Identifying your target market is of course the first step to reaching that market. But don’t stop there. When you have more than one market segment (in other words, more than one type of customer you’re trying to reach), separate them into well-defined categories and create buyer personas for each of them. Gain a deep understanding of what each segment needs so you can custom-tailor marketing messages that will resonate with them. All the messaging, no matter whom it’s for, should reflect the values of your brand.

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What Goes Into a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona takes the form of a short paragraph that describes a typical member of a target segment. It offers clues as to how you can best engage with them. Consider giving each of the personas different names (e.g. Businessman Brandon and Architect Anna) so you can start to think of them as distinct people who have different wants and needs. Because that is what they are!
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If you have multiple personas it will be challenging to meet all of their needs all of the time, but establishing marketing campaigns that precisely influence them is a good start. Later, you can assess the amount of resources you spend (both in time and money) reaching each segment and reallocate as needed by adjusting your marketing efforts and budget. Here are some elements you should include in buyer personas:
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• Whom am I trying to reach?
• How are they different from other groups of people we reach through marketing?
• What problems or concerns (pain points) do they have that our company or organization can solve?
• How can we clearly communicate our ability to take care of those pain points for them? Another way to look at this is considering what value we provide – and develop value propositions specific to each persona.
• What marketing channel(s) are they most likely to respond to? If their demographic isn’t known for using social media, for example, creating a social media campaign to connect with them is probably not your best option.

Once your buyer personas are laid out, what do you do with them? Learn more here!

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What If I Don’t Know Where to Start?

If you’re looking at the above list and have no idea where to begin, leave it to us. We’ll combine market research, stakeholder interviews, and the intuition based on years of experience in marketing to a broad array of different customers. Together we can lay a strong foundation to set you up for successful marketing in the future. Contact us today!

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Photo credit: Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash