What is a personal avatar on YouTube and should you have one as a YouTube creator?
Well, let's take a deep dive into it all and give you the answer. YES, you should have a personal avatar, in other words: a fictive ideal viewer. This is not the same as your target audience. Having a personal avatar will make a big difference.
What is a Personal Avatar on YouTube
In essence, it is the basic marketing tool any successful business or YouTube channel uses. It is all about answering the question: who is my ideal viewer?
Just take a moment to think about your YouTube channel, and whom you would love to see watching all the content you create.
By definition, an avatar is an icon or figure representing a particular person like in a video game. Perhaps you have created an avatar when you were playing a game like Guitar Hero (to be geeky, it is a personalized graphical illustration that represents a computer user).
An avatar is an icon or figure representing a particular person like in a video game
In marketing, an avatar is a little fiction that helps us understand who our ideal viewers are so we can create content for them to discover and especially the YouTube algorithm can more easily find them.
And to be honest, you don’t create an avatar, you discover it over time. Your avatar becomes more clear as your YouTube channel grows. For a new YouTube channel, you could easily start with your younger self or a very clear persona in your direct surroundings, or if you are good at this you can create your avatar from scratch.
Your avatar is a viewer profile that is a best-case scenario for your YouTube channel. Perhaps it’s someone who loves jokes, is a thrill-seeker, and loves to be inspired by others. Or is someone who loves to travel, alternative forms of living, and being close to nature. Or someone who loves to cook at home uses only natural organic ingredients and enjoys family time.
Your avatar is a viewer profile that is a best-case scenario for your YouTube channel
The more explicit and detailed your avatar is, and the more focused you are, the easier everything becomes and you tend to attract the viewers whom you are focused on serving.
By focusing on the favourable characteristics of your best viewer, you can start seeking out new quality viewers like them, rather than expending energy and money raking in quantity.
This does not mean you will only make content for people who fit the avatar exactly. No, it just helps you with targeting and focused content creation and therefore the YouTube algorithm to find your viewers.
If you want to know more, or really understand this part of being a YouTube content creator, then our online course 'Finding your niche & Target audience' is a great fit. One module is fully dedicated to creating your own avatar. Anniek will guide you every step of the way to develop the avatar for your YouTube channel.
Join here.