Why is it important to identify your “target market persona”? Your target market persona is the clearly defined identity of the person who is most likely to become a customer.
With a digital marketing campaign, you can ultimately place your advertising in front of a global audience. That includes people from all sorts of backgrounds and demographics. But if you have a hardware store in Delaware, it’s of no use to advertise to someone in the United Kingdom, for example!
Target Market Persona
You want to advertise only to local people if you have a local store. Otherwise you’re going to be wasting advertising budget on people who won’t be shopping with you. The same can be said of a global brand which only appeals to a specific cross section of the online marketplace.
So if your ideal customer is aged between 25-35, you’re going to want to target those people specifically. If your product is only understood by English speaking people, you don’t want to target non-English speaking people. To do so would be a complete waste of your marketing budget, since those people won’t want a product they can’t benefit from .
Target Market Persona: Target Audience / Customer Avatar
The target market persona is also known as your target audience or customer avatar. Marketers define who their “perfect customer” is before running any marketing campaigns. Where do they live? Where do they hang out online? What are their interests are and so on. The more specifically you can define your perfect customer, the better you can target them with your advertising and communicate in a meaningful way in your marketing campaigns.
What drives your customer avatar, why do they need your products/services? When you can understand your customers better, it can help you define your customer persona better and you can become very good at targeting only people who fit this description with your marketing.
See also how to know your target market and customer avatar worksheet pdf.
Defining Your Perfect Customer
If you already have customers, you can look at them to help you understand your perfect customer persona. What kind of person becomes a loyal customer for life? How old are they? How do they find you ?What are their pains and problems?
Another way to define your target audience is to look at what it is you offer. What problems do your services help with and who benefits the most from them? Look at your most loyal customers and define your avatar by:
- Age
- Location
- Income bracket
- Interests
- Where they hang out online/offline
- What are their problems/pains?
When you understand how your services help people you’re in a much better position to find people who are going to be most interested in your offerings and communicate your value in a way they understand.
Summary
Defining your “perfect customer” can save you thousands in wasted advertising budget while you test and measure adverts which aren’t crafted towards your ideal customers.
Once you understand your “perfect” customer you’re in a much better position to target advertising towards them specifically.
You can also communicate better in your marketing if you really understand the needs, desires, pains and difficulties of your ideal customer persona; and of how your products/services cater to their needs.
See also what is digital marketing and blogging in digital marketing.
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