Episode 45. Multiple Target Audiences

EPISODE 45: In this episode of the Creative Spark podcast, I take a look at customer personas and why I think you need more than one. If fact, if you're planning to launch a digital course, I think you probably need nine.

Most online marketing gurus tell you to invent one ideal customer avatar for all of your content and products. Still, quite frankly, it's impossible to capture all the problems you solve in one marketing persona, and the ideal customer avatar you create ends up being vague and wishy-washy to accommodate everything in your course or program.

Over the years, I have signed up for so many online business courses that I care not remember, and every one of them advocated for the one ideal customer avatar model.

I always struggled with the exercise because I attracted so many customer types, and it never made sense to only speak to one. I had lots of things to say and multiple groups of people to say them to.

It was only when I began focusing on multiple avatars with multiple problems that were all solved by my core offering did I see results with my content marketing.

"If you can think psychographically and not demographically, you can really target a lot more audiences."—Tyra Banks

Suddenly, writing a blog post for Samantha to help her find her perfect niche using the steps I teach in my Perfect Niche freebie became so much easier. Rebecca needed help with content repurposing, so module seven of my signature framework solved her problem. Libbi needs help building a funnel, so content from module four is aimed at her.

Not only does the content marketing get easier, but I can also see exactly where these personas hang out, so each of my funnels starts in a slightly different place.

My Perfect Niche funnel starts over on Pinterest. In contrast, my content repurposing funnel is fed from a Facebook ad for my low-cost Content Genie product. My funnel about funnels (meta, I know) is fed from a Slideshare on LinkedIn, which deepens the tech needed and has embedded affiliate links.

If you target one customer avatar for your core product, you quickly run out of things to talk about in your content marketing. If your customer avatar is struggling with one core problem, that only gives you one topic to discuss, even if you offer a significant transformation. You wind up creating multiple products to give yourself enough things to talk about in your marketing.

The solution is to leverage your total value and attract multiple target audiences

STEP ONE: Create your nine-step framework

This blog post goes into greater detail about structuring your nine-step signature solution, but once you have created it, list out the nine topics you cover and the overall transformation.

STEP TWO: List your nine measurable results

My Perfect Niche freebie helps people discover their niche. The first module of my course helps people structure a nine-step solution. The sixth step helps people develop a content marketing strategy. Finally, the fourth step helps them build their first funnel. The entire nine-step framework takes someone from a creative freelancer to a creative entrepreneur, but each step promises a measurable result. 

STEP THREE: List your nine customer problems

Once you know what measurable results your steps or pillars provide think about the problems that someone might be struggling with, which would cause them to look for your specific solutions online. For example, my customer persona for module seven, Rebecca, struggles with her weekly content load. She is committed to publishing a weekly blog post and podcast episode and is currently stuck on the content hamster wheel. Rebecca is facing a very different problem to Samantha, my multi-passionate beginner persona who is currently thinking about writing a book but can't decide on her niche. 

STEP FOUR: Research real customer questions

Now that you have thought about your nine problems and spent some time on Google researching those problems, look for the language people are using when describing those problems. You can also use various free keyword search tools, but Google is a great starting point. Type in a question to Google as if you were your customer. What other questions come up? 

STEP FIVE: Give your personas aspirations

Give each of your personas an aspiration. Why do they want to solve their problem? Why are they searching for an answer? Why does it matter to them? Try and get inside their head and you will be able to serve them better.

STEP SIX: List your customer personas

Let's recap. You have multiple measurable results, multiple problems, and multiple search questions written in actual customer language. You should have enough information to start creating your multiple personas now. Give them a name, an age, and a typical search question so you can get to know them a little better.

STEP SEVEN: Find your funnel fillers

Now it's time to go deeper with your research and find out where each of your nine personas searches for answers. Google is the most obvious choice, but it isn't easy to rank organically. It's cheaper and easier to meet them where they are. Maybe pop into some Facebook groups and start asking questions.

Put up some surveys on your social media and find out where your personas go searching for answers. Is it Pinterest, Linked In, Twitter, Facebook groups, Facebook ads, Slideshare, Medium, Yahoo?

Find out from your networks where they would look for the specific topics you're creating content about. These locations become the funnel fillers, so try and spread them around if possible. 

STEP EIGHT: Create a list of lead magnets

For each of your funnels and each of your personas, you will need a lead magnet. This is something you give away for free or sell at a low cost. It should be directly related to your persona, the problem they're searching for a solution to, and it should be relevant to the funnel filler location.

A lead magnet will attract each of your personas into your funnel, and there you can let them know about your complete nine-step framework because guess what? Once you solve their first problem, they are going to trust you to solve their next problem.

STEP NINE: Create your persona cards

A persona card contains all the pertinent information about each of your personas in one handy-to-reference card. Keep these persona cards handy. Every time you create a lead magnet, a sales page, a Facebook ad, a course module, a blog post or social media post, you should be talking directly to one of your multiple personas about their specific problem, in their specific language and offering your overall framework, or a component of it, as the answer to their problem.

Talk about your methods, your measurable results and so on. These persona cards keep you focused on who to talk to and what to talk to them about. Hubspot has a handy persona tool that you can edit.

So that's it for the steps. Imagine how easy it would be to create laser-focused messaging for each of your core topics or benefits?

By starting with your signature framework, you can build nine funnels for each problem you solve, but they all funnel your customers into one product.

Go from only having one broad topic to talk about to nine specific topics. Go from targeting one vague avatar to nine focused personas.

Get laser-focused on your customer personas and start attracting multiple target audiences.

Who are your multiple personas, and what does each one need from you?