How and Why to Create your Ideal Customer Persona

You put out content that you think your audience will enjoy, but your new book gets no clicks. Is it possible that you have missed a step in finding out what your customers want?

Knowing who your ideal customer is allows you to stop spending your time and hard earned money advertising to the wrong audience. Having focused content and copy that connects with the audience you’re trying to reach will connect to your ideal customer. Successful entrepreneurs can create an emotional connection with their audience. Customers buy with their emotions first and logic second, so it’s essential for making a positive bond with the consumer.

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The Broad Approach

It’s likely your first product failed because you marketed to a broad audience instead of a targeted one. Although starting broad when finding your ideal clients is necessary, you need to narrow down to personal details to get a good profile of who you want to target. After figuring out the basics like how old they are, their age, gender, and occupation, you can move on to the next step of zoning in on the perfect customer. According to Foundr, finding out who your target customers are and how they perceive your brand is one of the most crucial steps to creating your brand story, which later can be turned into one of the biggest assets of your company.

Starting the Targeted Approach: Personal Details

Targeted sales prospecting is your next step, which boils down to getting a clear understanding of your ideal customers and building a long lasting relationship with them. Try toimagine what an average day in the consumers’ life is like.

• Likes and dislikes?
• Does he listen to music? What music does he listen to?
• Where does he get his news from?
• What are his fears, his aspirations?
• What are his favorite websites, movies, or television shows?
• Is he concerned about his health?

Continuing the Targeted Approach: Speaking to a Friend over Coffee

During this next step, think of it like you’re having a casual meeting between friends over a cup of coffee, or even more intimate, a dinner. I know this sounds strange but getting to the nitty-gritty of what your customer wants means treating them like a friend.

• What are his personal goals? His business goals?
• What are his own beliefs?
• What problems affect his life (and how could you change them)?
• How do these problems affect his daily life? How severe are they?
• Can your product help him with the problem?
• If he’s hesitant to take your advice or product, why is he? Is there some way you can ease the buying process?

Give your Ideal Customer Persona a Face

Now that you’ve asked your imaginary customer a bunch of questions, you can probably imagine what they look like, how they behave, and how they talk. This custom person is now the persona you’re targeting. Depending on your individual needs, there may be more than one avatar. Repeat these steps until you have reached all your targets.

Put yourself in the shoes of this person every single time you create a product, produce content, and construct your marketing material. Be authentic when connecting with them, if you master this, selling your ideal customer will be effortless.