Buyer Personas: How To Define Your Target Market
by Louise Earith on 02-Oct-2017 14:30:00
A common death trap within marketing is to assume that anyone remotely interested in your services is your ideal customer. The theory behind "casting your net far and wide" to touch as many people as possible works to a degree, but you can't escape the fact that you still have to waste your precious time and resources eliminating the riffraff. Taking the time to define your target market is an excellent way to solve this problem from the get-go.
"Everyone Is Not Your Customer..." - Seth Godin
Making grand statements like "anyone interested in my business is my customer" is inaccurate and frankly silly. No brand on earth can afford to target every type of customer. Marketing is like a game of chess - in order to outfox your competition you need to plan your moves wisely. Targeting a more niche audience will reap greater rewards in the long run.
Buyer Personas: Defining Your Target Market
Your target market is a reflection of your buyer personas. In short, a buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your company's ideal customer. Buyer personas provide tremendous structure and insight for your business because they allow you to focus your efforts on what truly matters, guide product development as well as ensure every member of your team is on the same page, targeting the same people.
The qualities and characteristics of your buyer personas must be supported by research. Basing your buyer personas on personal theories or opinion is a surefire way to shoot yourself in the foot. The latest trends and local economy is always changing which likely means the tastes and interests of your ideal market is shifting too.
Most businesses will have more than one ideal customer, so don't be afraid to flesh out different personas – although 4 or 5 personas should be more than enough!
Creating Your Buyer Personas
Any solid marketing strategy starts with communication. Arrange a meeting with your entire team to discuss who your ideal market is. Your CEO might have a very different picture of your ideal customer compared to your sales team. You should discuss the following:
- Look at your current customer base. Are you happy with the type of customers you already have? Could things be better? If so, why? Create a list of flaws in your current customer and then begin to pinpoint ways to overcome these obstacles.
- Analyse demographics. Figure out which people need your service, and who just wants your services. Think about age, gender, location, occupation, income level and education. How often do they invest in your services? Are they buying the service for themselves or is it on behalf of another person, or on behalf of their business?
- Analyse personal characteristics. Look at their personality, attitudes, values, interests / hobbies and behavioural choices. Do they prefer to speak to you face-to-face or look at your online profiles? What's their initial opinion of your brand?
This type of information allows you to fine-tune your advertising which will ultimately increase your annual profit margins. Below is a list of ways to refine your marketing:
- Your customer is stubborn and doesn't understand the need for your product. To overcome this you should create content that highlights its purpose, for example, uploading blogs and podcasts that answer FAQs. Another way to overcome this problem is to upload images and videos of your product / service in action to demonstrate the benefits.
- Your customer tends to be very hesitant and nervous about your service, especially if the product / service is expensive. To overcome this you need to focus more on your online reviews and testimonials to showcase your brand's trustworthiness. Read this article for top tips on getting more online reviews. Using the possessive pronoun "you" and "your" within your writing style (like "we can help your business because X") is another way to truly drive home what you're saying.
- You'd like to target a younger audience. Younger audiences adore visual information over solid text. For this reason animation / infographics / videos and social media marketing is a brilliant way to appeal to this audience.
Bonus Tip
One rookie mistake when defining your target market is failing to create any negative buyer personas. As the name suggests, a negative buyer persona is the type of person you don't want to target. This could be because they can't afford your service or if they have no intention of actually buying from you. For instance, students can sometimes contact a business pretending to want a quote when they are actually conducting research for their university dissertation.
Creating negative personas helps you focus on the individuals that genuinely matter.
The Pecking Order: What Makes Your Brand Special?
At the moment, Britain has a very saturated market with various businesses all competing for the same selection of people. You can't afford to blend in. It's no longer enough to say "our business has over 40 years' experience" or "we have exceptionally high standards of service". You need to prove yourself, otherwise your customers won't give you the time of day.
Ways to help you stand out:
- Regularly update your social media profiles (you don't necessarily have to always publish your own content, you can curate your posts from other trusted sources and then share your opinion on the information in the article)
- Upload regular content (blogs, podcasts, images, videos)
- Update your reviews / testimonials and case studies as this builds trust with your customer - Check out this article for further tips and tricks - How To Get More Online Reviews
- Offer FREE content such an eBook or a discount code
- Short write-ups about industry events you've attended
- Evidence of charity work
- Add a human touch! (Upload a few photos of national holidays or colleague birthdays to show that your team members don't bite! Customers are more likely to contact people if they are relatable!)
Final Thoughts
Defining your target market is like looking at the view through a pair of binoculars - everything suddenly becomes clearer! Knowing who your ideal customer is allows you to shape every aspect of your marketing, which in the long run will drastically improve your annual sales.
Here at the JDR Group our marketing specialist Andy Gibbins offers FREE 20 minute marketing audits. Andy can take a look at your business' online presence and help you pinpoint potential areas for improvement. Contact us today to book an appointment at no cost and no obligation.
- Inbound Marketing (SEO, PPC, Social Media, Video) (810)
- Strategy (350)
- Marketing Automation & Email Marketing (183)
- Sales & CRM (179)
- Website Design (157)
- Business Growth (148)
- Hubspot (129)
- Lead Generation (110)
- Google Adwords (97)
- Content Marketing (93)
- News (46)
- Case Studies (44)
- Conversion (43)
- Ecommerce (36)
- Webinars (31)
- SEO (23)
- Events (19)
- Video (17)
- LinkedIn Advertising (15)
- Video Selling (15)
- AI (14)
- Software training (13)
- Niche business marketing (11)
- The Digital Prosperity Podcast (10)
- Facebook Advertising (6)
- HubSpot Case Studies (2)
- September 2025 (9)
- August 2025 (14)
- July 2025 (14)
- June 2025 (5)
- May 2025 (19)
- April 2025 (15)
- March 2025 (13)
- February 2025 (13)
- January 2025 (8)
- December 2024 (2)
- November 2024 (4)
- October 2024 (21)
- September 2024 (4)
- August 2024 (8)
- July 2024 (14)
- June 2024 (16)
- May 2024 (25)
- April 2024 (15)
- March 2024 (18)
- February 2024 (5)
- January 2024 (10)
- December 2023 (6)
- November 2023 (10)
- October 2023 (13)
- September 2023 (12)
- August 2023 (14)
- July 2023 (13)
- June 2023 (14)
- May 2023 (15)
- April 2023 (13)
- March 2023 (14)
- February 2023 (13)
- January 2023 (15)
- December 2022 (13)
- November 2022 (6)
- October 2022 (8)
- September 2022 (22)
- August 2022 (15)
- July 2022 (13)
- June 2022 (16)
- May 2022 (14)
- April 2022 (16)
- March 2022 (17)
- February 2022 (11)
- January 2022 (8)
- December 2021 (6)
- November 2021 (7)
- October 2021 (11)
- September 2021 (10)
- August 2021 (7)
- July 2021 (7)
- June 2021 (4)
- May 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (3)
- February 2021 (5)
- January 2021 (4)
- December 2020 (7)
- November 2020 (6)
- October 2020 (5)
- September 2020 (9)
- August 2020 (18)
- July 2020 (17)
- June 2020 (17)
- May 2020 (10)
- April 2020 (21)
- March 2020 (24)
- February 2020 (21)
- January 2020 (12)
- December 2019 (23)
- November 2019 (12)
- October 2019 (14)
- September 2019 (16)
- August 2019 (15)
- July 2019 (13)
- June 2019 (6)
- May 2019 (8)
- April 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (2)
- January 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (3)
- November 2018 (24)
- September 2018 (11)
- August 2018 (9)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (14)
- March 2018 (12)
- February 2018 (16)
- January 2018 (15)
- December 2017 (15)
- November 2017 (18)
- October 2017 (23)
- September 2017 (19)
- August 2017 (28)
- July 2017 (27)
- June 2017 (25)
- May 2017 (18)
- April 2017 (17)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (17)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (21)
- November 2016 (27)
- October 2016 (25)
- September 2016 (16)
- August 2016 (20)
- July 2016 (19)
- June 2016 (14)
- May 2016 (20)
- April 2016 (24)
- March 2016 (22)
- February 2016 (28)
- January 2016 (27)
- December 2015 (28)
- November 2015 (19)
- October 2015 (9)
- September 2015 (12)
- August 2015 (5)
- July 2015 (1)
- June 2015 (10)
- May 2015 (3)
- April 2015 (11)
- March 2015 (14)
- February 2015 (15)
- January 2015 (12)
- December 2014 (2)
- November 2014 (23)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (2)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (2)
- June 2014 (7)
- May 2014 (14)
- April 2014 (14)
- March 2014 (7)
- February 2014 (2)
- January 2014 (7)
- December 2013 (9)
- November 2013 (14)
- October 2013 (17)
- September 2013 (3)
- August 2013 (6)
- July 2013 (8)
- June 2013 (4)
- May 2013 (3)
- April 2013 (6)
- March 2013 (6)
- February 2013 (7)
- January 2013 (5)
- December 2012 (3)
- November 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (1)
Subscribe by email
You May Also Like
These Related Blogs

How To Grow A Business With Marketing
So, you want to grow your business, but your marketing isn't quite having the impact you'd like it to? Marketing is still the most effective way to at …

How Can You Successfully Measure Your Business Marketing Strategy?
I'm going to start today with a powerful quote: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it”. Just take a few seconds to let that sink in and reall …

How To Convince Your Team About The Power Of Inbound Marketing?
You may be wondering how on earth you are going to convince your team about the power of inbound marketing? If this is the case, keep reading. Inbound …