Have you created your Ideal Customer Persona? I’m not talking about identifying your target market, as you’ve hopefully done this before you launched your business.

An ideal customer persona goes much deeper than that. In this article, I will share the method behind creating a personalised Avatar that really delves into the emotional and behaviour side of the person.

The Difference Between Target Market and Customer Persona

When you are identifying your target market, you get basic demographic information like:-

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Marital Status
• Income

These are a great basis to start and show what different groups of people have in common. However, the customer persona looks at the differentiating factors of each of these groups.

For example. Two 50 year old married men living in Southampton, UK with an income of £60k could have completely different interests and behaviours. One could be your ideal customer, while the other could be a total waste of marketing spend and efforts.

Relate the Customer Persona To Your Brand

Just imagine you could only sell your product or service to ONE PERSON. What is it that makes them so special over the 8 Billion people that are in the world? What is different about them to the rest of the population? Why are they such a perfect fit for your business? When you start to find information that relates them to your brand in an emotion way, that is when the magic happens. People buy with emotion and then rationalise their decision.

Taking the example above, these 2 people look very similar on the surface. However, one could be an environmental activist and the other someone who doesn’t even recycle at home and doesn’t believe that climate change is an issue. It’s about the passion behind the person.

What To Include In Your Customer Persona

Basically, you want to gather as much information as you can and the more specific the better. Think of that ONE PERSON you want as a customer and find out everything you can about them:-

• What is their name? E.g. Caring Colin
• What is their age?
• What is their job title?
• What is their education level?
• What is their relationship status?
• Do they have children?
• What is their annual income?
• What groups are they involved in?
• What are they passionate about?
• What are their biggest fears?
• What magazines/books do they read?
• Where do they hang out online?
• What websites do they like?
• How do they make buying decisions?
• How can you help them?

When you have all this information, you then know where to find them and how to talk to them about things that matter, including how your product or service is perfect for them.

Let me illustrate my point. Let’s say you own a business that sells electric bicycles.

Here is an example of someone who would be an ideal customer for your business. Why? Let’s look at the information.

He cares deeply about the environment and has 2 children 13 & 9. He likes to holiday in the English countryside to spend quality family time together. Electric bicycles will help them explore more of the countryside whilst not polluting the atmosphere and possibly helping his to keep up with his young, fit children.

He appreciates the value in environmentally friendly products as one of his challenges is getting people to pay more for eco alternatives to house construction.

Living on the outskirts of Bristol he could then use the electric bicycle to get to work in the city rather than using his car.

It could also be taken on public transport to access more locations where activities are being held for environment and wildlife causes.

As you can see, if you only had the basic target market information, you wouldn’t know any of the important points listed above that make him your ideal customer. That is because these points are all based on passion, belief, fear and challenges. Those areas that tug at the emotional part of our brain.

You also know where he hangs out and how he makes his buying decisions which enables you to tailor your content specifically to him on the best platforms.

Will I Lose Other Possible Customers?

Many business owners worry that if they get too specific, they are discounting the possibility of selling their product or service to other potential customers. This is simply not true.

You’ve been in a room with several conversations going on at once and overheard a word or phrase in another chat  that catches your attention? The other person isn’t speaking directly to you, but the subject is something you are very interested in. If you didn’t hear those particular trigger words you would’ve probably not even noticed the other conversation taking place. This is where businesses go wrong in their marketing efforts. They try to speak to everyone but no one in particular, for fear of losing potential sales. The problem is, no-one is listening because they are not hearing words that mean anything specific to them.

Effective marketing is when you are speaking in a language that resonates with a particular demographic, your ideal demographic. Not every person is going to fit Colin’s exact profile but there will be many common factors that do on an emotional and behavioural level, giving you the opportunity to be truly heard by many more potential customers.

If customers are not resonating with your message, the are 2 possibilities:-

• You are not speaking in a language your ideal customer persona hears
• It is not a customer that fits with the WHY of your business.

One you can do something about, the other will save you money and effort trying to communicate with the wrong kind of customer.

Targeting your ideal customer can not only make you money, it can save you money too!

This is only ONE of the TWELVE steps to follow to ensure you have a solid marketing strategy BEFORE you start to spend your hard-earned money on advertising. I am currently writing a book ‘The Ethical Marketer’s Guide – 12 Steps BEFORE You Spend A Penny On Advertising’. If you are interested in being one of the first to own your own copy, then subscribe to the list below and I will be sure to keep you posted on it’s progress.