Are you feeling like your marketing is not hitting the right target customers? Then, more than likely, you are not addressing the right target consumers. This is where buyer personas come in. These are detailed portraits of your dream customers. Generally, a combination of demographics, behaviors, motivations, and challenges.

When used well, personas assist you in:

• Creating messages that are memorable
• Selecting the most important platforms
• Using your budget more intelligently.

So, how can you develop buyer personas that actually sharpen your targeting? Continue reading to learn more about building digital audiences for precise targeting.

Use real data, not assumptions

Many people make the mistake of assuming their consumers. However, good personas are not built on guesses. But on facts. Analyze the data you already have:

• Customer Data: Pull information from your CRM and sales reports. Customer service tickets also come in handy.
• Analytics: Check your site traffic and social data. Dig into your email activity as well. Who is really paying attention?
• Market Research: Conduct a survey, poll, or even directly ask your audience about their needs.

Direct marketing teams benefit from fast predictive modeling, but those insights are only useful if they’re grounded in actual customer behavior.

Identify demographics, but don’t stop there

Demographics includes simple information such as:

• Age
• Sex
• Wages

These aspects are important, but they are not enough. Two 30-year-olds can look exactly the same on paper. However, their motivation to purchase with you is totally different.

Ask yourself:

• What are the pain points that keep them awake?
• Why would they seek a solution such as yours?
• What reasons might they have for not purchasing?

These insights bring your persona off the paper toward a real human that you can, in fact, market to.

Give them a name and a story

After collecting the facts, make your character more human. Suppose you are working around holiday shoppers’ behavior. In that case, you may be tempted to refer to your customer as:

• Female, 35, lives in New York and loves the holiday season.

Instead of that, try to compose a brief story about her. You can write this, for example:

• This is the fun-loving Angela. She is enthusiastic about Christmas. She likes getting her family gifts. She also loves convenience and would love to shop from a brand with fast shipping and flexible return policies.

When referring to your personas, give them names and a story. You will have the opportunity to visualize them when writing ads, emails, or blog posts. Hence, you are no longer marketing to a demographic. You’re selling to Angela.

Adjust over time

As your audience evolves, so should your personas. Monitor the performance data. When a campaign does not work, inquire why. Perhaps the priorities of your persona have changed. It could be that you have a new persona altogether.

Think of this as an ongoing conversation with your customers. When you listen more, your personas will be precise. So will be your targeting.

Summing it up

Creating buyer personas is a challenging task. But it is worth it. When you really know who your customers are and what motivates them, you’ll avoid marketing based on guesswork. You will develop marketing that is personal, timely, and relevant.