The truth is, 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers.
The good news is that you don't have to try and appeal to everybody—you can focus on just a few people and make a killing. But it's not enough to just know who those people are; you need to understand them, too.
That's why it's so important to understand who your customers are and who they're not.
Time and time again, I've seen companies try to market to everybody for fear of losing business. Just because you're focused on a key target audience doesn't mean people outside of that group won't do business with you. But it does mean, the more focused you are on your target market and their needs, the easier it will be for you to sell to them in a way that works.
What is a Customer Persona Anyway?
Before we get into creating a buyer persona, let's review what it is.
A marketing or buyer persona is an outline of your ideal customer. It includes information like demographics, interests, likes, how they live, how they think, pain points, motivations, and the media they consume.
But it’s more than that. Outlining who your target customer is will inform your marketing strategies, social media posts, and content marketing efforts, and even provide information to help your business develop new products or services. Overall outlining customer personas is critical to making the most of your marketing efforts and helping you grow your business.
A buyer persona represents a segment of your audience. While it will end up looking like a single person, it is not one customer. It is a composite of the audience it represents. For example, if you’re selling toys one persona might be the end-user - the children that play with the toy. Another persona would be the person who purchases the toy.
Not sure where to get started? See below for a step-by-step guide to creating your buyer personas. Aim for 1-3 personas to start, a maximum of 5 depending on your industry.
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5 Steps to Creating a Customer Persona
As you go through the 5 steps, the ultimate goal is to get to know more about your top customers: their motivations, attitudes, beliefs, and purchase habits. You will have customers you do not want to build a persona around. Be critical about who you want to focus on and who you DO NOT want to focus on, so you can be sure you are developing the right personas.
Step 1: Review and Research your Top Customers
Step 2: Analyze and Bucket Your Research
Step 3: Develop a Persona of Your Ideal Client(s)
Step 4: Evaluate your Business Against This Persona
Step 5: Socialize Your Buyer Persona
Free resources you can use to define your buyer personas:
StatsCan & U.S. Census - perfect to find the size of an audience or any recent trends
Google Alerts - set up keyword and brand mentions, monitor for content
Google Trends - explore trending searches
Reddit - search submissions or subreddits in your niche market
YouTube Find My Audience - find your most valuable customers on YouTube
Pew Research Centre - free resource for facts and trends shaping our world
Paid resources you can use to define your buyer personas:
Survey Monkey - easy way to create surveys - various paid plans available
Google Surveys - research opinions of consumers - cost is based price per response
PRIZM - analyze customers with Canada’s leading segmentation system - pricing available upon request. You can check it out for free by entering your postal code to see a sample of the lifestyle types.
Have a question or need help with your digital marketing? Tenth Man Marketing can help. Reach out for a free consultation today.