Tweet

Developing Personas to Help You with Targeting

Guest post by: Nancy Marshall

Article Overview: Create personas for your target audiences to better position your marketing efforts. It will help you decide where to spend your ad dollars, and what types of messaging you use. Break down your customers or guests into different categories and create fictitious lives to represent each group. Decide everything from their age and gender to where they get their news and what kind of car they drive. This is a creative and helpful practice that my agency recommends highly.

Developing Personas to Help You with Targeting

During my workshop at the Governor's Conference on Tourism, I spoke about creating personas to better target your markets. This is a fun exercise and I encourage you to do it. Break down your customers or guests into three or four categories. Then create a fictitious person or couple to represent each customer group.

Related Articles
  Buyer Personas are the Foundation upon which Demand Generation is Built
  7 Tips for Developing a Brand Personality and Brand Personas for Your Business or Website
  5 Tips for Developing Strong Buyer Personas
  David Meerman Scott talks about thought leadership
  Marketing to Your Buyer Personas
  Leveraging Usability to Profit in a Down Economy
  Using Buyer Personas in B2B Marketing
  The crazy, complex world of B2B marketing today
  Book Review: Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?
  10 Greatest Pharmaceutical Sales Myths: Exposed
  Giving Personality to Your Personas
  5 Prerequisites for Marketing Automation
  The Best Keywords Ever for Your SEO Campaign
  Targeting Your Resume is So Important For Your Career
  Lead Nurturing Overview
  Content Marketing: 7 Simple Steps to Get Started
  Guest Post: Content Marketing: 7 Simple Steps to Get Started
  What is Lead Nurturing?
  Growing Your Pipeline Through Targeted Communications Strategies
  2011 in Review for Mad Marketing TV

Article Tags: customer, exercise, Facebook ad, marketing, persona, target audience



Related Forum Posts
Re: This ones a winner - Dear Sboggs Congratulations on your networking idea. The guys that want $20K might be trying to bleed you or perhaps their approach is just to complex and expensive. I'm a hardware guy so I can't help with your issue. Have you studied networking and programming? You might be able to make your idea fly with some training. You can buy a website and have it online in 20 minutes. Developing a web site that generates traffic requires some work.
niche forum categories - I think Kevin just touched on the point that I was going make... and that is developing 'categories' that stick. Sales and Marketing may be too broad for example. However I can almost guarantee you that you would see many more sign-ups if you tailored a category to 'internet marketing' for newbies. I've seen this work on other forums, however, [i:1i903wkn]it can get a little frantic[/i:1i903wkn]... Fine tuning the categories, or expanding the scope should be effective. I think a lot of IM folks are surfing right on by because they're not finding what they're looking for here... Just a few thoughts: Better Blogging Developing Info Products Internet Marketing Presentation Skills More How to's Another point is... a lot of people don't know that they can benefit from participating in forums. The signature links to their site - if they have one - can / should be motivation enough to get more involved. The more internet savvy members that have signatures seem to stick around more... Don't you think?
Starting a Business - In the US, the city office building has all the locations where you get a local license, permit etc. A start up needs to have a state and federal tax ID number, this can all be done online - very easy actually. You need a business name (which is filed locally) and business entity, sole proprietor, partnership etc. Again, this can be researched and filed online. Being beside one tennis club is a possibility, but what if they move? What if you want to to target other clubs in the surrounding area? They could be hesitant to send their clients to a business that is next door to a competing club. Targeting all local clubs is a much broader way to get established and it could allow you a wider variety of sites to locate your business which gives you more options in cost. I disagree about local businesses not using a website. Just about anyone can benefit from a website. This gives you a "sales option" that is available 24 hours a day. It gives you a great way to showcase your business, the items and services you offer, can provide plenty of additional information which can establish you as an expert in the field and you can always accept orders from people in other areas. As far as getting a sales person etc from a distributor, an easy way is to contact another dealer in a different area and ask who they work with. You aren't a competitor and it wouldn't hurt to learn from them. Or, contact the sales department for the manufacturer or distributor. They are there to generate sales and need clients. If you seem to have a definite plan to get the business going, a good sales person will be able to be helpful. But they may be hesitant if they don't think you're serious and are just fishing for information. Chris
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement
Re: Boosting Confidence - Kevin, I am so glad you asked that question! It's the missing link for so many people (and a huge key to confidence and entrepreneurial endurance). Since you asked the question hypothetically, when I say "you", I'm not meaning you personally, Kevin (unless you identify with it). Our purpose is like our personal mission statement. It's something we need to consciously sit down and think about. The problem is that so many have blocked their own voice and focused on outside influence instead. We need to practice listening to our own inner self. Confidence is found within so this is where we need to start. It means we need to trust that we actually do have the answers to what it is we need to know for our own personal success. They key to our purpose is actually tied in with what we really love to do. To start discovering what your purpose is, start discovering what you are really passionate about. Then begin asking yourself what you would love to do that would make a huge difference in that particular area. For example, if you love technology and also desire to help people, ask yourself how you can really help people using your technology. If your business is already established, start considering how you can develop the next phase of it to match your sense of purpose. Perhaps it's even time to delegate your work so that you can be freed up to pursue what you REALLY love to do. The great side effect is that most of us do a far better job at what we love to do anyway. Many people don't even get to this point because they disqualify their sense of passion and purpose before they even really discover the way to build financial success based on what they love to do. Some consider it a "pipe dream", but I say, "Why not?" You mention money, but what some people don't realize is that you must discover you purpose or your personal mission FIRST if you are to tap into passion to create the kind of wealth that is really satisfying. If you talk to people with money, you will discover that financial success is not what truly makes you happy. Satisfaction is the key ingredient. Developing a business which matches your passion and your purpose ensures you will enjoy the success when you get there. When you pursue developing your business from this place, confidence comes along side you because you are aware you have a personal mission to help others or create change in some way. It takes the focus off you and gives you confidence to overcome what could seem like incredibly challenging obstacles. If you are simply chasing money, there will come a point that you will really question if it is all even worth it. You may be faced with this question regardless, but if you have purpose, you often find the fortitude to really press forward anyhow. I hope that answers your question, Kevin. Warm regards, Tami


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leading from Authenticity is a Beautiful Thing

SEO Gurus, Software and Ebooks

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.