Humanizing Your Target Client or Customer

[djbaxter]

Humanizing Your Customer: What Do They REALLY Like?
by Alex Morrison, Malamax Content Marketing, Halifax, Nova Scotia
April 7, 2017

When it comes to marketing your product or service to your target market, it can often leave you feeling stuck because you have far too many beliefs about who your target audience actually is - you’re essentially too widely spread. And you end up marketing to nobody.

You may have so many ideas of who your customer is. It’s the Mom who forgot she has a party of 30 turning up on Saturday, the Secretary at the college who is organizing a get-together for the staff's monthly convention, or the Operations Manager who’s entertaining a party of 10 from the New York office.

This list is looking pretty long. And that’s where the problem lies. You’re trying to target too widely, which is a big no-no. Stop, right now. Your marketing message will be a complete washout if you go down this road.

You need to create a clear image of what one individual, typical buyer is. You will humanize this fictitious person, and paint a clear picture of what they need and what they want. When it comes to fashioning content that is targeted at your market, it will be directed to this single person – what they do, what they like, and where their interests lie.

The problem is, so many people don’t do this and end up failing as a result.

Read more..

 

[Julia Sta Romana]

"Paint a picture of this fictitious person and be realistic about it on every level; imagine they are your only customer, and the only one you will ever have. "

I agree with this but I'm also wondering, what can you do to avoid from being too specific? Would there be a point that your marketing is so specific your target has become too small or you're unable to sell to everyone else?

 

[djbaxter]

Yes, I think so. But I think if you can imagine a specific demographic and then put a "face" or "name" to it and market to that set of persons, then you'll get to what the article is really saying.

Basically, you cannot market effectively to everyone. What is of interest to a 4 year old boy probably has little or no interest to a 50 year old man (unless of course he is shopping for that boy, but even then the marketing needs to be aimed at the boy). And what is of interest to a 4 year old boy may not even be of interest to a 4 year old girl.

And so on...

 

[Tickto]

Yes, I think so. But I think if you can imagine a specific demographic and then put a "face" or "name" to it and market to that set of persons, then you'll get to what the article is really saying.

Basically, you cannot market effectively to everyone. What is of interest to a 4 year old boy probably has little or no interest to a 50 year old man (unless of course he is shopping for that boy, but even then the marketing needs to be aimed at the boy). And what is of interest to a 4 year old boy may not even be of interest to a 4 year old girl.

And so on...

Does it really needs to be aimed at the boy? He is 4 years old, wouldn't his parents be the ideal target customers?

 

[djbaxter]

Without some form of input from the child as to what he likes or wants, how would the parents know what to buy?