The Santa Barbara Web Design and Marketing Blog

When it comes to running a successful marketing campaign, there’s a foundational principle that holds true across every niche, every industry, and every platform: a strong, focused core message. Your campaign’s core message is your “north star”—the idea that underpins every headline, every email, every piece of copy or content. But while having a great core message is essential, it’s just the beginning. To truly connect with your audience and stand out in a sea of noise, you must hit that core message from every possible angle.

And where does a truly impactful message begin? With a deep understanding of your customer. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the process of developing a powerful core message, starting with a customer avatar, and show you—in depth—how to leverage this understanding to create campaigns that feel personal, relatable, and impossible to ignore.

Step 1: Building the Customer Avatar

A customer avatar (sometimes called a buyer persona) is a detailed, data-driven representation of your ideal customer. It goes far beyond simple demographics. A well-built avatar should be so rich and nuanced that you can picture this customer as a real person. You know what makes them tick. You know what keeps them awake at night. You know what motivates them to take action—and what holds them back.

Why is the customer avatar so important?

Simply put, it’s easier to craft messages that work if you know exactly whom you’re speaking to. A generic message delivered to everyone is a message delivered to no one. Personalization and specificity cut through the noise.

Building Your Avatar: The Essential Questions

To create your customer avatar, answer these questions in as much detail as possible:

- Demographics: Age, gender, location, education, marital status, income level, job industry or role.

- Fears and Concerns: What are your customer's biggest worries? What are the stakes if they don’t solve their problem? What do they dread?

- Desires: What do they want most? What goals are they trying to achieve? What kind of life do they dream of living?

- Pain Points: What frustrates them about their current situation? What have they tried before that didn’t work?

- Triggers: What events or realizations push them to seek a solution?

- Values: What do they care about most?

- Objections: What reasons might they have for not buying your solution?

- Decision-Making Journey: Who (if anyone) else do they consult? How do they research their options?

- Before and After: Who are they before they find a solution? Who will they become after?

This may seem like a lot, and it is—but this is the foundation that every piece of your campaign will rest on. The effort you put in here will pay huge dividends down the line.

Step 2: Crafting Your Core Message

Once you have a vivid picture of your avatar, it’s time to craft your message. The core message is the one-sentence (or short-paragraph) promise that everything else reinforces.

A great core message does three things:

1. Addresses the Avatar’s Pain or Desire: It must speak directly to their most urgent needs—the ones you surfaced in your avatar research.

2. Draws a Hard Contrast: Paint a clear “before and after”—so your customer knows what changes when they embrace your solution.

3. Builds Trust: It should feel like you “get” them—that you understand their challenges and genuinely want to help.

Let’s see a hypothetical example to illustrate. Imagine you’re a web consultant in Santa Barbara helping small local businesses update their websites for the modern era. Here’s how a core message might look after doing detailed avatar work:

> “We help Santa Barbara small business owners finally feel proud of their website—no more outdated designs, no more lost customers, just a site that works for you and attracts your best clients.”

Notice how this hits the pain point (outdated designs), connects to a desire (feeling proud, attracting clients), and positions you as the empathetic expert.

Step 3: Hitting Your Message From Every Angle

With your core message in hand, your work is just beginning. Now, you want to communicate it over and over, but not by simply repeating the same phrase. Instead, you "hit it from every angle," translating the message into stories, examples, demonstrations, testimonials, FAQs, and more.

This multi-angle approach does two things:

1. It Keeps Your Campaign Fresh: People need to see/hear a message multiple times before it really sinks in. By coming at it from different directions, it always feels relevant—not repetitive.

2. It Enlarges the Emotional Impact: People process information differently. Some respond to stories, some to facts, some to step-by-step explanations. When you explore every angle, you reach more of your audience in a way they personally connect with.

Practical Ways to Hit Your Message From Every Angle

- Tell Customer Stories: Share case studies or testimonials of similar people who overcame the same frustrations using your product or service.

- Address Objections: Create content that speaks directly to the reasons people hesitate, and explain how you address those concerns.

- Highlight Features as Solutions: Don’t just list features—connect each feature back to how it helps relieve a pain point or helps the customer achieve a desire.

- Demonstrate Before and After: Use visuals, stories, or interactive demos to paint the contrast between the “old way” and the “new way.”

- Answer Questions: Publish an FAQ where you answer the top questions and worries your avatar has.

- Teach and Educate: Break down complex ideas they may find intimidating, so they understand the value of your solution.

- Tap Into Emotions: Use empathetic stories to show you truly understand their struggle—and their dreams.

- Celebrate Small Wins: Share the “micro-transformations” your solution enables, not just the big outcomes.

Each piece of content, ad, social post, or email draws a circle around your core message, making it almost impossible for your audience to miss what you stand for and who you help.

Step 4: Creating Relatability—“You Get Me!”

One of the most important outcomes of this multi-angle, avatar-driven messaging is that you build relatability. When your prospect hears or reads your message, their ideal reaction is:

> “Oh my gosh, this person/company gets me. They understand exactly what I’m struggling with.”

This is the tipping point. At this moment, your campaign moves from outreach to inbound. Instead of you chasing leads, they come to you. They feel seen, heard, and understood—and that’s a rare thing, especially in online marketing.

How do you know if this is happening?

Look for cues like:

- Prospects comment or reply with “That’s exactly how I feel!” or “You described me perfectly.”

- Higher engagement on your content (likes, shares, saves).

- More people inquiring with specific questions or requesting consultations.

- Testimonials that talk about how well you understood their situation.

If you’re not seeing these signals, revisit your avatar research and core message. The more detailed and honest you are in the early stages, the more magnetic your campaign will be later.

Step 5: Bringing It All Together—Your End-to-End Campaign

Let’s tie all this together with a practical example. Let’s imagine a web consultant called “SB Web Guy” in Santa Barbara, CA who helps business owners modernize their web presence and learn to use automation tools.

Step 1: Avatar Creation

- Main Avatar: Kelly, 47, owns a boutique fitness studio in Santa Barbara. She’s proud of her business, but embarrassed by her old website and struggles to attract new clients online. She’s tried to DIY, but tech overwhelms her. She's worried her competition looks more professional. Her dream is to have a beautiful website that gets compliments from members and does the work of attracting and booking clients in the background.

Step 2: Core Message

> “Tired of your outdated business website making the wrong impression? We help Santa Barbara small business owners like you finally feel confident online—with a site that looks great, attracts your ideal clients, and works for you 24/7.”

Step 3: Hitting the Message From All Angles

- Case Study: Feature a local Pilates studio owner who increased new sign-ups by 30% after their website makeover.

- Objection Handling: Video series: “Is upgrading your website really worth it? Here’s what your old site is costing you.”

- Feature-to-Benefit: “Our booking system means you get fewer no-shows and spend less time on the phone scheduling.”

- Before/After Gallery: Side-by-side screenshots of previous client websites: “See the difference a fresh web presence can make.”

- FAQ: “Do I need to be a tech wizard to update my site in the future?”

- Education: Workshops and content teaching “What is website automation, and how can it save you time?”

- Emotional Story: A letter from Kelly to her future self, painting the day she hears a new client say, “Wow, I loved your website—it’s why I chose you.”

- Celebrate Small Wins: Weekly social posts sharing mini-successes: “Our client just got their first online booking through their new site!”

Step 4: Measuring Relatability

Responses like “You described exactly my situation!” start showing up. Leads increase. Clients say, “I felt like you were speaking directly to me.”

This is a campaign working as it should. And it didn’t happen by luck—it was intentional, grounded in deep audience understanding, and executed with care.

Step 6: Continuous Iteration—Always Listen, Always Improve

Even the most dialed-in campaigns can improve. Keep listening. Pay attention to what questions keep coming up, what objections stall deals, and what stories resonate. Update your avatar with new insights. Refine your messaging. Test new angles. The more closely you stay tuned to your customers, the stronger your campaigns become.

Here are a few ways to keep your finger on the pulse:

- Regularly survey your customers after purchases or interactions.

- Run polls or ask questions on social media.

- Conduct customer interviews (even if brief).

- Track analytics closely: what headlines get the best response? Where do people drop off?

- Always ask new clients “What made you reach out to us?”

These small habits will help your message stay relevant, relatable, and irresistible.

Conclusion: The Competitive Advantage of Message Mastery

The online business world is crowded. Templates and “magic bullet” formulas abound. But the brands and businesses that win aren’t the ones shouting the loudest—they’re the ones who connect on a human level.

When you start every campaign with a detailed customer avatar, craft a core message rooted in that persona’s reality, and communicate that message from every possible angle, something magical happens. Your campaigns stop feeling like “marketing” and start feeling like conversations. Prospects no longer feel targeted—they feel understood.

In a sense, this is the heart of great marketing: seeing and making others feel seen. The technical skills—building websites, running ads, setting up automations—will make your campaigns more effective and measurable. But your message and your empathy make them memorable and magnetic.

As you develop your next campaign, I invite you to go deeper than ever on your customer avatar. Relate to your audience at every touchpoint. Build that feeling of “they get me!” into every headline, every post, every offer. And watch as your audience starts rushing to you, eager to engage, to buy, and to be part of what you’re building.

Thanks for joining me on this in-depth journey. If you have questions about building your avatar, refining your message, or bringing your campaign to life, I’m here for you—your Santa Barbara Web Guy. Until next time, keep creating, keep connecting, and keep making a difference for your audience.