Before you can SELL to a customer, you have to engage with them… And that means you have to know who they are. The very first rule of marketing is – there is no such thing as the “general public“.

If you want to appeal to “everyone” – you will fail.  No one thing appeals to everyone (perhaps apart from oxygen but to be honest, I even know people who aren’t so keen on the above and would prefer to smoke than breathe clean air!)

 You don’t even want to sell to every single person! You could never keep up with the demand!

So, whether you are working in an agency or at a company, once you accept that there simply is no such thing at “the general public” – life gets easier. Honestly! Trust me with this one.

And when we treat every member of a crowd, as an individual. Acknowledging and embracing that we all have very different values, beliefs and needs, we can get every single £ of our marketing budget to perform so much better. Here’s how:

To market to a target market, the easiest route is to create a “persona”

Yes – I hear you. “But we don’t just sell to one sort of person”. It’s OK – most brands or organisations have several different personas, but each one will be well identified and even have a name attached to them. So the key point is to start off with one, and flesh them out. Then move onto the next.

Start off by asking yourself these questions about your target persona – are they:

• Male/Female/non-binary – how do they identify?
• Ethnicity – which culture(s) do they identify with as their culture/origins/roots.
• How old are they?
• What job do they do?
• How much do they earn?
• How much disposable income? 
• What do they spend it on?
• Married/single/engaged/divorced?
• Where (which city/town/village) do they live
• Where do they go on holiday? 
• Where would they prefer to go on holiday if money was no object?
• Leisure activities – what do they do on a day off?
• What car do they drive? (and how did they pay for it?)
• Are they a home-owner, do they rent, live with parents?
• What sort of education did they get?
• What fashion brands do they care about? And why?
• What do they drink? Wine/lager/Acohol-free Gin (which brand)
• Coffee/tea, decaff/caff, fruit infusion?

Now DIG DEEPER

• What do they really care about?
• What keeps them awake at night?
• What are their values?
• What do they dream about?
• Who do they vote for, and why?
• Who are their heroes?
• Who are their influencers?
• What do they hate/love?

WHERE DO THEY HANG OUT?

• What’s their favourite social venue?
• Are they members of a community club? A sports club?
• What is their journey to work like? Do they get public transport – what ads will they be seeing?
• Which magazine/newspapers do they read?
• What radio station do they tune into on their way to work/gym/friends?
• Where do they source their information?
• What social media do they use?

  How frequently… 

• Are they on:  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest?
• What exactly are they doing there? (Keep up with friends/spying on kids? )
• What else do you imagine is going on in their world?

CHECK OUT THEIR MEDIA – GET TO KNOW THEM EVEN MORE

Treat yourself to a magazine or newspaper if they read a hard copy. Or get a subscription to their favourite media, so you will be able to…

• Identify the best media to target
• Know what to say to gain their attention
• Identify which social media streams to use

Now – Make your persona, well… personal!

Give your persona a name,  and find a picture of someone who could perfectly represent your target persona, really get to feel like you could know this persona* and discover where they would  hang out offline and online. Because when you know where your target audience is… You can make certain that you are there too. 

Many organisations even have a poster of their target customer with descriptors on the walls – so everyone remembers exactly who the important person is.

*TIP to get to know the Persona even better – make this a long term project.

Here are a few ideas to really get to know your target audience:

• Read their tweets, check out their social media, notice what they are commenting on, liking, following. 

• Follow and watch the influencers that they like. 

• Read/watch the media that they also enjoy.  Subscribe to their favourite channels

• Run competitions with surveys and feedback from them

• Take opportunities to talk to them.  If you ever meet one in “real life” ask them some questions to find out more

• Watch what other relevant organisations may be doing (eg: you’re an upmarket shoe brand with a target persona of male lawyers, aged 35-45,  in a large city – what coffee shops and bars do they frequent? What suits do they buy? Where do they network? What cars do they drive?  Understanding so much about your target persona may give you new ideas about where to run promotions too.)

Refresh your personas regularly

Trends and styles move on.  The people you were originally communicating with might have changed.  The persona you targeted 3 years ago is unlikely to be the same as those you want today.  You only need to look at Facebook user profiles to see how things can change.  So aim to refresh your personal regularly – as much as every 6 months, but certainly every 2-3 years at the very outside.

Once you’ve designed one persona – book them in with a refresh appointment in your calendar.

Build new additional personas when appropriate

Continue building personas for your brand.  And be aware of new products that you bring onstream, if they are likely to appeal to different personas.

Larger brands can target multiple personas, depending on ad/marketing budgets.  For everyone else, it pays to be central to your core message and tribe.

And remember “Influencer-Personas“

Consider the influencers of your direct persona, and create influencer-personas for them too.  (They may be actual influencers, or they could be parents, friends, experts, etc.  – consider how many people a bride-to-be might ask about her wedding venue or honeymoon.  Imagine how many people express opinions when someone announces they are going to buy new tech?