In the United States alone, there are over 32 million businesses – a staggering figure achieved thanks to the American spirit of entrepreneurship. A key question that many entrepreneurs often find themselves asking – am I doing it right? I mean, it’s no secret that there is always a way to do things better. To achieve better results, higher revenues and growth rates. Important as it is, this question in and of itself is way too vague to quickly provoke thinking in the right direction.
Instead, the questions you should ask to find ways to enhance the processes in your business ought to be a lot more precise, down to the details. In this article, we will dwell upon one such question, or rather a topic. It revolves around two key concepts – Target Audience and a Buyer Persona. Both are detrimental to the success of the business, and both are often misunderstood, misrepresented and confused.
Why target audience definition is essential for any business
Think about it: if you don’t, how are you going to sell? How are you going to understand precisely, which people you should target with your marketing efforts?
It’s quite straightforward on the surface, but it is only once you dig deeper that you begin to really grasp the importance of having a properly defined portrait of your TA (target audience).
As an example, think of how a successful car salesperson does their job when a client comes in: first, they get to know them. The client’s background, preferences, thoughts, the conditions that led to them wanting to buy a car. They collect data, as much as they can get. What do they collect the data for? To determine the type of the Client, to determine their segment. Obviously, they are trying to understand: does the client want a Ferrari or a Reno Scenic.
A Buyer Persona is needed to make an offer that meets the Client’s needs.
This example with just one person and a tight niche is very illustrative, but how do you scale this process for a large (or a to-be large) business?
That’s where the Buyer Persona comes in.

Target Audience and Buyer Persona
The two things co-exist in perfect zen, where Buyer Persona is a part of your Target Audience, and your Target Audience is comprised of multiple Buyer Personas.
If your “Average Client” is a person with certain traits, habits, interests, status, occupation, income level, needs, and preferences, then Target Audience is a whole group of people, representing every point of the extremums to which your “average Client” might deviate.
A Buyer Persona is a clear, step-by-step description of a person who will buy your products or services. Notice the emphasis on “will”: it should be realistic, and by looking at the Buyer Persona, anyone would go “yes, this person buys your product”. That’s how you determine whether the Buyer persona is good or not.
Things that are most commonly included in the buyer persona:
- Name
- Age
- Location
- Education
- Average annual income
- Mindset
- Key Differentiators
- Their typical day, with emphasis on how and when they’ll be using your product or service
- “Your Product” and “Buyer Persona” – what needs of the buyer persona does your product meet?
Where exactly do you need to use a Buyer Persona?
The short answer is: everywhere. In product development, in marketing your products or services, in doing research, in making key decisions and everything in-between. You should always think about the customer.
In practice, a buyer persona helps you understand where you can get the customers from (your marketing channels), and how you should use those marketing channels. For example, if you’ll be using Facebook Ads, having a buyer persona will save you from the headache associated with browsing through the filters and setting up your ads campaign. If you plan to use local advertising, you should make sure you understand exactly what kinds of people live in the places you’ll be targeting, and how your product or service appeals to them.
When creating a Marketing Strategy, you should have your Buyer Personas at the core of it, as it will determine what marketing channels you will be using, what communication messages you will display, which marketing tactics are appropriate and who, if anyone, you should be looking for when considering an Influencer campaign.
All the aspects of your Digital Marketing strategy revolve around the Buyer Personas Analysis and should perfectly align with most, if not all, of them to achieve the best product-market fit.

Buyer Persona Example
Without further ado, here’s an example of a Buyer Persona right from one of our projects (certain things are edited, of course):
Name | Benjamin, Financial Trader |
Age | 40 |
Location | San Francisco, CA, US |
Education | MBA Degree |
Avg. Annual Income | $105,000 |
Mindset | Focused |
Job | Senior Financial Analyst |
Key Differentiators | Focused on diversifying his portfolio of investments, but needs a paper trail for his taxes. Hardcore investor, both professionally and personally. Started with day trades. Looking to further understand the underlying technology around blockchain.Low trading volume, but a higher average transaction. |
Trading Life | When it comes to investing and trading, Benjamin is laser-focused. While his background is in legacy financial systems, he’s looking to cryptocurrency to make more money and diversify his investments. |
[Company] & Benjamin | Benjamin is drawn to [Company]’s products due to its focus on high-quality service, security and the wide range of trading features – trading orders, exchange integrations, advanced alerts (which would otherwise not be available on exchanges). His personal finances and trading acumen give him the potential for larger average transactions despite his initial low trade frequency. |
As you can see, we have a very detailed picture of the person we want to target with, say, our Facebook Ads. As such, we know exactly what Benjamin would want from our product and how we can give it to him. There are thousands of Benjamins out there, and each of them is a little different, but now that we know our specific value proposition to this particular Benjamin, we know how to get all of them to spend with us.
If you’re creating a marketing strategy and looking for your Benjamin, leave us an email – we’re the ones who’ve been there, done that, shown performance underlined by decades of experience, and will help you reach your target marketplace with astounding budget efficiency.