In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to hunt down customers or search for people to buy your products. If everything were perfect, they’d just come to you for your amazing services. (Also, you hair would look great everyday, coffee would taste better than it already does, and naps would be built into your daily schedule...we can dream, right?)

But we both know that the real world unfortunately doesn’t work that way. People have preferences. Clients have needs. And every individual company can’t serve every single potential customer. Which works in your favor.

You can discover a ready-made audience that is waiting to hear how your specific product or service can solve their particular needs. In fact, they may be overjoyed to learn how you can improve their life.

So where is this secret club of perfect clients lurking? And how can you intentionally spend your advertising money to reach these people? 

Typical vs Ideal Customer

First, let’s recognize that there is a divide between a typical buyer and an ideal customer. A typical buyer could be a homeowner. But an ideal customer is more specific than that; perhaps it’s a new homeowner that has never owned a home before, or a homeowner with pets, or even a homeowner who plans to renovate and remodel the property that they just purchased. 

When you can narrow your audience down to an ideal customer, you will better understand their specific needs and desires. Then, you can center your efforts on reaching that subpopulation. You can tailor your content and harness your marketing messages to that smaller group - the people who are more likely to connect with you and actually purchase your products.

What is your target market?

A savvy business owner like yourself probably has a solid grasp of your typical customer. If you haven’t outlined this, now is the time. By composing a thorough description of your target market, you’ll double check that you have considered all aspects of your potential buyers.

Most brands develop buyer personas, or fictional characters that represent actual customers. Use “Penny-pinching Pete,” “Working Mom Wanda” or “Motivated Mandy the Manager” to get you into the mindset of your clients. The most important question to ask while developing buyer personas is “Why?” This goes beyond analyzing their behaviors and gets to the deeper roots of why they perform those actions.

Another reason to create buyer personas is to make sure that you’re not overlooking an entire segment of the population. Are there ideal customers that you’ve never considered yet?

After you’ve collected a picture of your ideal customer and target market, the next phase of work begins. Refine your product to align with their needs. Modify your services to better suit what they’re after. Adjust your marketing efforts to cross paths with potential leads. Recalibrate after feedback based on your customer needs.

The helpfulness of Market Segmentation

Defining your buyer personas progresses you toward market segmentation - the process of batching buyers together into groups, and creating a specific marketing plan that speaks to their exact desires and needs.

Market segmentation can be based on numerous factors, most of which will naturally pop-up during the creation of buyer personas:

• Demographics
• Geographic location
• Lifestyle
• Dreams and ambitions
• Career goals, etc.

Why does market segmentation matter? It allows you to deliberately target your marketing messages to a group of people. It means that those people will see your marketing and immediately buy into the service you offer. It means that you’re providing a solution to a problem that they didn’t know could be answered. It means they instantly want to learn more, connect with you, or buy your product.

In fact, marketers who applied market segmentation to their email campaigns saw a 760% increase in email revenue. Expand your market segmentation tactics into the Google or social media realms for even more variety.

Decide what to say

So far you’ve developed buyer personas and grouped them into market segmentation categories. That’s an awesome foundation! But there’s one more step in this process. What do you actually say? How do you decide what words to use, what message to preach, and what they want to hear?

Marketing is about creating a personal connection with your audience. Consider their needs, take note of their desires, and tailor your message to deliver the perfect solution to their problem.

Compare multiple words until you find the ones that pack the proper emotion and foster an appropriate connection. Review multiple photos or images until you observe which one resonates best with the target group. The method of delivery is also important; try various avenues like email, Google ads, or social media posts.

Let’s pretend that you are a company that provides ready-to-bake meals. You’ve identified two central buyer personas: Working Mom Wanda and Traveling Tina. Both women are interested in a meal service for weeknight dinners.

Working Mom Wanda commutes downtown to her full time corporate career, and has four active children. She spends weeknights shuttling kids to sports practice, running errands, helping with homework, and cooking meals (among the dozens of other tasks on a typical mother’s plate). 

Traveling Tina is retired but enjoys vacationing around the world, spending time at her kid’s houses to see her grandchildren, and volunteering in her community. She travels frequently but often isn’t gone more than a few days at a time.

Both of these women need to hear your marketing, but they would want to hear different messages. You might tell Working Mom Wanda “Spend the weekend with your family instead of grocery shopping.” Instead, you might advertise “Let us do the cooking” to Traveling Tina.

Similar messages, same goals, but each are written to attract different audiences.

The three steps to remember

1. Develop your buyer personas.
2. Categorize the buyer personas into market segments.
3. Develop a plan for how to effectively market to each segment.

In the long run, your marketing will be more effective because you followed these three steps. And effective marketing means more happy customers. And more happy customers means a profitable business!

Need help with your marketing? Our digital marketing experts know exactly how to implement these three steps. Let us discover your buyer personas, group them into market segments, and craft intentional marketing messages to them. Fill out the form below to get started!