Getting to Know Your Audience

It's important to know the "who" before you can talk about or decide on the "how." Once you've laid out a marketing strategy, it's time to focus on the personas of your target audience. Personas are fictional profiles of a company's ideal customers, grouping people through various data points and providing insight into messaging — and even products that could be developed.

What You Need to Know

Not all customer data will be relevant to your campaign, but the more you collect, the sharper your focus. Personas should cover:

• Demographics — age, gender, income, education, occupation
• Psychographics — attitudes, values, interests, lifestyle
• Behavior — buying habits, online behavior, media consumption, product usage
• Pain points — challenges, problems, frustrations
• Motivations and goals — why customers convert
• Communication preferences — email, social, direct mail

Finding Accurate Data

Use reliable sources: government sites, academic journals, white papers from recognized industry leaders.

• Company knowledge. You probably already have a feel for pain points and motivations from daily customer interactions. Review emails, social exchanges, and talk with sales. Confirm internally before moving forward.
• Industry information. Trade associations, government, and third-party reports range from broad to granular. The granular ones can change your perspective entirely.
• Analytics. Web, social, email, and CRM analytics each surface a different layer of the customer journey.
• Interactions. Customer service exchanges, social conversations, and direct feedback are persona gold — both the good and the bad.

Pulling It Together

Patterns will emerge as you collect data. Maybe age affects engagement, so you split customers into people you call directly vs people you reach via text or social. Maybe levels in an organization need different messaging based on different business concerns.

Give your personas memorable names and consolidate everything you know — from age to stressors to whether they'd rather watch a quick video or peruse an infographic. Ultimately the goal is simple: know who to target, and give the right customers exactly what they want to see, the way they most want to experience it.