Creating customer avatars in ATIYO

ATIYO product documentation · Brand Bible · 7 min read

A customer avatar is a clear picture of one type of person who buys from you, written so your whole team can step into their shoes. In ATIYO, avatars live in your Brand Bible and become the starting point for every creative brief. This guide walks through creating one and making it genuinely useful.

The goal isn't a demographic label like 'women 25 to 40.' It's a human you could recognize in a coffee shop: what they're struggling with, what they've already tried, and what they're quietly hoping your product will fix.

Before you add an avatar

Good avatars come from evidence, not imagination. Spend a few minutes pulling from sources you already have so your avatar reflects real buyers.

Customer reviews and support tickets, especially the emotional language people use.
Post-purchase survey answers to 'what almost stopped you from buying?'
Sales or DM conversations where objections and desires come up unfiltered.
The words customers use to describe the problem, not the words you use to describe the product.

Steal your customers' exact phrasing. The lines that make ads convert are usually quotes you lifted from a five-star review, not copy you invented.

How to create a customer avatar

Adding an avatar takes a couple of minutes once you've done the thinking. Head to your library to get started.

Open Brand Bible and choose to add a new customer avatar.
Give the avatar a memorable name that captures who they are, not just a number (for example 'Burned-out New Mom' rather than 'Avatar 3').
Describe their situation: their day, their role, and the context where your product fits.
Capture their main frustration and what they've already tried that failed them.
Note the outcome they want, in their own words where you can.
Save the avatar so it's available to select when you build briefs.

You can create as many avatars as your brand genuinely serves. Most DTC brands start with two or three strong ones rather than a dozen thin ones.

What makes an avatar worth using

A weak avatar is a summary. A strong avatar is specific enough that it changes how someone writes a hook. Aim for these qualities.

Distinct, not overlapping

If two avatars would respond to the same ad in the same way, they're really one avatar. Merge them. Distinct avatars justify distinct concepts on your Creative Roadmap.

Emotional, not just factual

Age and income rarely change your creative. The fear of being judged, the exhaustion of trying and failing, the pride of finally getting it right, those do. Write the feeling in.

Tied to a desire and an angle

An avatar becomes powerful when you pair it with a core desire and a marketing angle. Together they give an editor everything they need to produce something on target.

Using avatars in your briefs

Once your avatars exist, they show up as selectable options when you create a brief. Picking the avatar sets the context for the whole concept, so the editor knows exactly who they're speaking to. This is where the documentation pays off: no more guessing, no more 'who is this for again?' in the middle of a shoot.

Keeping avatars current

Brands evolve, and so do the people who buy from them. Revisit your avatars every quarter or after a big product launch. If an avatar stops being relevant, you can archive it in the Brand Bible rather than delete it, so it's out of the way but still there if you need the history.

Have a list of avatars in a spreadsheet already? You can bulk import them with the Excel/CSV template instead of creating each one by hand.

Next steps

With avatars in place, add depth by creating sub-avatars for narrower segments, then define the core desires that drive each one. When you're ready to brief, everything you built here will be waiting in new brief.