If you want to run a successful business, it’s vital that you understand your target audience. Your target audience encompasses all of the different types of people who would likely benefit from your product or service.
Figuring out your target audience starts with developing one, or more, customer personas. In essence, a customer persona is your ‘dream customer,’ the person who needs what you’re offering more than anyone else.
Developing this semi-fictional character takes time and effort, but there are ways you can fine-tune the process to establish an accurate and helpful idea of who you should target in your marketing campaigns. Here’s the layout of a standard customer persona.
Begin with the Basics
After you’ve determined the viability of your website, you should break down the basic demographics of your target customer. Think about the following traits when you start:
- Age – Is your perfect customer is their 20s? Or are they in their 60s?
- Gender – Does your product appeal to men, women, or both?
- Average income – What is the target income of your customer persona? This will depend on the purpose, price, and availability of your product.
- Location – Can someone order your product from around the world? Or is your product or service only useful in certain parts of the county/world?
Here is an excellent example from Dollar Shave Club of how you can use some basic customer information to build targeted content.
Dollar Shave Club understands that their target customer is young men who want a simpler way to buy razors. They create content that includes urinals and a mention of the article’s ‘point’ above the image. This is the kind of content their main audience likes, which shows in their success and engagement.
It’s also beneficial to add a face and name to your customer persona. Adding details like a name can make discussing and evaluating this person easier on your team.
Personal Values
The next step in building your customer persona is figuring out their personal values. Think about the type of things your persona may believe, feel, or relate to in their lives.
For instance, if you’re selling a product aimed at helping business owners, you can assume that your fictional character values hard work. Chances are, they want their business to succeed. You can also assume that they have a routine in their daily life but appreciate things that make life a bit simpler.
You can take this strategy and weave it through your marketing campaign. Once you understand personal values, you’ll gain valuable insight into the next section, pain points.
Identify Pain Points
Everyone is looking for a product that solves a problem. When you’re thinking up your dream customer, consider the pain points they might have and how your product or service can solve their problems.
Individual pain points are going to depend on your niche. But every niche has its own set of problems that business owners try to solve. Dollar Shave Club customers likely were tired of going to the department store for their shaving supplies or were just sick of paying premium prices for an average product. Miracle Grow, a gardening product, is designed for people who have a problem growing a vibrant and healthy garden. The list goes on and on.
Think about the product you’re selling, and consider how your dream customer could solve a problem with your product. If you’re not sure what challenges your leads are facing, offer a customer survey form on your website and directly ask hurdles they are facing. Many businesses use the problems their customers face to create new personas and develop new products.
Conclusion
Developing a customer persona has many challenges, but once you have a perfect persona, you will likely have happier customers, generate quality leads, and see more conversions.
Take a careful look at your traffic and demographics on Google Analytics, brainstorm with your marketing team, and before long you’ll have a compelling customer persona for your niche.