone.”
Simple example: Mehdi writes for the customer hesitating over size, not for “internet users”.
What it is not: broadening the message “to reach more people” and reaching no one.
Reflex: write as if to one single precise person.
- Voice of customer
- The real words and phrases the audience uses to describe its problem; to reuse in the text.
Simple example: “I’m afraid of picking the wrong size” reused verbatim on the product page.
What it is not: the shop’s internal jargon (“our optimized exchange UX”).
Reflex: copy 10 real review sentences before writing.
- Pain point
- A concrete problem, frustration or fear the audience feels and the offer can solve.
Simple example: The fear of struggling to exchange an item that’s too small.
What it is not: a product feature (“cotton fabric”) mistaken for a pain.
Reflex: each argument must answer a named pain.
- Level of awareness
- How much the audience knows about its problem and the solutions; drives the angle and message.
Simple example: A customer already comparing shops wants proof, not a problem explainer.
What it is not: explaining the problem to someone who already knows it — or selling to someone unaware.
Reflex: ask “do they know? do they compare?” before picking the angle.
In practice — Build a customer avatar in 20 minutes
- Pick a real offer. Give its ideal customer a first name and a concrete situation.
- List 3 pain points and 3 deep desires of that person.
- Read 10 real reviews or comments on that type of offer: note the recurring words and phrases.
- Assess the awareness level: do they know they have this problem? are they already comparing solutions?
Ready-to-use script — express avatar interview (1 min)
"Tell me about your last failed online purchase: what made you hesitate? What words came to mind? And if everything were perfect, what would the ideal order look like?"
Ask a real customer — or yourself facing reviews: pains, words, desire — the avatar’s raw material.
Copy-paste template — customer avatar sheet
FIRST NAME + SITUATION: _______________
3 PAINS: _______________ / _______________ / _______________
3 DESIRES: _______________ / _______________ / _______________
THEIR EXACT WORDS (3 review sentences): _______________
AWARENESS LEVEL: _______________Small business / tight budget
With no research budget: ten free reviews (Google, Facebook, marketplaces) are enough to extract recurring pains and words.
Algerian SME
Customers mixing French, Arabic and darija on WhatsApp: note the exact bilingual phrasings and reuse those that reassure (exchange, delivery, payment).
E-merchant
Read support questions and hesitation messages (“does it run large?”): each question is a product-page angle.
B2B service
Interview three lost or hesitant customers: their objections (“too expensive”, “no time”) beat any demographic data.
✓ Best practices
- Mine customer reviews and forums: that’s where the real voice of customer lives.
- Write as if speaking to one specific person, not to a crowd.
- Adapt the angle to the level of awareness: you don’t open the same way depending on what the audience already knows.
✗ Common pitfalls
- Writing for “everyone”: the message dilutes and touches no one.
- Reducing the avatar to demographic data with no fears or desires.
- Using company jargon instead of the reader’s real words.
Key takeaways
- You write for one precise person (avatar), not for “everyone.”
- What sells: pain points and deep desires, not age and job.
- The level of awareness drives the angle and message.
- Reuse the audience’s real language (reviews, forums): the “that’s exactly it!” effect.
48h Challenge — apply tomorrow
Read 10 real reviews on your type of offer, copy 5 exact customer sentences and rewrite 1 paragraph with their words. Compare the effect.
- I can describe my avatar with pains, desires and words.
- I can assess an audience’s awareness level.
- I’ve rewritten 1 text with customers’ real language.
Frequently asked questions
One avatar or several?
Start with a single, most representative one, and write for it. You can branch out later. Too many avatars up front makes the message fuzzy: better to speak strongly to one than weakly to all.
How to know my audience without a research budget?
Amazon reviews, comments, groups and forums, support questions and a few real conversations are often enough. Look for recurring words and emotions: it’s free and very rich.
Mehdi narrows his audience to “Lina, who fears picking the wrong size”. Why will this message land harder?