An essential part of any successful marketing campaign is being able to connect with your target audience. If you cannot get your audience to like and trust you, then you will have a tough time getting them to make a purchase, much less become a repeat customer who refers their friends and family. 

The question is, in our fractured media environment how do you build a lasting connection with your target audience?

You do so by focusing on your ideal customer and creating a persona, or avatar, of that customer. You can use that persona to represent the type of customers you wish to attract with your marketing efforts.

In this blog, we will go through how you can create a customer persona for your ideal customer.

Detail Who They Are

The first step is to define who they are by listing their demographics. Here are some common demographics that you want to define for your persona:

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Marital Status
• Education Level
• Income
• Where They Live
• Children
• Job

Your goal here is to get a good idea of who you are speaking to with your marketing content. It may help to think of current customers or speak to your sales staff or front line employees to get a better idea of who your best current customers are. You can also use this to target a new group of customers if you are developing a new service or product. Keep in mind that if you have never worked with that group of customers before you may have to update your persona when you get more information. 

Detail How They Think

Next you have breakdown how your ideal customer thinks. This is commonly referred to as pyschographics. This can be incredibly powerful in marketing, because understanding how someone thinks can get to the core of their purchasing decisions. 

Here are some examples of psychographics:

• Personality
• Lifestyle
• Interests
• Opinions, Attitudes, and Beliefs
• Values

Understanding how someone thinks will directly impact your messaging and your ability to connect with them. If someone has conservative beliefs your messaging should reflect that. However if your audience is more liberal in their viewpoints, then your messaging will reflect that. Remember, your goal here is to create messaging that connects with your audience and ultimately moves them to take a desired action. 

List Their Goals and Pain Points

Now that you know who your ideal client is and how they think, it is time to look at their goals and pain points. Essentially you want to define how you can craft a message that will get them to take notice of your marketing efforts and take action. 

The best way to do this is to show your ideal customers that you understand the troubles they are experiencing and that you know how to help them. For your persona list all the reasons your target audience may want to do business with you. Then determine what could be their ultimate goal with getting help or service. 

Your goal here is to get your ideal customer to see that you understand their situation and that you are uniquely positioned to help them in the way they wish to be helped. 

What Goes Into Their Purchasing Decisions

This is a big one and one that many marketers tend to overlook. You want to understand what goes into the purchasing decision process for your ideal customer. You want to know what makes them say “yes” and more importantly, what makes them say “no”. 

Knowing what will make your target audience say “yes” is important because it helps you create a more positive message. However, knowing what makes your target audience hesitate or say “no” can help you create a more complete message because it allows you to handle objections before your ideal customer even has time to think about them.

Let’s say cost is a concern. You can create messaging that details how much it would cost to NOT hire you. Let’s say they are concerned about something going wrong. You can focus on your experience and point people to testimonials. 

The idea here is to make the path to “yes” easier and more accessible for your ideal customer. 

Evolve Over Time

It is important to remember that you might need more than one persona and that this is not a “set it and forget it” process. Once you have your client personas set they are good for about 12-18 months. In that time your business or industry might have changed or cultural and societal norms might have shifted. 

This will require you to go back to your personas and evolve them so that they reflect the current state of your business, industry, and the culture. 

Creating client personas is a great way to set the foundation for a strong connection with your ideal customers. You can use your personas to create more personalized marketing campaigns that speak to the specific needs of your clients. This will set you apart from your competitors and create the possibility of turning potential customers into loyal customers.