What is a target audience?
A target audience is a group of people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.
What is a buyer persona?
When you define your target audience, you're essentially creating a profile, or buyer persona, of your ideal customer.
What information do I need to create a buyer persona
Common characteristics a business will define when putting together their buyer persona are:
Demographics: Age, gender, income, education, and location.
Psychographics: Interests, hobbies, values, and lifestyle.
Behavior: Buying habits, online activity, and media consumption.
How many buyer personas do I need?
This will depend on who you are trying to sell your products and services to and if each product or service has a different audience.
For example, if you’re a lawn care company and you offer residential services as well as commercial lawn care, then you’ll likely have at least two buyer personas - one for the homeowner and one for the business owner. But if your company also provides services like hard landscaping, water fixture installation, or sprinkler repair - then you may have more personas to target those products to specific clients. You’re hard landscaping may be out of the price range of some people so marketing to the right income level would be a logical choice.
Do I really need a buyer persona and a target audience?
YES! Your marketing needs to speak to a specific group of people. You need to understand that group well and create marketing/content that appeals to their very specific pain points, needs, and wants.
Why can’t I just market my business to everyone?
There’s a saying in marketing, “if you market to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.”
For example, If you're a locally owned restaurant that specializes in comfort food, has live bands playing nightly, a big bar, and doesn't have a large kids menu, you'll likely want to focus your marketing on:
Locals and tourists within a certain radius of your location.
A 21+ year old crowd.
People looking for a lively and casual dining experience.
You may also want to consider targeting people who are interested in specific types of live music or sports. For example, if you have a country band playing on Friday nights, you could promote your restaurant to country music fans.
But you wouldn’t want to spend too much time and money marketing to people with small children, those who want a quiet place to eat, or those who are far away from your location.
What does a buyer persona look like?
A buyer persona can be extremely specific and will all depend on your products, services, and business goals. Again, you likely will have more than one persona, so it’s okay to be specific for each.
Here is an example of a persona a small, local gift show that sells beach and coastal-themed decor and souvenirs may use if they are focusing on tourists:
Name: Sarah Age: 35 Occupation: Nurse Location: Midwest Income: $60,000 Family: Married, two young children Interests: Travel, beach, shopping, spending time with family Pain points:
Doesn't have a lot of time to shop while on vacation because she has two kids who would rather be at the beach, so she wants to be able to find unique and high-quality gifts quickly and easily.
Wants to find gifts that are reflective of her beach vacation
Wants to support local businesses.
Goals:
To find unique and high-quality beach and coastal themed gifts for herself, family, and friends.
To support local businesses.
To have a fun and memorable shopping experience.
How to reach Sarah:
Advertise in local travel magazines and websites.
Partner with local hotels and tour operators to offer discounts and promotions to their guests.
Use social media to connect with Sarah and other potential customers. Share photos and videos of your products, as well as information about your store and the local area.
Offer online shopping and shipping so that Sarah can shop from the comfort of her own home.
Final Thoughts
It's important to note that your target audience is not always a static group. It can change over time as your business grows and evolves. It's also important to keep an eye on the demographics and psychographics of your target audience so that you can adjust your marketing messages accordingly.
By taking the time to define your target audience, you can improve your chances of reaching the right people with your marketing messages. This can lead to increased sales and growth for your business.
